Tried using a digital torque wrench on a jet engine fan blade job the other day and I'll stick with my old beam style.

The digital one kept giving me inconsistent readings in the cold hangar air, so I went back to the beam wrench that's been in my box since 1998 and it worked perfect on the first try has anyone else had trouble with digital tools in cold weather?

3 comments

3 Comments

eric_knight711d ago

That bit about the display jumping around in the cold really hit home for me. I was out changing a water pump on a buddy's old truck last January and my digital gauge kept flashing weird numbers as soon as the temperature dropped below freezing. I finally just gave up on it and grabbed the cheap beam style I bought at a flea market for five bucks back in 2010. That thing read steady as a rock through the whole job while my fancy digital tool sat in the heated truck cab. Now I just keep the beam wrench in my cold weather toolbox and save the digital stuff for summer jobs.

smith.anna11d ago

Oh my, I had a similar headache with a digital torque wrench a couple winters ago. I was working on a heavy equipment engine and the display just kept jumping around, couldn't get a steady reading below freezing. I finally pulled out my old clicker type that's probably from the early 2000s and it worked smooth as butter. So I learned my lesson too - for cold weather jobs, I always grab the manual stuff, especially on critical fasteners.

hart.sage11d ago

Wait, you had the opposite experience with a clicker in the cold? That's wild, @eric_knight7 always swore by his digital stuff for years too, but hearing this makes me think I've been missing out.