Another Reason Why America Isn't So Great After All!

The parts list for nuts and bolts. Notice they are all metric

 As I was reading the parts list on the 3-d printer's website I noticed another challenge to add to my project, everything is metric. Since these printers are built all around the world, it only makes sense to use this system, after all there are only 3 countries who don't (The United States, Myanmar, and Liberia in case you were wondering. This also adds more difficulty in finding parts locally. The rods that are used in the printer are metric, M10 to be specific. These rods are harder to find, I have only seen them at Ace Hardware.

Everything I own is standard

Since I was raised here in the United States, all the things I have built, the wood I have bought, or the things I have put together have been in standard measurement. All of the tools I own count in fractions of inches, which is 1/12th of a foot, which is 1/3rd of a yard and so on. Although this system is completely irrational it is what makes sense to me. The printer however uses a rational system with base 10. Since the printer needs to be put to together with great precision I have two options, convert every measurement to standard and end up with ridiculous fractions, or buy metric measurement devices.

I will most likely go with the latter, but I don't no where to get a metric tape measure or meter-stick. They might have them at Home Depot or Lowes. If not I will have to take advantage of my free 2-day shipping from Amazon.

The other parts In the build like the nuts and bolts will not be as much of a problem as the measuring, cutting, temperature and so on. I know you can get most of the hardware at big box stores and most standard wrenches are close enough to work. Hopefully this will be about as dull as my blog posts get, I haven't made groundbreaking progress yet.