Visited Delta's ATL hangar, found the real issue with torque wrenches

Everyone swears by the digital ones, but I watched a 20-year veteran snap a bolt using a $600 Snap-on digital. He went back to the old beam style and it was perfect. Has anyone else seen the digital units just lie to you on low torque settings?

2 comments

2 Comments

fionat553d ago

Did your beam wrench get checked against anything after that, or was it just accepted as good because it's mechanical? I've seen guys argue the old ones never drift, but they still have a flex point that wears out. Curious if you ever put a torque tester on it or if it's just blind faith at this point.

river_thompson3d ago

You ever notice how the digital ones feel way too confident about themselves? Same thing happened to me on a transmission pan, the digital unit said 18 ft-lbs but it stripped the threads clean. I switched to a cheap beam style and torqued the same bolt by feel, it held fine for years after. The electronics are only as good as their calibration, and most shops never check them after they get dropped one time. Low torque settings are where they lie the worst, the sensor just doesn't read accurately down there. That's why I keep an old beam wrench in my box for anything under 30 ft-lbs, it's boring but it works.