Metric plans, imperial shop — a no-drama guide

The single most common pre-sale question from American builders: “The plans are metric — will I struggle?” Short answer: no, and here’s the honest long answer.

The only conversion that actually matters: sheet thickness

Dimensions like “cut this part 642 mm” are painless — your tape measure has metric on one edge, and a track saw doesn’t care. The real trap is material thickness: a metric plan assumes 12 mm / 18 mm sheets, while US suppliers stock 1/2” (12.7 mm) and 3/4” (19.05 mm). Dados, rabbets and drawer openings sized for 12 mm will be sloppy or tight in 1/2” material if the plan ignores it.

That’s why these plans don’t ignore it:

• Core plans are metric with imperial directions built in.
• The MFSC goes further with a dedicated English-USA version, drawn around imperial sheet-good thicknesses from the start.

Three habits that make metric easy

1. Don’t convert — measure metric. Converting every dimension to fractions is where errors breed. Use the metric side of the tape; 1 mm resolution beats 1/16” anyway.
2. Reference real material. Whatever the units, measure your actual sheet and cut joinery to it. Good plans (ours included) call this out at the right steps.
3. Print templates at 100%. Full size, never “fit to page” — then check the reference dimension printed on the template. Works identically on Letter and A4.

What builders report

US builders are heavily represented in the gallery — Pittsburgh (three benches for one crew), Massachusetts, Georgia, Oregon — and thickness adaptation comes up exactly once in the build, then never again.

Still hesitant? Read what’s included — the part sheets and 3D SketchUp model mean you see every assembly before cutting anything.