Should I design in Metric or Inch?

[jupdyke]

Well I suppose that this might get a few people ruffled, but I will ask anyway. Should I design my personal projects in Metric or Inch? I live in the United States by the way.

Personally I love metric and wish the US would adopt it. But almost everything is cheaper in Inch.

Currently, I am designing a automatic tool changer. I am basing my design on a German design that has been around for a while. So naturally I would like to stick to the original metric. But the stock aluminum that I will be using is much cheaper in Inch. I plan on building a slantbed cnc lathe to go with the tool changer. Should I convert it to Inch because most lathes in the US are this way?

So what to do?

Josh

[judleroy]

Design in which ever one you naturally think in.
judleroy

[Bubba]

Josh,
I would second the previous post about naturally thinking.
BUT, what are the units of the machines that you will be machining on?

If they are metric, go for it. If they are imperial, then you are going to have to do additional conversion and that will invariably lead to errors!

My .02 worth.
By the way, I enjoy metric also, but have become ambidextrous regarding units and can and do work in either.

[juergenwt]

If you want to limit yourselves to the US and to inch machines it's OK to design in inches - but you are not designing. You are more or less copying a metric design. Your savings in material cost will be lost because you will make mistakes - believe me. We found out the hard way.