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Lost a full Saturday to a $60 torque wrench I should've tossed immediately

Picked up a no-name torque wrench at a pawn shop in Tulsa about 2 years back, figured it was fine for lug nuts and brake calipers. Took it to a buddy's hangar to help with a Cessna wheel bearing job, and it clicked way early on the first axle nut. We double checked with his Snap-on and I was torquing at damn near 20 ft-lbs under spec, which would've been ugly at 120 knots. That wrench went straight in the trash can, and I ate $60 for the lesson: never trust a used torque tool without a calibration check first. Anyone else had a cheap tool cost them more in time than it saved in cash?

1 comments

1 Comment

lucas_hunt19d ago

Damn, that Cessna story gives me chills. Did you actually catch it before torquing the wheel bearing down all the way, or did you already have both sides done by the time you swapped wrenches? I had a similar deal with a Harbor Freight clicker that was off by like 15 percent brand new out of the box, and it only took me losing a rotor on a Ford F-250 to figure it out. The real kicker is that pawn shop torque wrenches are always a gamble because people drop them, knock them around, and never store them at zero. Does your buddy still give you grief about it, or has that $60 turned into a running joke between you two? Cause honestly, that kind of lesson sticks worse than any tool bill, and I bet you double check every torque spec now.