<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16587" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=281095618-05022008><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>One of the first engineers I worked with at Baldwin, lo these many years ago, pointed out that (with the exception of things like wire diameters and centerpin diameters) there is very little in the piano that needs to be more accurate than the width of a pencil lead. Typically that is between 0.5 and 0.9 mm. Nothing I have seen since has caused me doubt the wisdom of that advice.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=281095618-05022008><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=281095618-05022008><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>Del</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=281095618-05022008> <P><FONT size=2>Delwin D Fandrich<BR>Piano Design & Manufacturing Consultant<BR>620 South Tower Avenue<BR>Centralia, Washington 98531  USA<BR>Phone  360.736-7563<BR><<A href="mailto:fandrich@pianobuilders.com">mailto:fandrich@pianobuilders.com</A>> </FONT></P></SPAN></DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000080 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left> <HR tabIndex=-1> <FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Jurgen Goering<BR><B>Sent:</B> February 05, 2008 9:56 AM<BR><B>To:</B> pianotech@ptg.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: Regulating With Metrics<BR></FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV></DIV>I can see someone relating to their shoe being a foot long, but this I truly cannot understand. One hundredth of a mm, the standard unit on metric micrometers, is equal to 2.5 thousandths of an inch. Surely you can measure small distinctions with that.<BR><BR>The downfall when trying to use both systems is where they meet. Lets say you have a dip of 10 mm and you find it is a bit too shallow. You want to add .008". How many mm is that now? ( I know, I did the math - it is 10.2 mm, but why deal with conversion?) It is conversion that screws you up and makes it unwieldy and clumsy.<?smaller><BR>Jurgen Goering<BR><BR><?/smaller><BR>On Feb 5, 2008, at 9:09, Alan Eder wrote:<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>We have long used metric exclusively for regulating in our shop.  However, the thousandth of an inch is still very handy for really small measurements and distinctions, so we refuse to part with it!<BR><BR>Alan Eder</BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>