Action flange crushing

[Phillip Ford]

>Phil,
>I am already 6'3" please let go of my leg. <G>
>Crushed flanges have the habit of breaking in the screw hole.
>Joe Goss RPT

No sense in having one leg longer than the other.  Might as well pull 
the other one.  Soon you'll be ready for your next career in the NBA 
<G>.

This is the conventional wisdom.  Would you expect the part to break 
right away or some time down the road?  I've taken several new 
Steinway flanges (both Steinway and equal), which I would consider 
the easiest to break, and torqued them on a Steinway rail until there 
was very definite crushing, with no sign of breakage or cracking. 
Perhaps I put in an invisible flaw which would cause failure of the 
flanges years later, I don't know.

Also, assuming that you torque the screw until the flange was just on 
the verge of crushing, what do you think would happen over time?  I 
suppose it depends on the humidity when you did the installation. 
But it seems quite conceivable to me that if you had a major change 
in humidity from the installation level then the flange is going to 
swell and be crushed.  If this is in fact going to damage the flange 
then perhaps the screw shouldn't have been put in that tight to begin 
with.

Regards,

Phil Ford