Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in America

Re:Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in Ame... by Taniwha on Sunday August 10, 2014 @04:01AM (#8159164)

I lived through the change in ZN a long time ago - really only two comments to make:

- for most things a saw cut is ~1mm wide - measuring in mm is good enough for most things, it's a great unit for carpentry

- a 2x4 (or 4x2 anywhere other than the US) isn't really 2x4, but then neither is a 5x10 (the exact same thing after you go metric)

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Re:Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in Ame... by NickNameNick on Sunday August 10, 2014 @08:03AM (#8159525)

It was 50x100 when I was building in Chch ~10 years ago.

It was explained to me that the rough cut timber was closer to the stated size, and that the finished timber we used for framing was named after the unfinished dimensions. Of course, I don't know how true that actually is. Certainly the unfinished 75x50 we used for roofing purlins (spelling?) was noticeably thicker than the finished structural 100x50s

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