Heard an old timer in the break room say modern torque wrenches are too soft and it got me thinking

3 comments

3 Comments

Man, the old timers always have the wildest takes. The same guys who probably used a pipe wrench as a hammer are now judging torque wrenches? That's rich, coming from the generation that thought "close enough" was a proper torque spec. Guess they prefer that satisfying crunch of stripping a bolt over actual precision.

juliag101mo ago

Totally agree. Watched an old foreman crack a bolt on a brand new engine block because he "knew the feel" instead of using a torque wrench.

kim9631mo ago

Hear me out on this one - I actually think the old timer has a point, at least in some ways. In my experience, modern torque wrenches are incredibly precise tools, but that doesn't mean they're perfect for every situation. The issue I see is that some mechanics rely on them so heavily that they lose the ability to feel when something is wrong, like a bolt that's binding or a thread that's dirty. Take this with a grain of salt, but I've seen brand new electronic wrenches give false readings on corroded bolts more than once. Your mileage may vary, but a good mechanic should still be able to feel the difference between a bolt that's torqued right and one that's about to snap.