[TR] $#%$^%^!!!!

[Randall]

>      I used special new nuts from BF&E that were 50% thicker than
> original.

I got those same nuts from Ken.  They look trick, but he later told me that
a mechanical engineer had told him that they don't actually help any.  I
couldn't tell that they made any difference either.

When you torque the nuts, the stud stretches slightly (hopefully in a
non-permanent fashion, known as elastic deformation).  This means that the
bottom few threads of the nut wind up taking all of the load.  Once the nut
height has reached about the thickness of the stud/bolt, the rest of the nut
(if any) is basically still loose on the threads.

-- Randall