Pro tip: the crusty torque wrench in the back of the hangar turned out to be the good one
Last month I grabbed a beat up 3/8 torque wrench from the back shelf at our shop in Tucson because the newer digital one was out for calibration, and the lead said just use the old one. I rolled my eyes but torqued the 24 bolts on a Cherokee nose gear per the manual. When the digital came back, I checked the old one on the tester and it was within 2 percent across the range, while the fancy digital was 4 percent off at 90 inch pounds. The old guy laughed and said he bought that wrench in 1994 and it has never been dropped, which is the whole trick with torque tools. Now I want to know what else on that shelf I have been ignoring. Anybody else got an old tool that beats the new stuff, or am I just lucky?