That one line about torque wrenches finally clicked for me

I was in the shop last Tuesday and overheard a guy telling a customer that a torque wrench is only as good as the person who uses it. I'd always been lazy about re-calibrating mine, just figured close enough was fine. He said he checks his against a beam style every few months, costs nothing and takes 5 minutes. So I tried it with my old Park Tool and found it was off by 6 Nm, which is way more than I expected. Has anyone else ever compared their digital wrench to a beam type and been surprised at the drift?

2 comments

2 Comments

anthony1291mo ago

That stings, but good on you for actually checking it.

taylorc401mo ago

Honestly, the only thing that got me through it was forcing myself to sit down and make a list of every single thing I'd done wrong. I wrote it all out, ugly and raw, and then beside each one I wrote what I'd do different next time. It hurt like hell to look at, but once it was on paper it stopped bouncing around in my head. Then I picked one small thing from that list and actually changed it that same week, not just said I would. That little bit of action made the sting feel a lot more like a bruise and a lot less like a open wound. It didn't fix everything but it gave me something to hold onto instead of just the shame.