Showerthought: an old boilermaker in Gary told me to stop torquing by feel, and I've been split on it since

Christopher Thompson · 2026-10-07T13:20:03.534803+00:00

I was doing a tube bundle swap at a plant outside Gary, Indiana about 3 months back, and this guy named Ray with 30 years in watched me snug up a flange by feel. He said, 'Your elbow doesn't have a calibration sticker.' Part of me thinks he's right, since every job I've been on has a spec sheet for a reason. But the other part of me has seen a torque wrench skip on a rusty stud and cost us an hour. So which is it, do you trust the tool every time or does experience earn you some leeway?

🐿️Pinecone Attack

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Showerthought: an old boilermaker in Gary told me to stop torquing by feel, and I've been split on it since | Boilermakers - Pinecone Attack