Hot take: torque wrenches are making us lazy about feel

I used to think I was hot stuff with my digital torque wrench. Set it, click it, done. But then I was working on a Cessna 172 landing gear at a little repair shop in Bakersfield about six months ago. My old mechanic buddy walked over, looked at my setup, and just said "you trust that thing more than your own hands?" He showed me how he could feel if a bolt was about to strip or if threads were dirty just by the resistance. Now I'm split. I still use the torque wrench for critical stuff like engine mounts and prop bolts, but for general panels and brackets I've started doing it by feel more. What do you all think? Has anyone else had that moment where you realized you were relying too much on a tool instead of what you can sense yourself?

2 comments

2 Comments

marywells29d ago

Is it really that serious though? Like are we out here snapping bolts left and right or is this just gatekeeping how you turn a nut?

hannahh5327d ago

You said "are we out here snapping bolts left and right" and honestly that got me thinking about the time I was helping my buddy swap out his alternator and he reefed on this rusty bolt so hard the whole head just popped off. Like we weren't even being careless, it was just old and crusty. I mean yeah sometimes you gotta know when to use a breaker bar versus a ratchet but also sometimes stuff just breaks no matter how careful you are. So no it's not like we're all snapping bolts every day but it's not exactly gatekeeping either, it's more about not being that guy who rounds off everything and makes the next person's life harder.