Um, achtung, everyone –

 

We’re not talking about the size of the socket itself (the part that fits over 
the nut or the bolt head).  The 1/4 inch and 3/8 inch and 1/2 inch notations 
are for the square-shaped fitting that connects the socket to the ratchet part. 
 Somehow that got standardized decades ago in imperial units and for the sake 
of compatibility they’ve remained that way – even for sockets that are 
completely metric.

 

And there may be some metric sockets that will fit closely to an imperial nut 
or bolt – but many others don’t.  I know; I have metric sockets only.  
Sometimes I have to take out the adjustable wrench if I’m dealing with an 
imperial fastener, and for other sizes the metric socket works well enough.

 

Carleton

 

From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf Of 
Jeremiah MacGregor
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 12:43
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:43834] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & fish 
sales in the UK.

 

I've seen people at work tighten and remove 13 mm heads with a half inch 
wrench.  The wrench fitted the bolt with no effort and the bolts were not 
damaged.  There is a big difference between what things may be intended to be 
or what is stated on a piece of paper and what they really turn out to be.

 

Jerry

 

  _____  

From: Bill Potts <w...@wfpconsulting.com>
To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu>
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 12:25:36 PM
Subject: [USMA:43830] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & fish 
sales in the UK.

Wrong, Jerry.

 

1/2" sockets are definitely not 13 mm ones in disguise. If you're trying to 
loosen a stubborn metric nut made of relatively soft metal (e.g., on a car 
battery clamp, which usually has a 10 mm nut), the wrench will slip and you'll 
wear down the apexes of the hexagonal shape, creating an almost circular nut. 
That's because the nearest non-metric size, 13/32", is not 10 mm in disguise; 
it's a little over 10.3 mm. The 1/2" socket in your example is, similarly, not 
13 mm is disguise. It's exactly 12.7 mm and would not even fit onto a 13 mm nut 
(or bolt head).

 

The imprecise fit, in your 8 mm socket example, is a close one you might get 
away with, but it's an exception. 5/16" sockets are just that -- not 8 mm.

 

Bill 

  _____  

Bill Potts

WFP Consulting <http://wfpconsulting.com/> 
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org <http://metric1.org/>  [SI Navigator] 

 

  _____  

From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf Of 
Jeremiah MacGregor
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 06:53
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:43808] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & fish 
sales in the UK.

5/16 is 7.9375  mm.  An 8 mm socket would fit and the less than 0.0625 mm 
difference would not be noticed.  I have also seen 1/2 inch wrenches and 
sockets fit a 13 mm head even though the 1/2 inch is smaller then 13 mm.  It 
would seem that the 1/2 inch sockets are really 13 mm ones in disguise.

 

Thus I would not be surprised if a socket labeled as 5/16 inches was really 8 
mm in disguise.

 

According to this thread:

 

http://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57707

 

Spark plugs are metric, so it would be a true 8 mm. 

 

You can even buy spark plug taps with a metric thread.

 

Here is a whole set of spark plug taps, all metric:

 

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?item_ID=9721&group_ID=1154

 

Or are you trying to tell us you still drive a model T which did use inch based 
spark plugs?

 

Jerry

 


  _____  


From: Stephen Humphreys <barkatf...@hotmail.com>
To: jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com; usma@colostate.edu
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 8:31:32 AM
Subject: RE: [USMA:43788] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & 
fish sales in the UK.

It would not work - you have to buy a 15/16ths socket as per instructions

  _____  

Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:39:49 -0700
From: jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com
Subject: [USMA:43788] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & fish 
sales in the UK.
To: usma@colostate.edu

Are you sure it isn't really 8 mm and you are just approximating it? 

 

Jerry 

 


 

 


  _____  


From: Stephen Humphreys <barkatf...@hotmail.com>
To: Jeremiah MacGregor <jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com>
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 11:08:15 PM
Subject: RE: [USMA:43759] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & 
fish sales in the UK.

mixed

My sump plug is 15/16ths 

  _____  

Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:03:06 -0700
From: jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com
Subject: Re: [USMA:43759] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & 
fish sales in the UK.
To: barkatf...@hotmail.com

Then what units are cars made in if not metric units?  

 

Jerry

 


  _____  


From: Stephen Humphreys <barkatf...@hotmail.com>
To: jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 9:57:15 PM
Subject: RE: [USMA:43759] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & 
fish sales in the UK...

No because they're not

  _____  

Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:48:17 -0700
From: jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com
Subject: [USMA:43759] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & fish 
sales in the UK.
To: usma@colostate.edu

So do you discuss cars in metric since cars are only made in metric units all 
over the world?

 

Jerry

 


  _____  


From: Stephen Humphreys <barkatf...@hotmail.com>
To: U.S.. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 7:25:46 AM
Subject: [USMA:43670] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & fish 
sales in the UK.

Sounds like we have some car enthusiasts on the list    :-D
 

  _____  

Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:37:31 -0700
To: usma@colostate.edu
From: br...@bjwhite..net
Subject: [USMA:43668] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & fish 
sales in the UK.

Funny.   All of my cars have been manual transmissions (including my Audi 
Allroad and my BMW 540i...both 6-speed manuals).
It took me getting a British vehicle to have an automatic.  :)   (A Range Rover 
Classic I picked up for $500, fixed it up a little bit and have since put 
16,000km on it since I bought it a year ago.)   I wish it was a manual 
transmission, but they never imported manuals to the US.   

But, I have 7 other cars, and they are all manual transmissions.....



At 20:24 2009-03-10, Carleton MacDonald wrote:



I’ve actually driven a manual transmission car most of my life:  MG 1100, VW 
Beetle, two Rabbits, two Saab 900s (and two motorcycles mixed in).  The car I 
have now (and have had since 2002), a 1999 Saab 9-5, is the first automatic 
I’ve ever owned.
 
Metric related:  Unlike most American cars, the km markings on the speedometer 
of the 9-5, inside the mile ones, are lit at night and can be read.
 
Carleton
 
From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [ mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu 
<mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu> ] On Behalf Of Stephen Humphreys
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 05:50
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:43627] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & fish 
sales in the UK.
 
Congrats are due to you for mastering the use of a manual gearbox!  I think 
that's more of an achievement than road placement (based upon most Americans 
driving Automatics).
 
> From: carlet...@comcast.net
> To: usma@colostate.edu
> Subject: [USMA:43622] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & fish 
> sales in the UK.
> Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:18:29 -0400
> 
> 
> I remember the first time I rented a car in the UK. October 1982,
> Edinburgh, Scotland, British Rail Waverley Station.
> 
> Left my wife Susan at the bed and breakfast, took a bus downtown, went to
> the station, to the Godfrey Davis office. A kind, pretty young woman (I was
> young then too) had me fill out the paperwork then gave me the keys. I
> thanked her, opened the door, got in, and sat down. On the left side.
> Where's the steering wheel? Oh, right. Got out, closed the door, glanced
> at the booth: she was inside, hand on her mouth, suppressing a laugh.
> Walked round the back of the car, got in the right side, sat down, felt the
> shift with my left hand, started the car, said a very significant Anglican
> prayer, put the car in gear, and headed out, saying to myself, "Drive on the
> left. Drive on the left. Drive on the left. Drive on the left ..." Headed
> back to the bed and breakfast, scared to death. Picked up Susan, headed out
> of town toward the bridge over the Firth of Forth. Stopped, took picture of
> the famous railway bridge. Started up again, found myself making a left
> turn to the right side of the intersecting road, corrected quickly, too
> quickly, hit a stone kerb, blew out the left front tire, stopped to change
> it. 
> 
> Somehow we got through the three days without hitting anything, and it even
> included a distillery tour, a steam train ride, and a night in Glencoe,
> where my ancestors got massacred in 1692.
> 
> Carleton
> 
> P.S. When we got back to San Francisco we went to the store and Susan
> bought soup; I told her to put the Campbell's soup back on the shelf!
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [ mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu 
> <mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu> ] On Behalf
> Of Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
> Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 21:02
> To: U.S. Metric Association
> Cc: U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: [USMA:43620] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & fish
> sales in the UK.
> 
> 
> Ah, but the rule of the road is in the eye of the beholder. Left-siders must
> think the rest of the world has it backwards.
> 
> Quoting Brian J White <br...@bjwhite.net>:
> 
>>
>> I think you brits should also fix your cars and
>> roads so you drive on the correct side of the road. But that's just me.
> :)
>>
>>
>> At 15:54 2009-03-09, Stephen Humphreys wrote:
>>>Sorry  - I think you might have the wrong person.
>>>I'm not anti-metric - I'm a pro-choicer.
>>>
>>>The most 'extreme' views I hold on the subject regards safety....
>>>
>>>I have always said and always been firm that:
>>>
>>>1) Road signs should stay imperialÂ
>>>2) Medicines and chemist goods should always be metric
>>>
>>>Both of these relate to safety concerns.
>>>
>>>For most other things (in fact prob all) I
>>>prefer the dual route or a flexible degree of choice.
>>>
>>>This may put me at odds with many on this list
>>>but I'm always truthful and up front about it
>>>and as many many have said it is healthy to have
>>>a contrary view here for purposes of debate.
>>>
>>>With regards to the USA - I actually believe it
>>>should be more metric than it is.
>>
>>
>>
> 
> 
> --
> 
> 
> 
> Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
> Public Relations Director
> U.S. Metric Association (USMA), Inc.
> www.metric.org <http://www.metric.org/> 
> 3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122
> Midland TX 79707-2872 US
> +1(432)528-7724
> mailto:trus...@grandecom.net
> 

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