Loading…
9
I torqued by feel for 12 years until a $4 washer checker humbled me at 2am
I always figured my wrist knew more than any tool, and for a long time nothing blew up so I kept rolling with it. Then last November I was doing a fuel line fitting on a Cessna at our shop in Fresno, third one that week, and the A&P next to me handed me one of those little torque seal washers that changes color when you hit spec. I laughed at him, cranked it down like always, and the thing split clean in half right there. Turns out I had been running most of my small fittings about 30 percent over spec for over a decade, and nobody ever caught it because nothing failed yet. I bought my own torque wrench the next morning and started logging the numbers, and I was honestly shocked how far off my hand was on anything under 100 inch pounds. My wrist is fine for wheel lugs and big stuff, but for anything small and soft it was basically guessing with extra steps. Anybody else here get humbled by a cheap tool they made fun of first?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
nancyn691d ago
Laughed at a four dollar piece of plastic and it turned around and roasted twelve years of your career, poetic. The 30 percent over spec part is the scary bit, since that just means your fittings were quietly stretched and waiting to crack somewhere down the line. Gotta love a cheap tool that shows up to work with a clipboard and a bad attitude.
6