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PSA: torque wrench calibration mail-in vs doing it in house, which one actually holds up
Had two wrenches come back from a mail-in calibration shop and both were off by 6 ft-lbs on the low end, so I bought a used analyzer off a retiring guy in Wichita for $400 and redid them myself. The mail-in route was $65 per wrench plus 10 days of downtime, while the in house setup paid for itself after 4 rounds and I can check them whenever I want. Now half the shop says sending them out is safer because of the paperwork, and the other half says a traceable cert is only as good as the guy who packed the box. I get why the cert matters for the logs, but if the wrench is reading wrong either way, what are we really paying for? Curious what everyone else runs for a check interval and whether anyone has seen a mail-in cert actually catch a bad wrench before it left the bench.
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charlieh7426d ago
A traceable cert is only worth the paper it prints on if the wrench is off by 6 ft-lbs. I check mine every 90 days or after any drop, whichever comes first, and log the numbers myself. Six weeks is about the longest I'd stretch it on a wrench that gets used daily.
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rowanr8826d ago
Watched a buddy torque his head bolts with a wrench he swore was still good, then watched him pull the whole thing apart two weeks later when it started leaking coolant. He had no log, no cert, just vibes and a click he trusted way too much. Cost him a weekend and a head gasket over a $60 check he skipped.
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