Just found out my torque wrench was 15 ft-lbs off for over a year

I was calibrating my tools last week and discovered my old Craftsman torque wrench was reading way low. Checked it against a new digital one and it was off by 15 ft-lbs on a 80 ft-lb setting. Anyone else ever find out their tools were out of spec and wonder what they messed up?

2 comments

2 Comments

foster.ruby19d ago

Look, I mean 15 ft-lbs sounds like a lot but honestly most people overtorque stuff anyway. Unless you're building a spaceship or doing something super precise, that's probably not a huge deal. I've been using a random off-brand torque wrench for like 5 years never calibrated it once and nothing's fallen apart yet. Plus if you're torquing lug nuts or basic bolts, like a 10-15% margin isn't going to make or break anything. People get way too crazy about tool accuracy when 90% of us are just working on daily driver cars or home projects.

richardharris19d ago

Five years without calibration? That's wild, you're rolling the dice every time.