Pin flexing/bending/twisting

[RicB]

Hi Dave, et al

I think the thing to remember is that when it comes right down to it... 
nobody really knows jack diddly about the question you posed. And why 
should anyone ?  We have a few facts we can place on the table, and a 
couple assumptions about material behavior... and thats it. 

For example... why do certain areas of a pinblock start developing loose 
jerky pins suddenly after say...  25 years of use ?  The only answers 
around are just plain speculation.  Ok... some of the speculation seems 
more reasonable then some other... but nobody can put any facts on the 
board that can yield an authoritative answer. 

The loose pin / false beat discussion you referred to is a perfect 
example of what can happen when folks begin to place too much weight on 
too little facts.. mixed with a too rudimentary understanding of  
relevant physics.  The claim made about how false beats are caused by 
loose pins are so simple, contain at least two fundamental errors, and 
fail (for not to say refuses) to take into account the huge numbers of 
exceptions... that one simply has to step back and discard the idea as 
being far to incomplete at best.  Especially when there is in fact a 
better explanation out there.

A few hundred years ago <<everybody>> *KNEW* the world was flat.   Not 
more then a hundred and fifty years ago <<everybody>> *KNEW* that  
Telelurgic currents were the cause of all many of localized phenomena... 
like the outbreak of Barsel fever in Germany...  We <<KNEW>> we could 
never fly. Up to a few years ago we <<KNEW>> we could never leave the 
planet.... only Buddha knows what we will <<KNOW>> tomorrow.

Cheers
RicB