I used to torque by feel until a lead in Wichita handed me his wrench and asked for 40 inch pounds

Xena Owens · 2026-09-29T13:20:03.864267+00:00

For my first 3 years on the floor I figured my wrist knew 30 inch pounds better than any spec sheet. Last month I was doing a panel on a King Air and a lead named Marcus watched me run a screw down, then stopped me and pulled a dial wrench off his box. He had me hand-tighten 6 fasteners my way, then checked every one, and 4 of them were 15 to 20 inch pounds over. He said he did the same thing for 11 years until a crack showed up around a screw hole during a borescope, and that one cost the shop a whole panel skin. Now I grab the wrench for anything that goes into sheet metal or composite, even the stuff I think I can feel. Do you guys have a cutoff where you stop trusting your hand and just get the tool out?

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I used to torque by feel until a lead in Wichita handed me his wrench and asked for 40 inch pounds | Aircraft Mechanics - Talk Freely