Just realized my old torque wrench was giving me false readings on a Piper job

Last Thursday, I was putting a cylinder back on a PA-28 and the torque just didn't feel right, even though the wrench clicked. I borrowed a buddy's digital Snap-on wrench and found mine was off by almost 15 foot-pounds. I'd been using it for about two years without sending it out for calibration. Has anyone else had a tool fail them quietly like that, and how often do you guys check your torque wrenches now?

3 comments

3 Comments

sullivan.abby2mo agoTop Commenter

That's why I get mine calibrated every year, no excuses.

gibson.robert2mo ago

Wait, what even needs calibrating every year? Like a scale or something else?

hill.troy11d ago

I mean, I knew a buddy who worked at a bakery for a few years. He was telling me how they had this big industrial scale that weighed out flour and sugar by the hundred pounds. One year they skipped the calibration because the guy who usually did it was out sick. Well, next thing you know, their bread loaves started coming out all different sizes and some were way too dense. Turns out the scale was off by like five percent and it messed up every single batch for a whole week. They had to throw out hundreds of loaves before someone figured out what happened. So yeah, even something as simple as a scale can totally wreck your operation if you don't keep it checked.