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Threw $400 at a torque wrench and it let me down on a 737 flap job | Aircraft Mechanics - Guest Forum

Threw $400 at a torque wrench and it let me down on a 737 flap job

Honestly, I picked up this fancy digital torque wrench from a Snap-on truck last spring cause I got tired of the old click type drifting on me. Paid about $400 for it thinking it would be my go to for life. First big job was a flap track replacement on a 737 and the thing started beeping random errors halfway through. I had to finish the torque sequence with a borrowed Craftsman from the guy next bay over. The digital unit went back to Snap-on for calibration and they said the sensor was bad out of the box. So I'm out the shipping cost and two days of trust in that tool. Has anyone else had a high end torque wrench crap out right when you needed it most?

2 comments

2 Comments

amymason5mo ago

That $400 price tag stings extra hard when the tool fails on a critical job like flap tracks on a 737. I remember back in my early days I bought a fancy cordless impact gun for about $350 and it died halfway through removing the prop bolts on a King Air. Had to hand-crank the last three bolts with a breaker bar and a cheater pipe, took forever. The issue was just a bad battery connector from the factory, but the whole experience made me go back to my old trusty air tools for a while. Sometimes the fancy electronics just aren't worth the headache when you're under a time crunch and a torque wrench is all that's standing between you and a write-up.

sandra6935mo ago

Yeah exactly @amymason, that's the thing with these pricey tools. When they let you down on a job like that it just ruins your whole day. I had a similar issue with a fancy drill that died right when I needed it most. Now I just stick with my old stuff too. Sure the new tools are nice but they better work every single time for that much money.