Spent 10 years chasing torque specs on sheet metal screws before a guy in Phoenix showed me what I was missing

3 comments

3 Comments

Right? I was the same way for years, thought I had it all figured out with torque sticks and a calibrated driver. Then a guy in Tucson showed me how the screw's thread pitch actually changes the clamping force way more than the torque number does. Completely changed how I look at those little silver bastards.

the_max19d ago

Huh, I gotta push back on that a little. In my experience thread pitch matters but clamping force comes down way more to the material you're screwing into and whether you're stripping the hole. Different thread pitches change the speed you drive but the actual clamping force is pretty much the same if you hit the right depth. You ever try testing that with a torque gauge?

danielmason19d ago

Think about the mechanical advantage of finer threads increasing the clamping load, not just the torque.