Had an old inspector tell me my torque wrench was my problem, not the hardware

I used to blame bad hardware whenever a bolt stripped or a nut wouldn't torque right. Then this guy who's been doing inspections since the 80s watched me one day and said, 'Stop cranking on that thing like it's a lug nut on a pickup. You're overtorquing everything by about 15 percent.' I thought he was full of it at first. But I borrowed his calibrated clicker and ran the same fasteners again, and sure enough I was way over. Now I check my torque wrench calibration every 3 months with a test stand, and I haven't had a stripped bolt in 6 months. Has anyone else had a similar wake up call about a tool they thought they knew inside out?

3 comments

3 Comments

ellis.leo25d ago

Wait, you're telling me you used to just slam the full torque on without even snugging it up first? That's wild, I've seen guys do that and snap bolts like they're made of glass. I had a buddy who did that on an engine rebuild and the head bolt twisted clean off at 90 foot pounds. The inspector was probably watching you thinking "here we go again" with that technique.

the_jessica25d ago

Funny enough, the real wake up call for me wasn't about calibration at all. It was about technique. I used to go straight to the final torque setting without ever doing a proper rundown first. That inspector you mentioned, he might have been onto something bigger. I realized that if you don't seat the fastener and the joint correctly first, your torque wrench is basically lying to you. The friction from a dirty or damaged thread, or a little bit of rust, can make the wrench click early or late. So now I always do a gentle pre torque to bind everything together, then back it off and go again. That simple step saved me more time and frustration than any calibration check ever did.

susan_wright3425d ago

Something that hasn't come up yet is how your grip on the wrench can mess with the reading. @the_jessica mentioned technique and she's right, but I found out that if I hold a click style torque wrench too close to the head or grip it too tight, my hand absorbs some of the force and the wrench clicks late. I tested it on a calibration rig and got different results just by changing my hand placement. Also, the speed you pull at matters a ton, a slow steady pull gives way different results than a fast jerk motion. I started treating my torque wrench like a precision tool instead of a breaker bar and it changed everything for me.