Tough Torque!
Iwas recently doing some business with a company in County Durham who calibrate torque wrenches for a living. As a massive advocate of the use of the venerable torque wrench, it suddenly occurred to me that I had not had my faithful (and bloody expensive) Snap-on torque wrench calibrated, for not only a long time, but if I’m honest, ever!
After 30 years I thought that it probably was time to have this splendid tool’s accuracy rubber stamped so I could carry on tightening down cylinder heads and the like to perfect settings, safe in the knowledge that I was working with precision.
Peter Newton (perfect name) at Torque Calibration Ltd. tested my tool on his fancy rig and gave me the bad news that a tool that was very expensive at the time of purchase, was overtightening by an unacceptable margin at the higher values, though not quite as badly at the lower settings. Worse, it now could not be adjusted without a spare part – the main spring nor a visit to the manufacturers. It turns out that not only is it not covered by Snap-on’s lifetime warranty, but they no longer even keep springs for their older torque wrenches, which are (in reality) a consumable. The tool was now useless… time to buy a new one.
Torque settings provided by manufacturers are not set purely to prevent the stripping of threads, but myriad other reasons and their designers don’t specify them for no reason. My working life started in the aircraft manufacturing world where the importance of correct torque values was as important as breathing. My apprenticeship covered every aspect of the aircraft building process to instil in us a thorough understanding of the entire subject, including a few weeks in the tool stores. When attaching a fastener to an aircraft, the route card used in conjunction with an engineering drawing would dictate the torque setting required and the fitter would go to the stores and draw out a pre-set
torque wrench. The stores would set the torque wrench up to a huge, regularly calibrated, torque clock bolted to the wall.
Once set, the adjustment was immobilised by a heat shrink sleeve marked up with the settings, test date and inspection stamp. This meant that you could never inaccurately tighten a fastener – you can imagine how important this is on an aircraft… On a motorcycle, there is a lack of such legally binding rules.
Many people think I make too much of torque settings, but when bikes are built, a similar system to the aircraft factory is used, so why do some hobby mechanics think that factories go to the expense of costly premium torque wrenches when building vehicles if it’s completely unnecessary? The answer is simple – if you die on your bike due to a mechanical fault, your family will sue the manufacturer and such failures will do nothing to encourage other motorcyclists to part with their hard-earned for the same machine.
Because I love top quality tools, I wanted to replace my Snap-on with something of the finest quality. Torque Calibration see more torque wrenches in a week than I would see in a lifetime, so I figured that they would make a great starting point for my research for my new 3/8” drive wrench. As it was, they introduced me to Mountz, a company I had never come across before, despite them having been around for years. Mountz have been innovative in torque measurement and calibration since their inception in Silicon Valley in 1965. It all started with the world’s first electronic torque calibration machine. They have been a big noise across the pond in this field for a long time, but are fairly new to the UK. Hearing about my situation, Mountz UK offered me an equivalent wrench to my dead Snap-on tool to try. I told them I would be 100 per cent truthful about my findings otherwise my experience would be valueless.
When the product arrived it seemed to be very well made, but the only proof is how did it perform? It was initially delivered to Torque Calibration Ltd. so that they could see if it was doing what it purported to. It passed their stringent examination with flying colours.
Peter and Michelle Meson at Torque Calibration said that they had never had one single Mountz tool fail calibration from new and provided they are treated properly they carry on performing.