[TheForge] Re: OK, now I'm mildly perplexed...

[Mike]

> Fresh acid seems to have revealed the regular dull-ish grain.  The
> end grain etched VERY deeply... and I find the grain isn't as fine
> as I'dve expected.  Voids in the end grain far larger than I would
> have expected from iron employed in a high stress component such as
> a roller chain... unless it wasn't high stress :)
> ....
> http://netlabs.net/~osan/Photos/WI_Chain_Link.jpg


We've gotten pretty used to stuff that is engineered to within a
hair's breadth of destruction in order to save a fraction of a cent per
unit in manufacturing costs or even in packing, handling or shipping
costs.

I surmise that the folks who made this over-built it for the
anticipated stress, whatever it have been, maybe by as much as 100% or
even more.  If they had been really worried about catastrophic failure
under load, they would have wrapped the grain of the wrought iron
around the hole and welded it rather than punching the hole through
the grain.



- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer@tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^

--