The terms: in alignment and aligned are relative to one s opinion as to the degree of perfection necessary at the time.

Crook!

There is probably more truth to this story than fiction:

A country judge had the reputation of being entirely fair in all his court cases. It was common knowledge that his policy was to make all his decisions (regarding fines for misdemeanors) in direct proportion to the amount of coinage on the person of the violator before him.

A lot of machinery gets aligned in much the same manner. When an alignment job proves more difficult and time-consuming than expected, the eight zeroes demanded at the beginning of the job tends to get re-evaluated to plus or minus .003"; then .005" and so on until some supervisor says: Bolt it down and couple it up.

I ve had to drive bolts into couplings that were so far out of alignment that the threads on one side of the coupling bolts would shear off during the process. (This was a supervisory decision; not the journeyman millwright I was helping at the time.)

I personally find nothing positive about a misaligned coupling. It will get too hot from excessive friction, overpower the viscous qualities of its lubrication, chew itself to powder and completely fail when needed most. CASE IN POINT: Gulf of Mexico, 1981, offshore pumping platform. Four men were being lifted approximately 80 feet from the deck of a motorized barge to the upper deck of the pumping platform. Some 50...