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Silly question - Any of you say "English/Metric" threading versus "Inch/Metric"

Milacron

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Silly question - Any of you say "English/Metric" threading versus "Inch/Metric"

As in the Hardinge HLV-EM lathe, that one would think should be the HLV-IM lathe.... (which in later years they renamed the HLV-DR lathe, as a real head fake... )

I realize 'English" threads is "correct" but just seems like the vast majority of us say "inch" threads....
 
Never heard "English threads", but I use "Imperial threads" rather than "inch threads" A google search on "Imperial threads" generates quite a few hits on the type of thread we use on this side of the pond.
To me English conflates with British, which makes me think of BA threads and whitworth.
 
Some people say imperial/metric and some say standard/metric, to add more possibilities. I prefer inch/metric myself.

The USA went to considerable trouble to separate from the English over two hundred years ago, diminishing the Empire in the process. It seems to me to be disrespectful to remind our old friends in England of past unpleasantness by equating the inch with England or the British Empire. And calling inches "standard" seems presumptuous in the current era, after so much progress in using the metric system in many industries.

I don't know of any use of English/French to refer to inch/metric, though it could be justified, so why say English/metric?

Larry
 
I say BSW/BSF/ME/Brass/Cycle/UNC/UNF/BA/ACME/Metric coarse/fine/Trapeziodal/BSP/NPT etc. as appropriate. They all get used, even in my home shop.

English/Metric is a fairly coarse split.
 
Got in the habit of saying SAE/Metric .. I know that is wrong.
Picked that up from my dad..
Inch or imperial much better and I say when i catch myself saying SAE.
Think saying English might make a non shop guy think English is like British so might think it metric.

Have known a few who said ANSI/Metric... that is better than SAE

Still "inch" is most clear to shop and non shop guys IMHO
 
The phrase "English/Metric Dimensions" is much more familiar than

the phrase "English/Metric Threads", but the term is often seen in

printed material.

The only example I have right now is my SCHERR-TUMICO catalog which has

many pages of "English/Metric" measuring tools.


( I suffer from short term memory loss,...and....ah.....short term memory loss,..

and something else....but I forget what......)
 
I say BSW/BSF/ME/Brass/Cycle/UNC/UNF/BA/ACME/Metric coarse/fine/Trapeziodal/BSP/NPT etc. as appropriate. They all get used, even in my home shop.

English/Metric is a fairly coarse split.

Agree that, plus-plus.

One HAS to be that specific when dealing with taps, dies, their drills & reamers, or the goods themselves.

Now encouraged to even THINK about the more general term, I'd say it only even finds legitimate use at all when discussing the 'race' of a machine-tool with thread-generating capability.

The french-made HB-360-BC I hope to soon have payment instructions for from the OP and our fearless leader (hint, hint) goes the other way, and rather oddly so ....

Calls the entire non-metric side of its huge threading selector "Whitworth"!
 
Got in the habit of saying SAE/Metric .. I know that is wrong.
Not so much 'wrong' as simply incomplete, probably automotive-experience driven.

SAE didn't cover but a fraction of systems once in use, US or other non-metric.

"American Machinist" published a series of their yellowish tear-out pages back in the day before I could afford my own copy of "Machinery's Handbook".

Saved those. Had around 122 distinct thread FORMS with all their specifications, let alone sizes. Some overlaps, even interchangeability if lower-class fits, but very damned few were Metric.
 
Closed due to lack of OT in the topic title and general chit chat nature of the topic.

Everyone knows the boss gets special perks. Comes in late, long lunches, cat naps, leaves whenever he wants, it's just part of it. Besides this is is on topic, kinda like is the proper term for a hole making tool a "twist drill" or a "drill bit"? Folks will fist fight over that shit.:D

Brent
 
It is better to be multilingual. Until you get to the point of saying "US Customary System".

LOL! Yazz.. most especially as "US customary system" is more likely to be taken globally as having to do with screwing rather than threading, as in "F**k you, I got mine!"

:D
 
Everyone knows the boss gets special perks. Comes in late, long lunches, cat naps, leaves whenever he wants, it's just part of it. Besides this is is on topic, kinda like is the proper term for a hole making tool a "twist drill" or a "drill bit"? Folks will fist fight over that shit.:D

Brent

"Cat naps" would be a defensive move.

And since WHEN did we start leaving him enough time to EAT?
 
Lately I say "Inch/millimeter" and type "Inch/mm" because those are the two principal engineering units used in machining.

"Metric" refers to the meter, which is used to describe the height of the Matterhorn but not to describe machined parts, except in the same general way where we might use "feet" to describe large machine capacity.

I used to say "English/metric," but the only English measure the English themselves still use seems to be the mile.

I've never used "Imperial," partly because it seems to imply that the US is "imperialist" (probably why the term is currently in such vogue with our European brethren) but mostly because it was never used here. Imperial gallons weren't the same as US gallons, and an Imperial thread would be Whitworth, not seen here in over a hundred years.
 
..and an Imperial thread would be Whitworth, not seen here in over a hundred years.

Oh, but they surely were, and in massive quantity!

Packard-Merlin, War Two, probably the biggest user of them by piece-count, given it had just about twice as many parts as an Allison did.

Probably enough spares to carry P-51 use for as long as it lasted, Korea.

The taps, dies, fasteners were still around by then and for several more years for support of imported British motor vehicles. I still harbour BA and BS, not used in forty or more years. Just in case I run across an interesting bit of period history, of course.

:)
 
Oh, but they surely were, and in massive quantity!

Packard-Merlin, War Two, probably the biggest user of them by piece-count, given it had just about twice as many parts as an Allison did.

Probably enough spares to carry P-51 use for as long as it lasted, Korea.

The taps, dies, fasteners were still around by then and for several more years for support of imported British motor vehicles. I still harbour BA and BS, not used in forty or more years. Just in case I run across an interesting bit of period history, of course.

:)

Packard/Merlin aircraft engines were British engines built under license to original prints in a war emergency, they did not originate here and it would have been pointlessly time-consuming to change anything. Whitworth threads were already antique here well before WW2. And British motor vehicles using Whitworth bolts (MG? Austin? Vauxhall?) were likewise imports and did not originate here. I encountered a few Whitworth threads when I started my mechanical career in the mid-60s but the last time they were used in US-designed products my father was a kid watching Civil War veterans parade down Fifth Avenue.
 








 
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