In an old USA tractor forum, that’s kind of an odd reply.Shouldn't be to hard on the kid.
How often do you actually see fractions being used in today's world? On old vehicles, construction and drill bits. Nearly everything has went to decibels or metric measurements.
Kids aren't taught to work on antique cars and trucks in shop classes these days. And when was the last time an automobile was sold in the US that used fractional fasteners?
Us that still have a use for a 9/16th wrench are becoming antiques like the equipment we work on.
I had to go buy a big metric socket set 2 years ago, for the new tractor I got - it’s 20 years old.
Very rare I need to get out a metric wrench or socket, but needs to be in the tool rack these days.
1/2, 9/16, 3/4 (which is also 19mm) and 15/16 can get a lot of wrenching done here.
Metric is very odd, as very few wrench sets are complete, but different brands of stuff seem to use different combinations of metric bolts so you end up needing every size anyhow. Seems silly.
Bolt and a nut hold stuff together, bigger holds stuff together more, smaller is cheaper and fits in tighter areas. It wouldn’t have to be complicated, but every busy body seems to feel important by needing to come up with their own ‘standard’ that is no better than the old standard was.
Edit: kids aren’t dumb when they don’t know something or ask a question. That is a teaching moment and good for the kid to learn.
The initial message it sounds like the kid was spouting off with an attitude of doesn’t want to be bothered or doesn’t want to learn, and that attitude, if it was there, really really bothers me.
So I can see both types of replies here to the various comments, dumb kids or hey try to help the kid! It depends on the actual attitude…..
Paul
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