Do you have to double your tools?
Posted by norbvr@reddit | AskABrit | View on Reddit | 90 comments
Dear distant cousins separated by a common language...
I was just starting a repair project with my routine " guess the bolt size" assessment ( the bolt heads offered no clue), when I wondered if you have the need for duplicate tools of both metric and imperial measures? As defenders of the foot long, rod, chain, fractions and such, our global economy requires my also stocking tools with silly meters, fig newtons, centipedes and other off dimensions.
Do you just have a drawer with the odd Whitworth spanner and nothing but metric? In other words half the tool investment required for us with freedom units?
How easy is your wrenching across the pond? Picture to show duplicates not allowed possibly due to different frequency of electricity and video zone 2.
Thanks
plymdrew@reddit
Very rare to come across anything imperial nowadays unless you like working on very old vehicles. As an apprentice engineer in the late 80’s I encountered quite a lot of imperial threads, I’ve disposed of all the old imperial spanner’s I had now.
JRyds@reddit
r/shitamericanssay
kilgore_trout1@reddit
I’m going to go out on a limb here and risk the down votes by defending OP a bit. They will have heard that we use a weird mix of both metric and imperial here in the UK, so the question is reasonably valid if you weren’t familiar with how we do things.
In their defence, it is really weird here - weight of things: metric, weight of people: imperial, drinkable liquids: imperial, petrol: metric and imperial, short distances: metric, long distances: imperial, unless you’re on a bike in which case long distances: metric.
Our system is absolutely bonkers, only understood by us so I don’t think unreasonable to ask what they have even if they are wrong in the instance.
YorkieLon@reddit
Liquids are all over the place. Milk: imperial, beer: imperial, water : metric, fizzy drink: metric. Petrol in car imperial, petrol in lawnmower, metric. Madness.
The_Geralt_Of_Trivia@reddit
How is petrol imperial? It's sold in litres and has the price in litres on the sign.
The only thing to do with fuel and imperial measures is fuel economy where we still use mpg. I've not heard anyone measure any liquid in gallons for decades.
YorkieLon@reddit
Yeah thats what I mean, we measure the fuel consumption in cars by the gallon but buy it in litres. You answered your own question.
mrbullettuk@reddit
Custom and practice vs what is actually sold.
Only beer is sold in imperial legally, and I think that is only draft in pubs. Milk is sold in ltr (2.27) although it is labelled in pints as well (4). Petrol is sold in litres although everyone talks about mpg.
dinobug77@reddit
Also in defence of OP – when I had a 1976 mini 1275 GT that I used to work on – almost every job involved going to the local motor mart that had two massive boxes of mixed sockets of all religions before I could complete anything!
SoggyWotsits@reddit
Not really. It’s always handy to have a set of imperial tools as well as metric. Old cars and old tractors often need imperial spanners. BSP (British Standard Pipe) hydraulic fittings also need imperial tools and are common on lots of modern machines like JCB.
WatchIll4478@reddit
I don’t think I have any non metric tools that get used more than once in a blue moon on one old bit of (1950s) kit.
thetobesgeorge@reddit
Literally everything I have is metric with one slight exception,
my woodworking router uses 1/2” shank bits but that’s purely just so it can take advantage of the greater variety of bits available in 1/2”. The wrench flats (as you guys call them) on the collet (where the 1/2” bit is installed) are metric as are all of the screws and dimensions on it
The only other thing I can think of is my ratchets, 1/4”, 3/8” and 1/2” but that’s because why needlessly create a metric version when you can just take advantage of already established products in imperial and just use metric sockets.
I have three sets of metric sockets and no imperial
Time-Mode-9@reddit
Why would anyone have imperial spanners/ allen key? All nuts are in mm.
SoggyWotsits@reddit
Not on old tractors, old cars or hydraulic fittings (BSP). General DIY is metric yes, but if you need a replacement hose for a modern JCB it’ll be BSP (British Standard Pipe) which is imperial.
Time-Mode-9@reddit
Ah, ok.
Tbf that is a bit niche.
SoggyWotsits@reddit
Not around my way, but then it’s a farming county. I’m in the car trade too so know lots of people with an interest in cars, some of which are very old!
Time-Mode-9@reddit
That's why I love reddit . Always learning new thins.
Norman_debris@reddit
Funnily enough, "imperial spanners" is what my grandfather called the Japanese.
probablyaythrowaway@reddit
Pretty much everything especially fasteners are all metric over here. Very rarely will I come across an imperial thread, and if I do it’s usually because the device is from the USA. However when I went and worked in Germany on a US airforce base I did have to duplicate my sockets hex keys and spanners. Working on army equipment was a fucking lucky dip what the bloody thread was used. You’d even have both types on one panel you’d be going along bolting up M12, m12, m12, 1/4” 1/4”, m12 , m12. But when you unbolted them they all went in one bowl was a nightmare! Never used my imperial tools since I came back to the UK. Even my 86 Pontiac trans am is all metric.
Plumbing threads are the exception they’re usually in inches BSP
cdh79@reddit
I work at a power plant designed in the 70's. Everything that could be sourced from Britain is Whitworth. Everything that was sourced from America is AF. Everything else is metric. My tool drawer weights a metric ton! And it's night on impossible to buy decent new Whitworth spanners and sockets.
illarionds@reddit
I would say most people have an Imperial socket set, Allan keys etc (obviously in addition* to their metric set). But not much more than that, and not frequently used.
*most people that have tools at all, I mean.
AudioLlama@reddit
Metric everything. Fuck imperial. The bane of my life is that so much joinery is still in degenerate-measurements
chris5156@reddit
Two metres of four by two please.
chris5156@reddit
Our workshop at work has both imperial and metric versions of Allen keys and sockets. But it’s unusual in having to fix some fairly old kit and even then the imperial stuff is clearly not used much. At home I just have metric.
On the other hand if you need to open up or fix anything from 50+ years ago you now won’t be able to find anything that fits. I needed to find a nut to fit a machine screw in an old telephone I started fixing, but had to make do with an M3 that sort of loosely goes on because the screw is clearly some weird imperial size. (I even rummaged in the spares at work, but we’ve only got metric ones there too.)
mralistair@reddit
Yes very common for socket sets and spanners to come with 2 halves, one metric one imperial.
That said there isn't much use for imperial bols nowadays, only if you are working on something old and out of date.
SnooRegrets8068@reddit
That reminds me I need to measure a missing hex missing cavity and get another. Bloody stupid design. Who makes it so a chain saw flies at you if you adjust it?
KatVanWall@reddit
I was skimming and just saw ‘hex missing cavity bloody chain saw’ and thought you must be a witch dentist! 😨
SnooRegrets8068@reddit
Sounds like an error from discworld
+++++FTB detects Missing Hex nut, insert to input slot, chainsaw deployed if no response+++++
Error : return to start
KatVanWall@reddit
I’ve got à right old mixture as I inherited my dad’s imperial and whitworth tools. It’s so long since I’ve needed them though!
New_Line4049@reddit
I suppose it depends what you're doing, new stuff will largely be metric, but this country was largely built on the imperial system, so if you ever find yourself working on older vehicles, equipment and machinery there's a good chance you'll find you need imperial stuff too. Some of our manufacturers were completely off their tits around the change over from imperial to metric and figured it'd be a great laugh to mix and match imperial and metric fittings on the same fucking equipment, absolute wankers.
RoyceCoolidge@reddit
Metric for car related stuff, imperial for Johnson outboard. Kept way apart from one another for efficiency.
Kent_biker@reddit
I used to have a set of spanners with imperial one end and it's closest equivalent in metric at the other. Used very rarely unless I was working on an old engine or such like. Long gone now as no need for them.
By the way, metric is straight forward. Imperial is like someone threw a load of numbers in the air and said "that'll do!"
Plane_Ad6816@reddit
You can go onto our hardware websites and see things just don't come in imperial.
I'm sure you could find them if you wanted but bolts are metric so all the tools to work with them are metric too.
I'm an engineer by trade, literally never once come across anything in Imperial. No machine shop I know would even work in anything but metric.
CalmClient7@reddit
How about grease nipples? Used to dread having to change those and try to guess the size out of 2 different packets that may or may not contain the size I needed anyway XD I'm v inexperienced so idk if it's common, just that I used to work with a right mish mash!
Mammyjam@reddit
Grease nipples? That’s my favourite sub
Kent_biker@reddit
😂😂😂
Arcendiss@reddit
Working on the wife's new motorbike I needed to adjust the bars slightly, they're just too low and the new indicators were touching the tank at full lock so likely to ding and dent.
Clamp bolts are Allen head, good good.
6mm too small, yeah OK I always guess things are bigger than they really are.
7mm .... Is too big?
Now why on earth would Harley Davidson make a 6.5mm..... ooooooh wait
Ok-Foundation6093@reddit
Plumbing and refrigeration stuff is still mostly imperial
Plane_Ad6816@reddit
Maybe old existing stuff but again you can’t buy pipe on screwfix in imperial. Only metric.
Checking Wolseley, which claims to be the UK’s largest supplier of heating and plumbing supplies, they again only sell in metric.
I’m sure you can buy imperial pipe but “mostly” would depend entirely on how much old stuff exists.
Ok-Foundation6093@reddit
Industry still uses imperial.
Hungry-Let-1054@reddit
I always carry 3/4 to 22mm fittings in van. Bang one of them on and all’s good. Haha.
No-Secret-1355@reddit
Screwfix website let’s you sort spanner’s by imperial or metric. They have loads of imperial tools
BuzzAllWin@reddit
Eh yes…. But also no, if you have to work with older shit or import stuff… i still have imperial sockets spanners and allens, they get alot less use but still enough to justify
Hungry-Let-1054@reddit
Only thing I ever come across in imperial (and very rarely) is copper pipe in houses that haven’t been touched for years.
Plane_Ad6816@reddit
I occasionally get things that clearly were in imperial but get converted.
Jedec trays for example. Used them a lot in the past. 322.6mm by 136mm.
Scarred_fish@reddit
Just make sure you have an imperial shifter in the tool box and you're golden.
norbvr@reddit (OP)
I have no idea what that is. Is it like a cabinet stretcher?
Scarred_fish@reddit
It was a joke. A shifter here is a shifting spanner. I'd guess it's called an adjustable wrench elsewhere.
norbvr@reddit (OP)
Gotcha
Dic_Penderyn@reddit
I have a socket wrench set that was given to me as an 18th birthday present in the 70's. It had both imperial and metric sizes. I still use it now, but have not used the imperial sockets for years. Back in the day such a set was required as many nuts expecially on older British motorcycles and cars were still imperial. Nowadays every modern car uses metric, but unless you are the type to drive old British cars, bicycles or belong to a steam locomotive railway preservation society, you would probably never need them.
PistolPeteWearn@reddit
Pretty much everything in metric. I have a few tools I've picked up from car boots (kind of like a garage sale, only the sellers drive to a common location at an allotted time*) that are imperial - with woodwork tools it doesn't especially matter if a file is 1" or 25mm.
I have two old bikes and I keep adjustable spanners handy for them.
Interestingly the 1980s one is all imperial, but the 1990s one is a weird mix where the wheel nuts are metric but the headset is imperial
*for some reason this is usually 5:30 or 6am on a Sunday. I am eternally confused why the sale of second hand brick-a-brack requires such an early start on what is meant to be a day of rest.
No-Secret-1355@reddit
I’m a lift engineer and we need to have both. You don’t need the imperial stuff much anymore but some of the old stuff still requires it. Or there’s always shifters and skint knuckles
PartTimeLegend@reddit
I have a handful of imperial tools and some AWG tools also. I’ve got loads of metric through.
There’s just no call for a 3/16th of a football field. The vast majority of our stuff is for the European market and that’s all metric.
Our wiring is different. Our voltage is different. The frequency is different. So we just don’t import American unless there’s a real reason to deal with the hassle of it.
Dedward5@reddit
Yes. I have metric and imperial. As said a lot of socket sets have both, but as an owner of a vintage tractor (which I use in my paddocks) and other vintage stuff I also have some dedicated impartial sets. I tend to get imperials from bar boot sales and farm auctions esp end up with great quality tools from Snail. Elora and King Dick.
KonkeyDongPrime@reddit
I have a few imperial tools, but even the majority of decent bike stuff from the US is in metric. Profile is the only decent brand I can think of still running imperial.
Texasscot56@reddit
Fun fact, most American cars have been metric for decades.
90210fred@reddit
I use both, Whitworth and A/F
🤣
worldly_refuse@reddit
I am old enough to have both a/f and metric spanners/sockets. When I started working on my own cars (a long time ago) most were Imperial. Fun fact - arch Europeans like Airbus still use Imperial fasteners in some cases because US customers demand it
richard0cs@reddit
Most people can get away with just metric. If you have a niche hobby like a vintage car or otherwise work on old stuff you may need AF, and if it's older still Whitworth and BSF.
Taking UK cars for example, they moved from Whitworth and BSF to AF sometime around 1960, and to metric sometime around 1980. My 1967 UK made car is all AF apart from one Whitworth bolt on the dynamo, BA screws on the instruments, and probably some BSP pipe threads somewhere. I have a 1949 tractor that's all Whitworth and BSF aside from a few metric threads on the French-made carb. Conversely my friend's 1981 Ford Fiesta (a European model not sold in the US) is all metric.
maceion@reddit
As I grew up in 1940s, and our house was built in 1920s, it had Imperial Sized fittings and some metric fittings. Water pipes were Imperial sized. On rewiring, electrics were brought up to date in 1970s. Door frames etc are all old imperial doors and short on height for current crop of people. 1870s house I was born in had the doors there suited to folk under 5 foot 4 inches. (1.625m).
Ilsluggo@reddit
I’ve a set of both.
JCDU@reddit
Measuring tools have dual scales, everything else is by default metric, imperial is rare unless you're working on classic cars and even then they have to be pretty old (pre-1980s design) to be using anything other than metric.
R2-Scotia@reddit
Car guy. I do have some imperial (SAE) tools, and a couple of Whitworth things I inherited, but the world is metric .... not just cars but all modern building materials.
That said we have some very old houses here, mine was built 1890, and there are imperial bits and pieces still around.
I had to fix the shower in my American RV and my stepson who is a plumber simply couldn't get his head around the idea it was all imperial, like "that'll be 15mm" .... nope. Ordered an American house tilt and turn shower valve from Amazon.
TheJoshGriffith@reddit
I've a beautiful old Britool whitworth socket set, as well as an old post-war Wera metric set. Not sure if that answers your question, but I never actually use the whitworth set nowadays. It's mostly just for bragging rights to enhance my e-penis on the internet (and surprisingly, this is the first time I've been able to do that).
It's very rare nowadays that anything is imperial. The only things you'll ever find will likely be legacy vehicles (e.g old Norton motorbikes - y'know, proper ones, none of that Harley Davidson crap), and other old tools. I think the vast majority of people have an adjustable spanner they'd use.
SoggyWotsits@reddit
Old cars and tractors - imperial. Hydraulic fittings - often BSP (British Standard Pipe) which is imperial. Most older people, and many younger ones who work on machinery or older vehicles will have two sets of tools.
~~freedom units~~ imperial. Meaning of the empire!
aweaselonwheels@reddit
Just metric and imperial (AF)? You innocent child :) so prewar (WW2) on an Austin Seven we have BSF and Whitworth spanner sizes which are the same size but refers to the pitch of the nut and stud threading, Then you have BA sizing and probably some special plumbing sizing in use.
norbvr@reddit (OP)
I did have a nod to Whitworth in my post.
aweaselonwheels@reddit
I know I was mentioning that it gets more fun with electrical systems and plumbing systems having different imperial sizes too :) In no way was I suggesting it makes sense was more once you go imperial there is a whole rabbit hole of standards pre-ww2 not just AF :)
aweaselonwheels@reddit
In answer to your question, modern stuff is all metric, I don;t have any AF that I can think of unless it is a ratchet/combi kit somewhere and the rest is Whit/BSF/BA and the plumbing one I can't remember but will probably use and adjustable on instead :)
TBH having the world standardising on AF and later metric has helped massively when crawling under a car trying to work our what the feck is that until giving up and using the adjustable :)
ThatBlokeYouKnow@reddit
What
norbvr@reddit (OP)
Formatting difference on media. Y'all are region two
NotoriousREV@reddit
I have imperial tools but only because I have an imported 3rd Gen Camaro and that has an annoying mix of metric and imperial stuff.
Matt_the_Splat@reddit
We're actually switching to metric. It's so extremely slowly that it's just a few bolts at a time, here and there.
Far_Winner5508@reddit
I'm American and have metric, ASE (Imperial?) and whitworth wrenches and sockets (had an old Triumph chopper in college).
atom_stacker@reddit
Literally the only time I have ever used an Imperial tool is when working on something American.
Fred776@reddit
I used to have a spanner set with metric and imperial sizes. I got rid of all the imperial ones years ago as I just never used them and they got in the way. I took them to the metal recycling bin at the tip.
MuttonChopzzz@reddit
Metric with some imperial, luckily most socket and spanner sets come with both.
Fatuousgit@reddit
Used to work in a naval dockyard until mid 2000s. I still needed both metric and imperial, presumably some of the US NATO stuff still has/had imperial. I'd imagine it is all metric by now.
Old cars still also sometime have imperial.
It was pretty easy to use both when it comes to bolts, spanners, etc. Pain in the arse with pipe/conduit type threads and other more niche stuff.
BigBunneh@reddit
I have some old imperial spanners for working on a '51 tractor, but other than that it's all metric.
RhinoRhys@reddit
Yeah I have imperial and metric socket sets.
ThaiFoodThaiFood@reddit
Yes
Emotional-Brief3666@reddit
Nah, we've gone metric far more than America. I do find myself doing the hand and foot thing though now and then. Plus a six foot person always sounds taller than a 1.8 metre person. My dad used to say imperial measurements were the measurements of traders and merchants. 12 is more divisible by whole numbers than 10 so quick mental calculations can be made. He had a point!
skibbin@reddit
I've duplicates of many tools as I've previously worked on classic British motorcycles. Older mechanics may have imperial stuff in the back of a drawer somewhere, but the majority would reject anything imperial even if you offered it them for free.
All other trades or home owners will have been exclusively metric for generations.
NiceCunt91@reddit
Yes. Mechanics have to have metric and SAE size tools.
AzzTheMan@reddit
When things need to matter and be precise, we only use metric. Imperial is just for things you can get away with being near enough - speed limits, baking, volumes of beer, etc etc.
But if you buy a big socket set, it will come with both metric and imperial.
RareBrit@reddit
Generally no. Metric is generally preferred. Most things built after about 1975 will be metric. However working on stuff like classic motorcycles is a bloody knightmare.
ValidGarry@reddit
I moved from the UK to the US and had to buy new tools and re-learn my 12x table. Inches are stupid for anything precise and any high tolerance or modern engineering in the US is in Metric.
DrFabulous0@reddit
I have some Imperial hex keys for legacy bicycles. For the rare occasion I encounter an Imperial bolt I have an adjustable spanners. Although it's probably 1/2" so the 13mm will usually do the trick.
Complete_Tadpole6620@reddit
Recently put all my imperial sockets and spanners out the front, free to anyone that wants them. They were just gathering dust in a corner of the shed. Think the local scrap guy took them in the end.
nasted@reddit
Well, not really double the number. At least not anymore as why would we make stuff using yokel units if we only had tools in modern units?
Socket sets might come in both imperial and metric units as might a spanner set but adjustable wrenches exist.
But I suppose it does depend on what you do with your tools: DIY - mostly metric, Restoring/Repairing old stuff - probably both etc
qualityvote2@reddit
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