Caught my torque wrench lying after 8 years of trust

Was chasing a persistent brake line leak on a Cessna 172 last month, kept snugging it down until I finally checked it with a test gauge. Turned out my old Snap-On was off by 9 ft-lbs the entire time, probably from being knocked around my tool box. Anyone else ever find out their gear was quietly sabotaging them, or am I the only one who skipped calibration day?

2 comments

2 Comments

carr.brooke24d ago

Ugh, tell me about it. I had a digital torque adapter that was dead on the money one day, then after it took a tumble off the work bench it started reading about 6 ft-lbs high on everything. Caught it when I snapped a bolt on a lower control arm that I knew I'd set with the wrench before, so I had to re-check with a cheap beam style I keep as backup. Now I have a rule, if anything heavy hits the floor, that tool gets a check before I trust it again. It's annoying but cheaper than a trip to the hospital or a comeback job.

masonbell23d ago

Mine hit the concrete once and now it's basically a fancy paperweight with pretensions.