19 Apr
2010
19 Apr
'10
12:39 p.m.
I don't think you can say with complete assurance that a device is or
isn't USian based on whether it has standard or metric fasteners. In the
True enough. However, the small-size UNC and UNF threads (things like
4-40 UNC) are very uncommon in non-US equipment.. And I suspect BA (or
for that matter BSF, BSW) are very uncommon in anything that wasn't made
in the UK. Apart from 1/4" BSW, of course.
automotive industry for example, it was very common
(particularly on
Ford cars) that all fasteners on the engines were metric, way back into
the early 1980s, whereas everything else on the car was standard. These
days I think most all car fasteners are metric.
I read somewhere that British Ford cards oold in the 980s over here had
mostly UNC and UNF botls, but the gearbox was built with entirely metric
fasteners. You needed 2 sets of spanners to work on the car.
I was also told by somebody who worked for Myford that they had saved a
fair amount of money by changing from BSW to metric bolts in some parts
of the Super 7 lathe. The point being that the metric ones were made in
much larger qunatities so they were cheaper. And of course it doesn't
make any real difference to the functioning of the machine
-tony