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Metric or inches

Now... I was just gonna' suggest you scale it up or down so you could still use the metric digits (probably with a decimal in there) but build in inches. If you did that, a 42mm measurement (about 1-3/4") would become 4.2" (I know, it messes up the fraction thing), which is two & a half times as large as the plan really calls for... or it'd become 0.420" (almost exactly 1:4 scale), which'd be a real miniature but still well within the range of what could be done.

Steam (air) engines. That'd be neat to work on... one of these days I oughtta' see about starting one.
 
Thinking a little more... here's yet another approach. I think my brains got loose this morning - must be the frost.

Scan the plans with a scanner/copier/printer. Use SketchUp's "Match Photo" functionality to trace the plan scan, man. Scale the SketchUp model back to the original scale (one conversion), then add dimensions - they'll all come out in good ol' inches.

I dunno. Lotta' work. Might be easier to just siddown one evening with a calculator & pencil the SAE dimensions on the drawings... or build it in metric & be happy with livin' on the cutting edge of technology. :) :) :)
 
Don,
The standard meter was replaced in 1960 by a measurement of the wavelength of light. http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/meter.html

" The 1889 definition of the meter, based upon the artifact international prototype of platinum-iridium, was replaced by the CGPM in 1960 using a definition based upon a wavelength of krypton-86 radiation. This definition was adopted in order to reduce the uncertainty with which the meter may be realized. In turn, to further reduce the uncertainty, in 1983 the CGPM replaced this latter definition by the following definition:

The meter is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second.

Note that the effect of this definition is to fix the speed of light in vacuum at exactly 299 792 458 m·s-1. The original international prototype of the meter, which was sanctioned by the 1st CGPM in 1889, is still kept at the BIPM under the conditions specified in 1889."

Actually most digital calipers now have the option of using either inches or mm. They will even do the conversion.
 
I've been tempted many times to go metric.

Been thinking about getting something like this.

http://www.amazon.com/Lufkin-Inch-M...ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1256870818&sr=1-4

Most of the time when I make something, I start with whatever dimensions it is, and then as my mistakes compound themselves, I find I adjust as I go along. This works OK for my fractional mind, but I'd like to give metric a try sometime to see how that works out, all in tenths and whatever. It's just that I'm so used to halfs and quarters and eights and sixteenths, and thirtyseconds.

I think it would be interesting to give the decimal route a try.
 
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