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Just realized I've been overtorquing lug nuts on customer cars for 15 years
Found out last Tuesday when a buddy brought his torque wrench to the shop and checked my settings against his calibration tool, turns out I was 20 ft-lbs over spec this whole time, anyone else ever had a tool throw off your whole routine like that?
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the_wren22d ago
Had a similar deal with my torque wrench for years, just never thought to check it against anything. Ended up borrowing a buddy's calibration tool and found out I was way off on most of my sockets. What helped was just getting into the habit of using his tool once a month to spot check my settings until I saved up for my own calibration gear. It's a pain but that little routine saved me from messing up more jobs down the line.
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the_hayden22d ago
Got a buddy who just eyeballs his torque settings based on feel and swears he's never had a problem. I mean, it's impressive he can guess that close but my luck would have me snapping bolts left and right. Once a month spot checking sounds like a solid middle ground though, way less hassle than chasing down a surprise failure later.
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davis.adam22d ago
That thing about guessing torque by feel reminds me of my uncle who used to rebuild carburetors by taste. He'd lick the float bowl to see if the gas mix was right after adjusting it. Worked for him for 30 years until he put his mouth on one that had a ton of ethanol and ended up with chemical burns inside his cheeks. Switched to a wideband O2 sensor after that.
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