# Fractions are killing me this week



## allpurpose (Mar 24, 2016)

Normally I don't have a huge problem figuring these things out, but for some reason from a 3/4 board I'm having a heck of a time getting it right just making drawers..I've been chasing the same half inch back and forth all day..all my dados cut right, but the back piece is giving me fits trying to make a damned square! 
It's time to take a break for the night.. I did go get a nice fan for the shop so I got that much right.. Northern Tool has em on sale. I still gotta cut a bunch of 1/4" plywood bottoms. I think I just might turn the fan off when I do those instead of having flying plywood.. lol
Got a 20" Ironton fan.. Darn thing puts out a lot more wind than I thought it would.. $50..not too shabby..


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## yomanbill (Jul 7, 2020)

Don't know what your are trying to do, but regarding fractions, you can switch to using decimal inches or the metric system. Either will eliminate the need to use fractions.


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## allpurpose (Mar 24, 2016)

For some reason my brain just wasn't taking the blade thickness into consideration today.. All better.. I can rest happily tonight...

Just making drawers with a lap joint and a shallow dado for the back piece..That 1/4" was throwing my 62 year old brain off.. I suspect it ain't gonna get better as I age.. Just going by what I've observed in other old folks..


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## NoThankyou (Mar 21, 2018)

If you need help with fractions a Casio fx-260 solar is the solution. I bought 3 or 4 and have left them in various areas around the house and shop. They don't require batteries and were less than $12 at Staples. Although now they probably have gone up to about $15. They have saved me the cost of more wood than I can remember.


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## johnep (Apr 12, 2007)

All UK measurements now in mms. No fractions.
johnep


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## Mike Stevens (Apr 22, 2021)

The Fraction Calculator Plus app is for woodworkers and it's awesome and free. It's for Android or iPhone. Fraction Calculator Plus Free - Apps on Google Play


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## m.n.j.chell (May 12, 2016)

allpurpose said:


> my brain just wasn't taking the blade thickness into consideration today.


Been there, too often. I can't blame it on age, either.


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## Rebelwork (Jan 15, 2012)

It happens...Try cutting out a whole melamine commercial job, boxes, backs, doors, etc and have to deduct 3mil. From the cabinet faces and doors to work, with concealed hinges and you got guys waiting on parts for the machine. Pressure,pressure, pressure... I just teller to grab a broom...


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## allpurpose (Mar 24, 2016)

Rebelwork said:


> It happens...Try cutting out a whole melamine commercial job, boxes, backs, doors, etc and have to deduct 3mil. From the cabinet faces and doors to work, with concealed hinges and you got guys waiting on parts for the machine. Pressure,pressure, pressure... I just teller to grab a broom...


I'm gonna invent a jig just for such deductions even though it's already been made. I usually bury a blade in a board..sacrifice it for the better good of the world.. It's that last inch or so that gets me screwed up..


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## Rebelwork (Jan 15, 2012)

allpurpose said:


> I'm gonna invent a jig just for such deductions even though it's already been made. I usually bury a blade in a board..sacrifice it for the better good of the world.. It's that last inch or so that gets me screwed up..


Already did called Cabinetvision..lol


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## NoThankyou (Mar 21, 2018)

Don't beat me up about not being Metric. In High School Chemistry (1958) I was introduced to the Metric system. I thought what a wonderful measuring system. But nobody in the US was using it. Then we used it again in High School Physics (1959). Still nobody in the US was using it. Well maybe the scientific egg heads but it was not in common use. Fast forward about 12 years and the US decided to convert to the Metric system. 

I was enthusiastic. My FIL, a tool and die maker, was reading in one of his professional magazines about the cost of converting the tools in the tool box to matric. His comment, "I don't know what a Metric screw driver is." caught my attention. "This is going to be a long struggle", I thought. 

We bought a new car. My wife says, "What are all the little numbers on the speedometer for?" When it was explained, "Metric" she just went "Hurmpf". 

Then several weeks later, I was trying to explain the metric system and my wife said, "I will not cook in metric." It was then that I realized that all hope for the US converting to the Metric system was lost during my lifetime. 

So there you have it. Convert to Metric and learn to cook. There are no other options.


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## Rebelwork (Jan 15, 2012)

They tried to bring metric in the 80's. Nobody bought in. The furniture company had SCM which was metric. When I wanted something sanded I gave him the size and he used the conversion chart on the machine..


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## m.n.j.chell (May 12, 2016)

As I understand it, the system used in the USA is based on body parts. 
An inch is the distance from the tip of the thumb to the first crease. (The inter-phalangeal crease)
A "foot" is twelve inches. If you measure it on your own body, you'll find that's true.
A "yard" is the distance from the tip of the nose with the face pointed forward, to the tip of the longest finger of the outstretched arm.
And then it all breaks down from there.
I've lived in the USA all my life, and I started to hate the standard system when we tried to go metric in the 70s. Now that I've been working in electrical and motor mechanic disciplines for the last 40 years +, I REALLY hate the standard system. I wish we go metric (based on scientific measures) in this Country and catch up with the rest of the world!


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## _Ogre (Feb 1, 2013)

johnep said:


> All UK measurements now in mms. No fractions.
> johnep


i wish we'd just change to metric. our cars are all metric and most equipment is metric
it's cuz our congress is uneducated or got liberal arts degrees and refuse to convert
had they done an engineering degree, they would have realized how easy the metric system is
most imperial engineering is converted to metric, math done and converted back to imperial anymore
at the end of my career, 21 years ago, we were all metric in all automotive plants
only 3 countries use imperial: usa, liberia and myanmar, 3 loser countries


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## johnep (Apr 12, 2007)

A space venture to Mars was lost because of confusion. Also a plane was very lucky to make a landing in middle of Atlantic due to confusion over amount of fuel loaded.
Your currency is metric. Would you like to go to Pounds, shillings and pence?
johnep


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## redeared (Feb 7, 2019)

As a structural steel designer for 40 years, fractions, decimal inches, decimal feet, I used them all. I knew in the 80's we where not going metric due to the cost and soft conversion was never going to work. Our company once took on a job to be made in Israel using only metric and metric steel shapes, their engineering department balked at it so they crossed department lines and asked me do it. It took maybe two days get into the metric mind set, honestly it is an easier system to use, as many calculations I can do in my head as it is a base 10 system.
When it comes to cooking I stick with our imperial system, if the recipe calls for mm's or litres I move on to the next one, I'm not converting in the kitchen.


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## johnep (Apr 12, 2007)

I converted cooking in metric a few years ago. I now use it all the time. Cup to grm conversions on the net.
johnep


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## allpurpose (Mar 24, 2016)

I can just see everyone converting their air tools to metric..CFM? Out with the old, in with CMM.. Yeah..soon everyone will start saying "Darn! It's 35 degrees outside! I have wish it were a little cooler!"
Old habits die hard..


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## Tool Agnostic (Aug 13, 2017)

I am still angry with all the politicians who promised to move us to metric by the 1970s and then chickened out, but got their names put on bronze plaques on buildings and other public institutions forever anyway.

Switching to metric would be difficult and challenging in the short term, but would raise the standard of living throughout the US very quickly. If you move from the US to a metric country, it doesn't take long to adapt.

I use standard measurements in the kitchen, but would be willing to switch to metric in a heartbeat if that were the only thing stopping our country from switching to metric. For those already using metric measurements in their kitchens today, US cooks must deal with this:

3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon
2 tablespoons = 1/8 cup
4 cups = 1 quart
4 quarts = 1 gallon
Weight: 16 ounces = 1 pound


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## allpurpose (Mar 24, 2016)

I think for a lot of people there's the false sense they're getting more for less in things like a gallon of milk, gasoline, etc., but then comes along those pesky 2 liter bottles of soda. Might as well switch to the henway system.. What's a henway you may ask?


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

US cup (236.588mL)
Imperial cup (used in pre-1970s UK recipes) (284.131mL)
Metric cups (used in UK and in Commonwealth countries) (250mL)
Which means we have to check when and where the cookbook was published.


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## redeared (Feb 7, 2019)

The problem switching to metric is that your have to save a legacy to some extent, you have a large cost in manufacturing tooling and redesign, as I said soft metric doesn't work, rewriting books, and education. I knew the cost would be thru the roof and that is was why it was killed.


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## Terry Q (Jul 28, 2016)

Really, can you imagine how hard it would be to correct all the roads that are spaced a mile apart to 1 km apart?

Should I include a smiley emoji?


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## NoThankyou (Mar 21, 2018)

O M G !
I became Metricized today. SWMBO said that her car needed windshield washer fluid. I sloshed some 20-10 into the tank. And then (May the Imperial Gods forgive me.) I used a 2 liter soda bottle to add enough water to fill it up.


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## _Ogre (Feb 1, 2013)

redeared said:


> The problem switching to metric is that your have to save a legacy to some extent, you have a large cost in manufacturing tooling and redesign, as I said soft metric doesn't work, rewriting books, and education. I knew the cost would be thru the roof and that is was why it was killed.


this statement might have been true in the 70s, but it is hardly relevant today. most manufacturing has already gone metric. i went thru engineering college in the 90s (late bloomer), most engineering is done in metric and converted back, or not. what books and education would need rewriting? we already teach base 10 math, as for books, they get rewritten every few years for profit. the only great loss is the chapters on fractions and imperial measurements


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## _Ogre (Feb 1, 2013)

Terry Q said:


> Really, can you imagine how hard it would be to correct all the roads that are spaced a mile apart to 1 km apart?


terry q must live in michigan


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## Terry Q (Jul 28, 2016)

_Ogre said:


> terry q must live in michigan


I do, is Michigan the only state in the union that spaced roads 1 mile apart?


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## NoThankyou (Mar 21, 2018)

Actually Phoenix, Arizona the streets are spaced a mile apart.

It is amazing. After you have lived there for a week, someone will say, "West 35th and Dunlap." You will know within an inch or two where they are talking about. Yeah, we lived about 3800 W Barbara and every Phoenix resident knows about where that is.


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## Tool Agnostic (Aug 13, 2017)

Terry Q said:


> Really, can you imagine how hard it would be to correct all the roads that are spaced a mile apart to 1 km apart? Should I include a smiley emoji?


You think that's tough? Does anyone remember the day when Sweden switched their roads from left side driving to right side driving?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Miles or kilometres no big deal, we adjusted here in Canada, as for driving on the other side of the road that would take some getting used to. What I do notice when driving in the US is that it takes so long to get to somewhere only 10 miles away.


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## _Ogre (Feb 1, 2013)

Terry Q said:


> I do, is Michigan the only state in the union that spaced roads 1 mile apart?


not sure if michigan is the _only _state, as i've only lived in a dozen states so far...

mile roads are only in the lower peninsula, in the UP roads go from house to house 🤣 i live just north of 8 mile rd, on a mile road in west metro detroit. 8 mile is not just a movie title. i lived in holland mi for a year 168th ave was a mile rd that started counting, 8 avenues to a mile, in grand rapids. mile roads disappear around rivers and lakes, but most often restart on the other side

fun fact: 8 mile rd is the same latitude as the wisconsin/illinois boarder


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

This video has a bunch of tips and tricks including how to add and subtract without "math" and some tip about fractions:


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