Is a 16" Makita Circular saw worth it?

[Brian_Weekley]

Jay,

As usual, we've hijacked another thread and taken it to another subject...

I'm with you on the metric argument as far as ease of measurement and use.  When I said it's not practical to convert, I mean I wouldn't want to convert every measurement on a drawing.  I'd be concerned about mistakes in the conversions.  If I was working off an original drawing that was designed in metric-- no complaint here.

Just for kicks, I think I'm going to design a timber frame outhouse in Royal Egyptian Cubits.  I was thinking something around 3x3 (5.153 x 5.153 feet).  By the way, that feet (decimal) conversion is for Giant Splinter!  I'm with you there too.   :D  :D

Brad_BB and Jim, if you're monitoring this thread, how's that new fangled tape measure coming?  Have we convinced you to make it metric?  Will it be feet (decimal) or the standard issue feet (fraction)? 

Cheers

[Jay C. White Cloud]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the reply. I know, I hate getting off the "threads original topic," but unless someone complains or asks us to start a new thread, I guess discussion here at FF are just like one in real life.  You start in one place, and somehow end up someplace else.  Thanks Jim for being an understanding moderator.

Regards,

Jay

[canopy]

Let me chime in just  briefly about metric. I live in a metric country so I do all of my framing except the mortise & tenion in metric. The chisel is the reason for that exception. If it is 2", then you will get a 50.8mm mortise which doesn't fit well in metric. If they made 4 & 5 cm chisels that would be cool, but I haven't seen them.

I could opt for the imperial system but find it more error prone. Remembering a number in your head is not easy because it is a big jumble like say 172 11/16. That's 7 digits and then meanwhile concentrating to remember this number or in some cases two numbers you have to have the presence of mind to use the correct edge of the framing square with 16's units. I also see the genius in the imperial system. You can equally divide a number in feet by 2's, 3's or 4's in your head which a common need in construction. An ergonomic advantage of imperial is inch numbers on the measurer are just going to be so much bigger than centimeters due to the extra space. So you can eye a tape measure further out say like probing the water depth from the top of a big tank.

[piller]

I work in a technical field and use both measuring systems.  Just this last week I was working with developing mechanical parts drawings and also printed circuit board design and both used inches and mils (1/1000 inch).     

Since we are off topic:
Jay:  you mentioned that you worked on a run in shed last week, I would like to learn more about that project.  I'll send you a PM.