The US House voted Tuesday to pass a measure to enact year-round Daylight Saving Time across the country, springing Congress forward into an issue that has long stumped lawmakers and spurred impassioned pleas by parents, farmers and others with sharply divergent views.
It will now head to the Senate for approval before going to the president for his signature — though its chances in the upper chamber remain unclear.
Can we please go metric next? I’m old but an engineer (and a farmer) metric makes things so much easier…
It would be nice. I would love to not have to keep two sets of each tool type just because America can’t admit Europe did something better. And not just a little better, like, it’s embarrassing how difficult SAE is over metric.
It’s probably too late for me. But I dream of a world where my grandchildren only need one socket wrench set.
If you do enough stuff yourself you already have two sets of tools. And torx bits. And triple squares. And reverse Torx and triple square. And robertsons. And Allen bits.
And extended versions of all of those. And short versions. And impact versions and the good ones and the garbage ones and sometimes extractor versions if you had a real bad day and went to Harbor Freight three times.
But never a ten mill when you need one.
Australian here.
It’s been a long time since I encountered a nut or bolt that was unambiguously imperial, but my 13mm socket probably gets more use than it should 😏
Oh, you’ll still have to do that. Maybe your grandchildren can do away with the SAE tools … as long as they don’t work on old stuff very much.
But for all of us alive today, it won’t change much. Those SAE fasteners are still out there in use all over the place, and they’re not going to magically go away or convert to metric sizes. Even modern production lines producing things after the official change will still probably keep using SAE sizes for a while – converting the production line to metric sizes would require expensive retooling and would bring in zero profit to recoup those costs. Eventually things would switch over to metric sizes, but brand new fasteners in SAE sizes will probably continue in production for at least a decade or two after the switch … and the machines those fasteners are used in may continue in use for a long time even after new production is finally transitioned.
My guess is even if the US fully committed to the metric system today, it would still be ~50 years before someone like an auto mechanic could reasonably expect to work without ever needing SAE tools.
I’m hoping the US is just skipping metric and waiting for a far superior dozenal system. If base 10 is so great why can’t it be divided by 3?
Yes! Dozenal FTW
I doubt I will see the change either. I will say if you look around you can get dual use measuring devises. I got a great tape measure that is SAE and Metric. And digital calipers are already set up for it.
Tool wise it sucks having to have 2 sets… Especially having to have a metric and SAE adjustable wrenches (spanners for you over the pond).
The worst is getting out in the field with your 5lb hammer only to find you only brought metric stakes, so you gotta go all the way back and get your 3kg hammer.
Oh its the absolute worst! Or another pain, I have a cable 2 meters short and I left the cable stretcher at the shop!!! What do you do?
If you remembered your junction box pullers you can just scootch 'em a little closer. Just make sure you have a metric puller otherwise it’ll only pull 'em 2 yards and still be a little short.
Otherwise you gotta send the kid back to the shop to look for it.
My cables were RF so we didn’t use junction boxes so that tool was out unfortunately. Boy I wish we could have used it though!
Another hurdle was getting the signal up/down from the antenna(s). It never failed we didnt have enough frequency grease to get the job done. Many of junior helpers I sent out looking for that. Very kind of the other departments to help them on their adventure finding it. FacOps guys were the most helpful. And we help their apprentices find that Junction Box Puller, Cable Stretcher, etc.
Shit we had one kid nearly in tears looking for FG…
I just have two measuring tapes. With the dual tapes the markings are on the least convenient side of the tape half the time.
I do rough measurements in SAE so I know what to get at the lumber store, then do the actual cutting measured in metric. Those measurements happen at different times at different accuracy, and do not benefit from being on the same tape measure.
… Adjustable wrenches, you say?
Yes
It’s out grandchildren that won’t need two sets of wrenches. Maybe.
The US has been officially on the metric system since the Carter administration
IDK why we just didn’t stick with it or at the least put both miles/km on the high way signs and slowly get people to acclimate to it…
Feds aren’t involved in highway signs afaik. As for why no states do that, I dont know.
I think they might be as the highway system get funding from the Federal government. That why they have rules like there is so many straight aways to be used as runways, the highway beautification act that removed all the billboards, etc.