Quote:
Originally Posted by akoscielski3
Though it is likely most of your students will be using metric when they get into the work place (even in the America).
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Many, many American companies use SAE / Imperial units and parts. I wouldn't use the industry as a reason to make a decision one way or another - a well rounded engineer will have to learn both systems in either case.
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In FRC, just because of all the COTS parts using SAE hardware and the overwhelming majority of teams using SAE hardware to build their robots, I see no reason to go Metric for hardware at all. For nuts and bolts, it's about the same price, and you will need some SAE hardware on your robot anyway, so if you go metric for the rest of your hardware all you end up doing is creating unnecessary confusion and chances for error.
Save yourself a bunch of time and standardize on 10-32. You'll need the occasional 8-32, 1/4-20, or 4-40 bolt, but you can almost exclusively use 10-32 hardware and really streamline things. Makes it easier to find bolts and tools, replacements, etc. without having to size anything.
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For bearings, Metric bearings are much cheaper and more available, but FRC standardizes on SAE for bearings as well, so it's probably just easier to go with that. Especially considering a lot of FRC bearings are proprietary (hex / ThunderHex)