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Had a 20 minute chat with a retired AA mechanic about torque wrenches
Was pulling a shift at the hangar in Tulsa last Tuesday when this old guy walks in looking for the break room. Turns out he worked for American Airlines from 1978 to 2005. He saw me using my click-style torque wrench on some engine mounts and just started shaking his head. Said he only ever used beam-style wrenches for 27 years because click-types lose calibration after 5,000 cycles according to his old lead. I checked my logbook later and mine had 4,800 cycles on it. Has anyone else run into old timers who swear by beam wrenches over the digital ones?
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victor_lane605mo ago
That old AA mechanic might know his stuff but honestly it feels like he was gatekeeping a bit. 5,000 cycles is a lot of use for any tool and most guys don't even log that stuff unless they're super anal about it. I've used click-style wrenches for years at work and never had one fail a calibration check when I bothered to send them in. Beam wrenches are fine but they're harder to read in tight spaces and you gotta have the right angle to get an accurate reading. Digital ones are a different story though too much electronics that can crap out on you in the cold. At the end of the day it's just about using the right tool for the job and not worrying about some old rule of thumb from the 80s.
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nathan_moore125mo ago
The 5,000 cycle rule came from the old days when click wrenches used a simple spring and ball bearing setup that wore out faster. Modern ones use a different internal design that holds calibration way longer. I've got a Snap-on that went 8 years without a recheck and still hit dead on when I finally tested it against a torque analyzer.
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evah403mo ago
Snap-on actually recommends annual recertification regardless of cycles though.
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