@boo No worries mate, I am an engineer who was a young student in the (failed) US pilot program to convert to metric in the early 70's. I'm fluent in both actually and PREFER metric. It also didn't hurt to grow up 10 km from the Canadian border. 🙂
1/16th of an inch is approximately 1.6 mm. Hence 1/8 is 3.2 and so on and so forth. For cultural reasons though even metric-oriented wood-workers here, like myself, talk in Imperial English because finding metric tools locally is not easy. So we do much of our work in inches and fractions of an inch.
Rule of thumb: 1 inch = 25.4 mm.
Another REALLY easy rule of thumb: 1 km ~ 0.6 miles (0.62 to be closer) and 1 mile = 1.6 km. One has a "0" in front of the "6" and its reciprocal has a "1" in front of the "6". Good mnemonic to memorize.
But wait, I have one more.Centigrade to Fahrenheit: (9/5)*(T-32) can be stated as: Double degrees C, then subtract 10% and add 32.
Body temp in C = 37. 2xC = 74. 10% of 74 is 7.4. Subtract that 10% from 2*c (74) and you get 66.6. Now add 32. 66.6 + 32 = 98.6 which is exactly normal body temp in Fahrenheit.
Some important guitar making measurement nomenclature to know:
- 'A Gnat's Nadger' = A tiny bit - It's no problem...e.g. 'It's a gnat's nadger longer than expected but that is OK.'
- 'A Midges Cock' = Like 'A Gnat's Nadger' but much more annoying...e.g. 'ARG...It's only short by a MIDGE'S COCK but we're all gonna die!!'
- 'Close Enough for Rock and Roll' = Close enough for our purposes
- 'Close Enough for Jazz' = It doesn't matter
- 'Close Enough for BeeBop' = Nobody cares
- 'A good inch' = 'A Gnat's Nadger' more than an inch (or any other measurement)...e.g. 'Ooft - that was a good six inches!'
- 'That will do' = Perfect!
- 'Perfect!' = 'Phew...We fixed it'
Does anyones else know any that I missed?
BTW, Pat Metheny is my favorite musician of all time.
Jaco Pastorius is my second favorite.
Lyle Mays is my third.
So, shouldn't the definitions of "Close enough" be reversed when the most talented guitar, bass, and piano players on the planet are all jazz musicians? ;-}
No worries mate, I am an engineer who was a young student in the (failed) US pilot program to convert to metric in the early 70's. I'm fluent in both actually and PREFER metric. It also didn't hurt to grow up 10 km from the Canadian border. 🙂
1/16th of an inch is approximately 1.6 mm. Hence 1/8 is 3.2 and so on and so forth. For cultural reasons though even metric-oriented wood-workers here, like myself, talk in Imperial English because finding metric tools locally is not easy. So we do much of our work in inches and fractions of an inch.
Rule of thumb: 1 inch = 25.4 mm.
Another REALLY easy rule of thumb: 1 km ~ 0.6 miles (0.62 to be closer) and 1 mile = 1.6 km. One has a "0" in front of the "6" and its reciprocal has a "1" in front of the "6". Good mnemonic to memorize.
But wait, I have one more.Centigrade to Fahrenheit: (9/5)*(T-32) can be stated as: Double degrees C, then subtract 10% and add 32.
Body temp in C = 37. 2xC = 74. 10% of 74 is 7.4. Subtract that 10% from 2*c (74) and you get 66.6. Now add 32. 66.6 + 32 = 98.6 which is exactly normal body temp in Fahrenheit
@petejb Oh wow! I never learned any of this stuff but I’m really glad you have mentioned it. I didn’t do that well in school, my attention was all over the place and I messed around too much. It was only in later life, when I did a degree, that I found out I am dyslexic. I only got diagnosed in 2010 so all of those bad school reports from the 70s and 80s started to make sense. I’ve never been an academic and put all my energy into practical things in life, I can turn my hand to most things. The only thing I was good at at school was art, I got A grades; the rest of the subject were below average. Doing a degree in IT in later life nearly killed me 😂 but I’m glad I did it, I proved to myself that I wasn’t stupid. I graduated with a 2:1, which is one under a 1st. I did an HND (Higher National Diploma) before the degree and passed with distinction. I got help from the university with screen reading software for my computer as well as other stuff. I can’t help but imagine what it would have been like if I had had that help back in my school days but I guess the computers weren’t that advanced back then to help me.
Anyway, it’s never bothered me and I don’t dwell on it, I just get on with life in my own way.
I will practice using these formulae you have kindly demonstrated.
Thanks very much. 👍
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸
No worries mate, I am an engineer who was a young student in the (failed) US pilot program to convert to metric in the early 70's. I'm fluent in both actually and PREFER metric. It also didn't hurt to grow up 10 km from the Canadian border. 🙂
1/16th of an inch is approximately 1.6 mm. Hence 1/8 is 3.2 and so on and so forth. For cultural reasons though even metric-oriented wood-workers here, like myself, talk in Imperial English because finding metric tools locally is not easy. So we do much of our work in inches and fractions of an inch.
Rule of thumb: 1 inch = 25.4 mm.
Another REALLY easy rule of thumb: 1 km ~ 0.6 miles (0.62 to be closer) and 1 mile = 1.6 km. One has a "0" in front of the "6" and its reciprocal has a "1" in front of the "6". Good mnemonic to memorize.
But wait, I have one more.Centigrade to Fahrenheit: (9/5)*(T-32) can be stated as: Double degrees C, then subtract 10% and add 32.
Body temp in C = 37. 2xC = 74. 10% of 74 is 7.4. Subtract that 10% from 2*c (74) and you get 66.6. Now add 32. 66.6 + 32 = 98.6 which is exactly normal body temp in Fahrenheit
@petejb Oh wow! I never learned any of this stuff but I’m really glad you have mentioned it. I didn’t do that well in school, my attention was all over the place and I messed around too much. It was only in later life, when I did a degree, that I found out I am dyslexic. I only got diagnosed in 2010 so all of those bad school reports from the 70s and 80s started to make sense. I’ve never been an academic and put all my energy into practical things in life, I can turn my hand to most things. The only thing I was good at at school was art, I got A grades; the rest of the subject were below average. Doing a degree in IT in later life nearly killed me 😂 but I’m glad I did it, I proved to myself that I wasn’t stupid. I graduated with a 2:1, which is one under a 1st. I did an HND (Higher National Diploma) before the degree and passed with distinction. I got help from the university with screen reading software for my computer as well as other stuff. I can’t help but imagine what it would have been like if I had had that help back in my school days but I guess the computers weren’t that advanced back then to help me.
Anyway, it’s never bothered me and I don’t dwell on it, I just get on with life in my own way.I will practice using these formulae you have kindly demonstrated.
Thanks very much. 👍
Mark Twain, a classic American Humorist once quipped "Don't let your schoolin' interfere with your education". Words to live by and words that I live by. I have learned more from mere curiosity coupled with life experience and often trial and error than I had ever learned sitting in a hard chair in front of a chalkboard.
If you were to ask me who, on average, are the most educated people around I'd say farmers, hands down. Not a lot of "book smarts" but definitely walking knowledge machines on well, just about everything.
Mark Twain, a classic American Humorist once quipped "Don't let your schoolin' interfere with your education". Words to live by and words that I live by. I have learned more from mere curiosity coupled with life experience and often trial and error than I had ever learned sitting in a hard chair in front of a chalkboard.
If you were to ask me who, on average, are the most educated people around I'd say farmers, hands down. Not a lot of "book smarts" but definitely walking knowledge machines on well, just about everything.
@petejb Sounds like good advice to me. Thanks for the moral support. 👍
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸
Some important guitar making measurement nomenclature to know:
- 'A Gnat's Nadger' = A tiny bit - It's no problem...e.g. 'It's a gnat's nadger longer than expected but that is OK.'
- 'A Midges Cock' = Like 'A Gnat's Nadger' but much more annoying...e.g. 'ARG...It's only short by a MIDGE'S COCK but we're all gonna die!!'
- 'Close Enough for Rock and Roll' = Close enough for our purposes
- 'Close Enough for Jazz' = It doesn't matter
- 'Close Enough for BeeBop' = Nobody cares
- 'A good inch' = 'A Gnat's Nadger' more than an inch (or any other measurement)...e.g. 'Ooft - that was a good six inches!'
- 'That will do' = Perfect!
- 'Perfect!' = 'Phew...We fixed it'
Does anyones else know any that I missed?
“How much” = stop just before too much.
(and I learned that one from you @markbailey).
Thats a really handy measure, because it works for so many measures.
”How deep” = just before too deep.
”How wide” = just before too wide.
”How long” = .... ok, it can’t be too long (apparently).
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk