tapping strings

[Ron Nossaman]

>Hi Ron,
>        Do you have any proof of that statement?  Hydrolic action in soils,
>causes fence and telegraph post to creep out of the ground.( very well
>documented)
>With humidity swings in maple, why would the same effect not exist?  High
>humidity exerts pressure on the bottom and sides of the pin, and the top is
>free to move.  Once you swing back to a low humidity condition, it's
>possible for the pin to move, dependent on friction. but it can only move
>up, and to the side that is being forced by the side bearing.
>
>Just some fgoood for thought.
>
>Regards Roger

Roger,
You and I have already done this one too, and a bridge pin in maple is not
a fence post in soil. A fence post is in soil which, when frost heave pulls
the post up, sifts in under the lifted post at the thaw, ready for the next
lift. Nothing back fills under bridge pins, and the bottom of the hole is
still the tightest part, so what will lift it out? How many  of the many
many thousand bridge pins you have seen have walked out of the bridge
altogether? If this was a rampant problem that we should worry and look out
for, it seems to me that we would have seen it in the wild at some time -
even once. Yea, I know, Pins can be so loose as to fall right out with the
strings off, but they didn't with the strings on, did they? No, I can't
prove it can't happen, but until I see one to which it has happened, it
isn't proven likely, or even possible either.
 
Ron N