Torque wrench users……. Do you/how often do you calibrate?

Ignored!

 

Later Dude......may the torguing be with you LOL

 

I’ve had two click type wrenches for over 30 years. Craftsman purchase in the late 80’s. I have used them a dozen times maybe and always stored at zero.

Is it possible they are still accurate or worth keeping?

 

The only way to truly know is to get them checked. On the other hand, they were seldom used and stored with zero tension on the springs, so a good chance that both would still pass calibration. Those are old enough to be made in the USA.

 

Still much closer than an impact and given er the ugga duggas.

 

Wheel lug nuts or bolts (on German cars) are some of the last fasteners on modern vehicles to use just "torque" values for installation. Most engine or transmission fasteners have gone to torque to yield, torque angle, stretch bolt, or plastic region (whatever manufacturer wants to refer to them as) where as fastener is torqued to a relatively low initial torque then tightening procedure is completed by rotating specified degrees of rotation. Giving ultimately the desired clamping force from fastener.

 

My biggest pet peeve it the tire shop or lube rack guys who just use the 1/2" air impact and ratta tat tat tat.... good to go. Try and tell them different and "I ain't never had no problems" and as soon as you turn your back, ratta tat tat tat... "Oh you want it torqued?" Click click only after impacting them on. "See... it's tight"

 

Side note, it is also believed that uneven or over torqued wheel fasteners are a significant contributor to warped brake rotors over the course of numerous brake heat cycles.

 

I don't typically get my torque wrenches calibrated and I don't typically use a torque wrench where common sense is all that's required. Over use of a torque wrench is similar to over use of a GPS for navigation all the time. One forgets how to do stuff without it.

 

owners manual doesn’t specify common sense as a measurement. I’m a very strong individual so my “good and tight” will be different from my wife, or other people.

most of my life I didn’t use a torque wrench. It wasn’t until the internet,age, and me finding out that I “had” to use one. So I did for years. Just recently I’ve had wheels coming loose. Thought I was going senile. Turns out wrench was out of whack. Which I suppose leads to the arguement of just using common sense like I did prior to the internet.

I’m with you on the gps. They are great, but I,still prefer maps so I “know” where I am. I don’t like the feeling of not actually knowing where I am. I like knowing an area as if I’ve lived there.

I do use gps, but I don’t rely exclusively on it.

same thing with phones. Lots of people don’t know phone numbers anymore, they just ask Siri, or tap someone in their contacts.

 

I've got Craftsman torque wrenches from the same era (3/8" and 1/2"). Here is my crude Rube Goldberg test apparatus (12" arm from center on bathroom scale):





I was mostly interested in repeatability, not necessarily for torque accuracy. I found both to be very good on these seldom used old torque wrenches (I forget the actual numbers but I was satisfied.

Dan

 

I'm really liking that setup! Yep, repeatability is golden. Accuracy of course is important, but repeatability is more so especially with torque wrenches which usually have 3% to 5% error. For those here that don't know how important repeatability is, here is an example: Would you rather have a +/- 3% torque wrench (tighter spec) that consistently reads anywhere from -3% to +3% each reading or a +/-5% wrench that consistently reads +2% high every reading?

 

I personally like Harbour Freight torque wrenches for what they are. Everyday except motor building like things. I feel they don't have to be that accurate but consistent. Like say torque down water pump bolts you want them all about the same torque not

 

Might as well add this fun fact:
We can perform accredited, traceable calibrations on "torque/hydraulic multipliers" up to 20,000 lbs-ft @ less than 1.5% uncertainty of reading! (27,000 N-m)

 

We get in a lot of Harbor Freight torque wrenches. They usually pass the +/- accuracy tests but consistency, ie repeatability, is all over the place. Horribly. Low quality steel springs and guts. On the more "economical" side, Husky's aren't too bad for the price point.

 

My underlying point (if there is one) is that relying on a torque wrench without having any concept of what the numbers mean gets a lot of folks in trouble (like relying on a GPS with no actual idea where one is or which way north might be). Over the years I have heard way too many tales of woe from people that were relying completely on what a torque wrench was telling them and stripped a bolt or had some other sadness befall them.

It doesn't matter how strong one is. All that is required is a basic understanding of what a specified torque value should feel like. For example most folks know what a 10lb sack of potatos feels like versus versus a 40lb bag of sand. If something is calling for 20lbs of torque and they have a 12" bar (lever) then they need to apply roughly 20lbs of force to the lever. If using a 24" bar then they need to apply roughly 10lbs of force. It's all just basic math in real world terms. It's pretty amazing how close folks can get to a torque spec armed with only an understanding of what that torque number means in a way they can relate to.

As an aside - I do have three torque wrenches including one very nice digital unit and I use them whenever I am working on something that has a critical torque value. However the vast majority of fasteners don't actually have a critical value and use generic torque values based on the size of the fastener.

 

Exactly.

Until someone proves to me that say, 30lbs is too little and the nut will back off, but 40 is too much and it will break off....I am perfectly happy just using a torque wrench to check I'm in the right 'range' for a fastener.

No real world fastener on a car is made to operate so closely to failure for it to matter.

 

Yep, many manufacturers are using electric torque wrenches in their processes. We calibrate thousands of them. They are faster with sketchy repeatability, but quite commonplace now.

 

Precision Instruments split beam. Snap-On split beam is made by them. I don't know what you consider breaking the bank, what doesn't nowadays, but it's under $200. But if I recall I did pay less before COVID.

 

Seriously? "Over use of a torque wrench". LOL. Why do you think millions of torque wrenches that are used all over the world are sent in for calibration? Why does our Denver lab get in thousands of torque wrenches each year. Are all of our clients stupid? Maybe they don't want their production line shut down by an auditor for using un-calibrated measuring tools. Nothing worse than helicopter blades flying off in mid flight due to improperly torqued fasteners. No different than a car load of wife and kids. Wow!

 

I agree that there are a lot of places for torque wrenches to be used, but. Sometimes I think it's like he said. Like for the oil pan plug, front/rear diff plug, trans plug, probably all 10mm bolts and nuts in our tundras. (If you can find the 10mm socket). There just certain bolts and nuts that don't "need" to be torqued. I just redid my exhaust manifolds and risers on my Mercruiser and I definitely used a TQ wrench. Also used it when I did a head job on the heads and intake. The intake is picky with TQ, if not it leaks.

 

For the audience in question? Yep, I'm absolutely serious. Read the room. The folks using torque wrenches and having wheels fall off or stripping oil drain bolts aren't areo-space technicians. They are folks that are likely employed in non-mechanical oriented professions that enjoy spending a bit of time doing basic maintenance as a hobby or to save a couple of bucks. Those are the folks I'm addressing and recommending they get familiar with what torque numbers mean rather than just rely on pure faith that the PEP boys Torque wrench they picked up is going to keep them out of trouble. For the types of things they will typically be doing getting into the right ball park with common sense and understanding what the numbers mean is a lot better than getting the torque completely wrong because they improperly used or had a defective torque wrench. I wouldn't bring up the differences between dry and oiled fasteners and it's effect on torque readings either. That can be important to, but not so much to someone spinning on lug nuts or a drain bolt on their truck.

 

I read the room. I read the thread title. "Torque Wrench Users". OP wanted to know how to/when to calibrate. Lots of members here use torque wrenches from various backgrounds. It devolved into something else. We are very well versed here at our lab of the variances when performing any calibration and of course we should know. Properly torquing lug nuts to ME is important and not over use. My opinion. You have yours. One of the biggest complaints here over all the years that I've been on here concerning this issue is OVER TORQUING. Trying to get a fastener off. That's reading the room for 7+ years here. I'm a firm believer in having my hand measuring tools in proper order and calibrated. That's me. My preference and experience. Nothing wrong with your opinion but I'm not down with "over use". I'll never say that calibrating a torque wrench used by the average Joe to mount rims on his daily driver is "over use". This isn't the first torque thread here.

 

Agreed. But......lugs "should" be torqued properly too imho.

 

I thought using a 1" air impact was torqued properly. That's what dealer techs use and they are the best at torquing.

I have TQ wrench for my lug nuts by the way.

 

TQ's have very good rep here at the lab. A lot of us here have experienced the effects of impact wrenches. Too tight and messed up wheels. Ha! Obviously, wheels aren't falling off cars all over the place. It's comes down to individual preference.

 

1" impact damn gonna ripped everything apart lol.

Requirements in a large shop I run are once a year everything is calibrated , its big trucks here. So we use electric torque guns such as a Lion Gun , and sometimes the old school split torque wrench but everything gets sent in every year. Those wheels come off people die. My engine work guys usually get there stuff checked every few months but they are using electric with torque and angle.

On my personal stuff I have a nice snap on digital over kill for most diy , either way if its limited use I would say your probably safe every other year. Heck our big guns and wrenches that are used and abused are almost never off on calibration.

Honestly one thing people probably mess up more than anything is putting the lugs on. Use something week , ie on big trucks we never allow lugs to be put on with a 1 inch tire gun, they must be put on with a 1/2 or 3/4 and torqued. On my trucks or cars I use a 3/8 cordless on the low setting then torque.

 

Great post! The local Cummins shop near our lab sends in their company owned tools and personal tools once a year. Cummins pays for it. Common sense rules the day!

 

I had wheels come loose this year on 3 vehicles that I swapped winter tires. I thought they were torqued properly. They were not. Thus, this thread.

So under torquing has consequences. But I suppose this gives weight to windblown’s arguement of “relying” on technology. So under torquing is bad, but over torquing maybe not so much, and possibly had I not used a torque wrench my wheels wouldn’t have loosened.

as for drain plugs, etc there’s usually a gasket so the gasket is doing the sealing. Kinda like an oil filter. (Not sure if this makes sense. It makes sense in my head).

those torque values aren’t as important. But the fact the wheel torque is mentioned in the manual leads me to believe it’s important

 

ya, 200 or less should be fine, thanks for the suggestion, Ill check them out

anything in particular you guys recommend, this is for general household use, Im not a professional mechanic, but I know how to turn a wrench