Hmm. Not a bad idea. I think touching a frictionless surface would be like running your finger across water. No friction, no substance.
That’s not true. Material removal is not dependent on friction.
An oversize fastener will slip out as easily as a correctly-sized fastener (or, I suspect, even more easily), but it can’t be inserted as easily as a correctly-sized fastener, which was your original claim.
I’d say that’s open to question. Imagining a drill bit getting closer and closer to a frictionless surface, I see the bit turning and turning, regardless of the pressure on it, but not *catching *any bit of the surface. Here, the notion of a frictionless surface, I believe, again gets us into irrational conversations, but doesn’t a drill work by breaking through the surface of the drilled material? And could that happen if there was NO friction?
Well, OK, but neither will it be nearly so difficult to insert an oversized fastener as with normal materials. My original claim was that an oversized or overtightened fastener won’t jam in place, if the material is frictionless - then we went elsewhere and I made a few inaccurate statements.
Material removal occurs because the tool (a drill in this case) applies a stress on the part which exceeds the failure strengh of the material. Ideally, you want the drill well-lubricated, and the resulting friction is small. In any case, the drill is being forced into the material through the steady pressure of the drillpress (or your hand) and the torque from the drill motor.
Imagine this process in the extreme: a needle-sharp awl punching into the material. Assuming the awl is sufficiently harder than the material, it will create a divot, regardless of the friction with the material surface.
On the other hand, you could probably argue that a frictionless surface implies some very hard and strong material, and difficult machining goes hand-in-hand with the non-friction properties of this unobtanium. However, that’s a bit more basic materials-oriented than I’m thinking here.
Fair enough. I agree.
But this is science! Aesthetics don’t enter into it!
Why not just wire lock the screws, or use a tab, or any of the other numerous mechanical thread locking devices? They are not going to turn if physically prevented from doing so. Its quite common to actually lubricate threads, then apply one of these mechanisms to the bolt head to prevent the bolt from loosening. They would have no hope of staying tight due to friction on the threads alone without the mechanical device locking the bolt, but it makes future disassembly far, far easier. Better to snip a wire, than to break threadlocking compound, or even worse, rust, on a bolt thats 3 inches wide.
It would be seriously easy to tap holes into the bottom(assuming its not infinitely hard, as well) and bolt it from underneath to a metal or wooden plate, torque it down with the bolts, then secure the bolt heads. It would be nice and tight.
Oh, and as for what it feels like, my guess is similar to others, that of an oil lubricated bearing surface, except with no oil on the finger. I’ve worked with large bearings in the past, and when covered in oil, there is simply no perceptible purchase at all when feeling the bearing surfaces. I don’t think we need to go to the extreme of total frictionlessness to find the limit to our sense of touch.
Sadly, yes. Thanks for making me feel old. . . .
Cutter John: I’d forgotten about wiring down bolt heads (haven’t done it in twenty-odd years).
Even if it couldn’t be drilled (which I’m pretty sure it could since the drill bit cuts), it could be cut via some other means, punched, or burned. Zero friction doesn’t imply infinite rigidity or no melting point.
Take a gun shoot a hole in the material and fasten it with a bolt or something. it would work. if the two bolts fit into eachother from opposite sides probably solved.
You’d sense pressure on the angle of attack but not on side to side motions.