Tried using a digital torque wrench on a stretched bolt last Friday in Phoenix

That app gave me a reading that was way off compared to my old beam style wrench, ended up snapping the bolt and costing me 2 hours of rework. Any of you guys stick with the old school tools for certain jobs or am I just behind the times?

3 comments

3 Comments

mila_campbell2527d ago

@torres.grant nailed it with that "metal give" feeling. It's like when you're tightening a faucet nut by hand vs using an impact driver - your hand tells you when it's seated right, the machine just keeps hammering. I've noticed this pattern with all kinds of tools lately... the simpler ones let you feel the actual work happening. My oven thermometer from the 70s is more reliable than the digital one that kept showing 350 when the bread was clearly burning. Sometimes less circuits means less messing up.

torres.grant27d ago

Man that app probably thought stretched meant like yoga or something. Digital wrenches are great until they aren't, especially in 110 degree Phoenix heat where everything expands and the battery dies mid crank. Beam style all the way for critical stuff, you can feel the metal give and it never lies to you about loose electrons or whatever.

kaih3627d ago

Old school beam style saved my bacon on a suspension job last month, same heatwave no joke. @mila_campbell25 that oven thermometer comparison is spot on, sometimes the old tech just works better when things get real.