Can we talk about the time a customer's kid in my shop changed how I see torque wrenches?

A dad was showing his son how to tighten a stem bolt, and the kid asked 'how do you know when it's just right?'. I realized I never explained the 'feel' to anyone, just handed them the tool. How do you guys teach newbies about proper torque without scaring them?

3 comments

3 Comments

blair2482mo ago

Ever try the "tighten till it stops, then one more gentle nudge" method? I show them on something not critical first, like a bottle cage bolt, so there's no fear of breaking anything. It builds confidence before they move to stem bolts or carbon parts.

zara_king2mo ago

My shop uses the old water bottle cage demo too, just like blair248 said. I put a torque wrench in their hand and have them tighten a bolt into an old frame until it strips. The sound and feel of failure is the best lesson. Then we do it right on the same bolt, aiming for 5 Nm. They learn the click isn't a suggestion, it's a hard stop. After that, moving to a stem at 6 Nm feels easy.

jordan_young2mo ago

That "one more gentle nudge" part after it stops is where people get into trouble. The threads are already bound up at that point, so that nudge is pure overload. On a small aluminum bolt, that's how you get a sudden snap instead of a smooth stop. It's better to teach that clean stop feeling as the final answer, not a starting point.