I agree that hardware problems can happen pretty routinely. However, with a bolt with clean threads going into the same size and thread count insert with clean threads, seizing does NOT happen routinely. There's something that causes the hardware to fail. The Hack part of it comes in when whoever runs into a snag doesn't back off and try to thread the bolt straight, or clean the cloth bits out of the threads, or replace the bolt with one that isn't already MISSING THREE THREADS from being cross-threaded before. It's a hack that sees problems like this and throws it together anyway. It's a hack that will feel a bolt start to seize, but go ahead and run it up until the t-nut busts loose or the bolt itself sheers in half.
In the auto industry, I'm sure lots of things contribute to hardware failure...rust and corrosion, expansion and contraction from the extreme heat, dirt and debris, previous hacks...etc etc etc.
SOMETHING causes the failure. In this case, I didn't ASSUME anything. I KNOW the guys that worked on the table before me. I've seen their work. I've seen them run rail bolts up through the top of a rail with an impact wrench. I've seen them "level" slate with a level that they knew was half a bubble off. The lists goes on and on. I'm not assuming they did hack work. I've seen it first hand.
But I think you're missing the point. I didn't post this to call out or accuse or bad mouth anyone else. If calling this stuff hackwork hurts your feelings or offends you, I'm sorry. The point is, although maybe not an every day occurrence, stuff like this does happen occasionally. I've seen plenty of guys that would have left the bolts out or tried to rig something to make it half-assed work. Point is, here's a problem some of you might run into at some point, and here's what I think is the "proper" solution to that problem.
did this kind of work for him. The wet spot is how this hack tried to cope with the problem, hoping the cloth will shrink and set down.
So apparently it is not worth it.
