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Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

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Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

joecct said:
If the USA went metric for real, how much of a hassle would it be for you?
Click to expand...

Personally, I'd like to see it happen. There would be issues with regards to a number of professions, like carpentry and plumbing, due to existing product already in existing structures.
 
Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

joecct said:
If the USA went metric for real, how much of a hassle would it be for you?
Click to expand...
The hassle isn't being metric, it's getting there. I just had an interesting conversation with my dad about this over Christmas.

I was in Tucson, AZ over the holidays. Interstate 19 from Tucson to the Mexican border is the only highway in the U.S. which uses the metric system, at least as far as I know. The interstate was constructed back when everyone expected the U.S. to go full metric.

Because of the confusion the signs on the highway create for motorists, Arizona and the feds actually started a plan to replace the signs, as needed, using standard U.S. measurements. However, this plan stalled primarily due to local business opposition.

So, there we have people actually using the metric system, in some small way, but they don't want to change because of the hassle and expense. It's not opposition to the system, it's just making the switch.
 
Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

SJHovey said:
The hassle isn't being metric, it's getting there. I just had an interesting conversation with my dad about this over Christmas.

I was in Tucson, AZ over the holidays. Interstate 19 from Tucson to the Mexican border is the only highway in the U.S. which uses the metric system, at least as far as I know. The interstate was constructed back when everyone expected the U.S. to go full metric.

Because of the confusion the signs on the highway create for motorists, Arizona and the feds actually started a plan to replace the signs, as needed, using standard U.S. measurements. However, this plan stalled primarily due to local business opposition.

So, there we have people actually using the metric system, in some small way, but they don't want to change because of the hassle and expense. It's not opposition to the system, it's just making the switch.
Click to expand...

All the more reason to have sequential exit numbering. :p
 
Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

St. Clown said:
Personally, I'd like to see it happen. There would be issues with regards to a number of professions, like carpentry and plumbing, due to existing product already in existing structures.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure carpenters in Canada still use imperial units for lumber.

I was talking with a guy from Australia, and he used inches for lumber dimensions but went by the actual dimensions. It was a 1.5" by 3.5" board, not a "2 by 4" (this was when we were in a dive bar in Denver playing Jenga(TM) made out of 2x4s on a table made out of a metal garbage can and 2'x2' piece of plywood.
 
Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

SJHovey said:
I was in Tucson, AZ over the holidays. Interstate 19 from Tucson to the Mexican border is the only highway in the U.S. which uses the metric system, at least as far as I know. The interstate was constructed back when everyone expected the U.S. to go full metric.
Click to expand...

It isn't metric only, but in Maine, we have part of our interstate system 'owned' by a quasi government agency that was established before the interstate system was created (it does not receive any funding from the State or Feds, it's completely funded by tolls). In general, their mileage signs have both miles and kilometers. I like it that way -- and we get a lot of Canadian tourists: when you enter I95 via I195 (Saco/Old Orchard Beach) there is a mileage sign for Montreal and Quebec -- it's pretty appropriate for that to have miles and kilometers.

The rest of our interstate system and state highways are 'owned'/maintained by the Maine Department of Transportation, and their signs are miles only. It would be nice if it were consistent.
 
Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

St. Clown said:
My driveway is completely covered in a thin layer of ice. Unfortunately, I can't use salt on my driveway because the homeowners' association decided to put down a new concrete apron in front of my garage and sent notice that salt ruins concrete during the first year it's in place and replacement would be at my expense. They also said I can't use metal tools to remove snow ever. (I didn't follow up to ask them if the same rule applies to our snow removal service.)

So with the light rain we received a couple days ago, and the now sub-zero temps, I have a driveway so slick that I'm refusing to order goods from online retailers because UPS and FedEx deliverers wouldn't be able to safely bring me my packages, and I don't want the lawsuit that would come with a fall.

:mad: :mad:
Click to expand...

you can get non-sodium ice melt that is supposed to be safe for concrete
 
Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

The transition would not be bad if we went dual for say 10 years.

I mean that's what we're gonna do when we switch to Spanish, right? ;)
 
Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

FlagDUDE08 said:
Having gone out to eat every now and then, one thing that grinds my gears is when restaurant establishment mistakenly label a "Shepherd's Pie", or some similar spelling thereof. Most of the time, it ends up a Cottage Pie. People, if you're going to do a shepherd's pie, use the proper main ingredient: minced lamb. If you're going to use ground beef, call it by its proper name: a cottage pie.
Click to expand...
THIS!!
mr les calls Cottage Pie Chinese Pie. Never understood why.
 
BassAle said:
It isn't metric only, but in Maine, we have part of our interstate system 'owned' by a quasi government agency that was established before the interstate system was created (it does not receive any funding from the State or Feds, it's completely funded by tolls). In general, their mileage signs have both miles and kilometers. I like it that way -- and we get a lot of Canadian tourists: when you enter I95 via I195 (Saco/Old Orchard Beach) there is a mileage sign for Montreal and Quebec -- it's pretty appropriate for that to have miles and kilometers.

The rest of our interstate system and state highways are 'owned'/maintained by the Maine Department of Transportation, and their signs are miles only. It would be nice if it were consistent.
Click to expand...

Worked on an Illinois DOT project last summer where even though our set of plans was Imperial, the storm sewer work that we had to tie into and elevations given, of a stretch of highway we were reconstructing were done in Metric just a decade ago.

Our field office was filled with metric grade rods and metric linker rods that couldn't be used anymore. And they were all purchased specifically for IDOT's push for metric in the 90's and 2000's. Our RE said he had just closed out an IDOT job in 2014 which was the last Metric job put out to bid.
 
Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

FlagDUDE08 said:
Having gone out to eat every now and then, one thing that grinds my gears is when restaurant establishment mistakenly label a "Shepherd's Pie", or some similar spelling thereof. Most of the time, it ends up a Cottage Pie. People, if you're going to do a shepherd's pie, use the proper main ingredient: minced lamb. If you're going to use ground beef, call it by its proper name: a cottage pie.
Click to expand...
And labeling home fries on the menu and getting hash browns. Chaps my arse.
 
Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

BassAle said:
you can get non-sodium ice melt that is supposed to be safe for concrete
Click to expand...

Most non-sodium is actually worse for concrete or it doesn't work in temperatures this low. I use calcium chloride. Probably worse for grass and concrete, but I have a driveway that faces north and is angled down away from the sun. If I don't melt the ice with the salt, the sun won't take care of it until June. Once my CaCl[SUB]2[/SUB] runs out, I'm going to look at something a little less environmentally destructive and metal-friendly.

MnDOT has some great literature on ice melt:
http://www.mnltap.umn.edu/publications/handbooks/documents/snowice.pdf
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/research/TRS/2014/TRS1411.pdf
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/research/documents/201220.pdf
 
Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

I try to let the snowpack and ice accumulate so I get a good layer of 2 inches or so of ice. If I have icepack, I don't push all my gravel onto the lawn when I flow. Unfortunately, this year it got too warm, so now I'm back down to gravel again. Needs to snow so I can pack it again.
 
Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

FadeToBlack&Gold said:
To qualify as Canuck food, shouldn't it have to be made with moose or caribou? :)
Click to expand...

Or whatever the heck poutine is made of. It looks like tofu and the gravy from a microwave dinner.

The French are the greatest chefs on Earth. Why do the Quebecois eat worse than the English?
 
Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

Kepler said:
Or whatever the heck poutine is made of. It looks like tofu and the gravy from a microwave dinner.

The French are the greatest chefs on Earth. Why do the Quebecois eat worse than the English?
Click to expand...

Do you not know about cheese curds? :eek:
 
Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

Kepler said:
Or whatever the heck poutine is made of. It looks like tofu and the gravy from a microwave dinner.

The French are the greatest chefs on Earth. Why do the Quebecois eat worse than the English?
Click to expand...

How can you not like the very idea of poutine? It's French fries on a "bed" of cheese curds and brown gravy drizzled over it all. It's fat man heaven!
 
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