ladyphlogiston's Profile

that...is not a test. sigh.

don't get me wrong, I'm sure it works. But I'm a mechanical engineer, and I know perfectly well that of course there is stress on the tab. Even if the screw and tab and wood "become one" (which they don't) the tab is *still* holding all that weight off the ground! So the stress would be spread out across the tab, concentrating some on the top and the inside bottom curve, though the curves are designed to spread out the stress so the concentration wouldn't be all that noticeable. This is all perfectly normal.

So they tried it once, with one piece of art. And of course it worked - pop tabs are reasonably sturdy. What I would have liked to see (if you're going to test it at all) is them testing it with increasingly heavy items until it breaks or deforms, so we know what the limit is.