bill_wetzel1

<p>You're quite welcome and thank you for letting me know of your success. I'm grateful to hear back from readers who found this post helpful.</p>

<p>Joe - I would not accuse Nikon of designing something with intention of failure. More likely it was just a cost cutting decision to avoid the need for two screws, metal inserts to receive them, and the labor of screwing them in. <br> In electrical engineering circles there is a slight pejorative known as "RCA Engineering"- design a product like a TV, remove components one-by-one until the product fails, then add in the last one removed. In designing consumer goods as RCA once did a savings of just a few cents on production runs in the millions of units can add up. Lenses are not quite in that category but the same ideas apply.</p>

<p>Manh Tong, <br> Sorry for the late response. Your query arrived while I was traveling and I'm afraid that it got pushed back in my inbox. To your question... I have no idea where the melted stud went. It may have fallen out when I accessed the area or it may have gone further into the lens. If it did I have not heard it rattle around nor does it affect the motion so I suspect that it is not causing a problem. (Your English is fine, by the way.)</p>