# Best calculator for woodworking

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• posted on February 1, 2005, 3:45 pm
Hello,
I found the best calculator for woodworking (provided that you HAVE to use that blody imperial system, if you are wise enough to use metric, good for you, however, you know how hard it is when all the tools and the kerfs are in imperial)....
It is the HP33S.
why is it so good? it has a way of working with fractions which makes working with inches and fractions of super easy and cool!
let me give you some example:
- You can tell the calculator to only work with 1/16. ie, every number will be displayed as X Y/16 (with Y<16) (you can replace 16 by any number < 4096) - You can tell the calculator to only work with fractions which are a divider of a number. for example, only with fractions wich are a divider of 16, in this case, any number will be displayed as X Y/Z where Y<Z and Z is either 16, 8, 4, 2 or 1.
but as you know, in most cases, number are not exactly a fractions of 1/16 (or other fraction), so how does the calculator display 1.2 for example in fractions of 1/16? well, it displays 1 3/16 and a UP ARROW meaning that the number is a litle bit MORE than 1 3/16, but is closer to 1 3/16 than 1 1/4!!! (of course, a down arrow means the inverse)... isn't that cool!!!!
the last great thing is the way to enter a fractional number such as 1 3/16 you type 1 . 3 . 16 (use the decimal . twice) to separate the 3 parts of the number! it is so easy!!!!
The calcualtor has of course lots of other features, but when I put 2+2 together and realized the power of this function in woodworking, I was thrilled!!
regards, cyrille
PS: I do work for HP (as an engineer), so my post can be concidered as biaised, however, you have to admit that this is a great function!
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 3:54 pm

Then using metric would be too smart would it?

Snip
Um Calculated Industries has been marketing a fraction calculator for 15 + years. You can get them for about \$20 at most any home center.
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 4:46 pm
Hello,

Yep, being french, I agree, metric is SO much better.. problem is that EVERY BLODDY thing in the US is imperial, and if you want to use metric, you still HAVE to use imperial also and do conversions in every direction. In addition, all mesuring stuff have at least imperial, and sometimes metric. and most of the time imperial on both sides (and having mesurement on both sides is quite convinient)...
as a result, except if you imported your metric tools, you are screwed in this imperialist country with an imperialist system that is realy an imperial pain in the rear end :-)
cyrille
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 4:57 pm
Most math I do is with pencil and paper, the other times it is a quick mental calculation. I must have inherited my grandfather's math abilities. Got A's in all my college math courses without really trying, some I did not buy the textbook just took the tests.
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 5:20 pm
cyrille de brébisson wrote:

HAVE to

metric,
and the

What, you have something against binary fractions?

want to

every
To be accurate, merkins use American customary units. Many of these are the ame as Imperial units, but some are different (like the gallon).
And let's not forget that Imperial units are based on avoidupois, gee, what language is that?
...

screwed in

Het, thanks to Alexander Hamilton we at least have metric money despite heated opposition from Aaron Burr. As you may know, when Hamilton was promoting metric weights and measures that was just too much for Burr so he took Hamilton out and shot him...
--
FF
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<%-name%>
• posted on February 1, 2005, 6:46 pm
snipped-for-privacy@spamcop.net wrote:

I prefer skitches, skootches, hairs, gnats asses, and thumbs. All can be fat or thin.
Barry
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 7:53 pm
"B a r r y" wrote in message

You left out "ball park", which is often all you need.
And that's a "scootch" ... that, plus an "rch", will generally get you there.
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Last update: 11/06/04
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 8:00 pm
Swingman wrote:

Excellent point. I also left out a "yea big".
Maybe Rob Lee can market a calculator that will add a skitch, a hair, and two gnat's asses.
Barry
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 8:11 pm
"B a r r y" wrote in message

ROTFL ...
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Last update: 11/06/04
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 8:14 pm
"B a r r y" wrote in message

Speaking of asses, have you ever seen the "Gig Rules, Infractions and Fines"?
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Last update: 11/06/04
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• posted on February 2, 2005, 12:20 pm
Swingman wrote:

Nope.
What is it?
Barry
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• posted on February 2, 2005, 12:47 pm
"B a r r y" wrote in message

Check out OT Humor post for woodworking musicians only.
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Last update: 11/06/04
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 8:33 pm
On Tue, 01 Feb 2005 20:00:34 GMT, B a r r y

I worked for a guy putting Tudor style boards on a house who would yell down measurements for me to cut "Make that just a c*nt hair short of 54 inches" We were surrounded by people, kids, etc. It was embarrassing.
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 8:42 pm

It's an acronymic form of: Common Units in Neander Terms.
Of course, some guys use: Common Units in Normite Terms - but these might be metric.
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email) http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1 (webpage)
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 8:20 pm

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• posted on February 2, 2005, 12:01 am
Leon wrote:

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 7:14 pm
cyrille de brébisson wrote:

FWIW, when I was in junior high or high school or whenever they introducted the metric system, the teachers quite confidently (beware of public school teachers who say things confidently) told us that engineers never did conversions, they just worked in one system or the other. So what happened? First engineering job I had involved a new product for a European customer, with all our test data and so on that we had to use to do the design in US Customary. Engineers don't do conversions. Yeah, right. Sure we don't.

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--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 8:18 pm

I guess what it boils down to is that there are those still smart enough to use the Imperial system and there is the Metric system for the rest.
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 8:22 pm
On Tue, 01 Feb 2005 20:18:24 GMT, "Leon"

I like it that its name is "Imperial", like the margarine.
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email) http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1 (webpage)
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• posted on February 1, 2005, 11:27 pm

Is it just me or does anyone else like to wear a crown when taking Imperial measurements?
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