You may be an actual engineer but the real life experience of taking a spring that does not perform well and stretching it, and after the stretching, it then performs well is well known, is proven and is consistently repeatable.
That should be enough for any engineer or do engineers prefer to ignore the behaviour of materials in use that does not fit their expectations and then deny that they behave that way.
Do not deny reality. I do not recall in any training I have received the admonishment to ignore reality and ignore the behaviour of materials in use.
Engineering is about understanding, engineering is not about denying.
I was prepared to say nothing more on this topic but your comments saying that between the two of us you are a "real" engineer amounts to an attack on my credibility.
Suggesting I am not a real engineer will come as news to my employers who employ me as a principal engineer, and by the way I have worked in fabrication in several major industries and have 45 years engineering experience.
I never mention this because I am not a boaster, forgive my boasting now but it is called for here.
An engineer is supposed to recognise how materials behave in service and not deny that they behave in the way they do, simply to preserve their own beliefs or to silence those whose opinions they dislike. Although I admit it does happen.
And where denials of the behaviour of materials has happened in the past, it has led to many of the greatest disasters that have befallen mankind.
The challenger shuttle disaster for example where reports of severe icing taking the solid boosters outside their designed limits and compromised the o ring seals were met with "keep quiet we cant afford a stoppage to the countdown" we all know what denial of truth resulted in there.
I will repeat, if you cannot source a spring that functions correctly then it is possible to change the behaviour of the spring by stretching it and thus changing its behaviour.
I am surprised that an engineer does not know this, but there are many engineers in many different disciplines and none of them know everything including you.
Do you really not know about plastic deformation do you really not know about stress hardening of a spring when it enters the plastic range.
I will explain it.
Once the elastic limit of a spring is exceeded it enters its plastic range and then the length extends plastically and after that the now longer spring performs elastically at its new length.
The spring material undergoes stress hardening that ensures that the spring now performs elastically and will not deform plastically unless once more taken beyond its elastic limit.
Does it really matter that the spring does not perform with the same k value if it now performs satisfactorily and gives continues service.
Why would an engineer ridicule a known solution and prevent users from finding a solution to their problem. An engineer is a solution finder. Unless of course they do not know the known principles.
Stretching a spring where there is no alternative brings a solution at zero cost so why are you opposed to it.
I will give you an example. I have a cornet the valves stuck they were cleaned rigorously and reoiled and nothing worked my diagnosis was weak spring. No new springs were available anywhere so I stretched the springs and the now longer springs perform perfectly and have for a considerable time.
Are you seriously telling me this did not happen. Are you seriously saying the springs were no different after stretching.
If you say spring stretching does not work you are living in a fools paradise.
I will not pull punches because you have not pulled punches with me. A "real" engineer would not deny reality or try to prove that reality does not exist.
Are the members in this site in the business of denying solutions that work and using heavy handed methods to force those that propose them to deny that they exist and beat them into submission and silence them.
Real Engineers push boundaries they do not deny reality using their training to manipulate the facts and manipulate people and thus force their opinions on others.
I have learned a great deal from this exchange.
The most important thing I have learned is not to bring any solutions to this site that do not fit the entrenched beliefs of existing members.
Dont worry members you wont hear much from this principal engineer any more. I will however defend myself if I have to.
And I will refuse to enter into any kind of battle of credentials to try to win points I dont need to win anything.
I dont care for winning points I care about extending knowledge, and it is clear that knowledge cannot be extended in this place when members fight rear guard actions that deny truth and reality so that nobody will ever want to introduce something new and make waves and be laughed out of the site when they try to help.
And by the way I have met this parochial attitude before I have introduced several solutions to mechanical and maintenance problems in the brass community over the years all of which when I introduced them, received heavy ridicule and were opposed tooth and nail at the time but they have now passed into acceptance as valid and useable solutions and I have seen many brass players using them and recommending them to others.
Why do people use logic and reasoning to explain why observed events simply cannot possibly have happened and cannot have been observed and try to force people to believe they did not happen at all.
I am happy to be ridiculed for presenting reality and truth, that says more about the people doing the ridiculing than it does about me.
I am on solid ground here and unphased. My instruments with stretched springs now work perfectly and reliably and I performed on one last night - perfection of valve action despite what you guys want to believe.
I have tried to help the community with a real solution that works and that has worked countless thousands of times in the past for many musicians globally. This site is heavily in denial.
It seems that members who claim to know the truth cannot possibly allow any real world experience and real world solutions that work and they dont like, to be made known in this place.
It is far better to silence anyone who dares to suggest a solution they do not know about and agree with.
I wont be making that mistake again.
Now I suggest for the good of the site we move on and stop the ridicule and attacks and from now on simply discuss only those things that certain members allow to be discussed.
The founder members of this site must be kept happy at all costs even if that means denying the truth.
We do not want after all any solutions to be presented that do not meet with their approval.
Or what about this, and this may be far too radical for members in here, why dont you try it and see, instead of dismissing it as impossible, or is that too much to ask.