Serious question, has anyone else had a torque wrench calibration go bad right in the middle of a job?

I was working a night shift in Anchorage on a 737's main landing gear, torquing a critical bolt to 450 foot pounds. My click-type wrench clicked, but the bolt felt loose. I checked with a beam wrench from the tool crib, and it showed I was 50 foot pounds under. The calibration on my primary wrench had drifted without any warning. I had to stop everything, tag out the bad tool, and re-torque every bolt on that assembly with the backup. It added three hours to the job. How do you guys handle tool trust when the calibration sticker is current but the tool is lying?

3 comments

3 Comments

patw8520d ago

Man that's a scary situation. Did the wrench get dropped or banged around before it went out of spec?

rowan_roberts4920d ago

That torque wrench probably got knocked off calibration. Even a small drop can mess up the click mechanism. Always check them after any impact.

the_anthony13d ago

Oh man, that hits close to home. I once dropped my torque wrench on the garage floor and then spent a whole weekend wondering why my lug nuts felt so loose. Turns out I was torquing them to about half of what I thought. Learned that lesson the hard way, for sure.