The old timer who told me to stop babying my torque wrench

So I had this used torque wrench I always babied, setting it back to zero after every job, keeping it in the case. This old diesel mechanic at a shop in Denver saw me do it and laughed, said I was wearing out the internal spring faster by resetting it all the time. He told me to just leave it set at a low number like 20 ft-lbs and store it loose. I tried his way for a month and my readings actually got more consistent. Anybody else get told they were coddling their tools too much and had to switch it up?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jana1mo ago

Whoa wait, so all this time I've been gently resetting my torque wrenches to zero after every single use thinking I was extending their life! That's wild that actually wearing out the spring faster by doing that. I've got three different torque wrenches in my garage and I treat them like they're made of glass. Never once thought about just leaving it set at a lower number like 20 pounds.

holly_reed551mo ago

So did you actually snap a bolt by over-tightening once or is this just paranoia setting in from reading too many tool forums?

the_lee1mo ago

See it totally different honestly. Ive broken bolts from UNDER tightening way more often than over tightening. That little click on a torque wrench is there for a reason. Leaving it set at 20 pounds makes sense if youre using it for small stuff every day, but if you mainly work on bigger stuff that needs 80-100 foot pounds, youll forget to reset it and snap something delicate later.