Re: C&S #47, an Sn3 C-16 conversion

Posted by Todd Hackett on Dec 13, 2020; 12:21am
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/C-S-30-a-C-16-conversion-tp15055p16132.html

Keith Hayes wrote

...If my math is right, 1" in 1/64 is a mil; 2" is a 2.6 mils and 3" is 4 mils...

Todd A Ferguson wrote

In S scale an inch is 1/64 or 0.015”.  A mm is about 0.040” or closer to 3 to 3 inches in S scale.  So 2 inches is about 1/32nd inch or .8mm....

I think we're getting mil and millimeter confused. A mil is .001" which is much less than a millimeter, although some people use mil as a shortened version of millimeter, primarily when speaking, but this can be confusing since both are used to measure thickness, and a mm is almost 40 mils. I hear this all the time with wetsuits, which are classified by neoprene thickness in mm, but what is printed on the label as 3mm is often spoken as "3 mil." In S scale one scale inch is 1/64th of an inch, which is .0156" or 15.6 mils or 0.4 mm. Three scale inches would be three time that, so .0469", 46.9 mils, or 1.19 mm. To get an idea of just how small a mil is, human hair and paper are typically a few mils thick.