Hot take: torque wrenches in the hangar are more trouble than they're worth sometimes

Last month at the Delta hangar in Atlanta, I watched a new guy snap a bolt on a flap track because he trusted a calibrated torque wrench that was off by 8 ft-lbs. I've been doing this for 14 years, and I'll take feel over the tool every time, especially on worn fasteners. Sure, the book says use the wrench, but I've seen more repairs botched by trusting a number than by using a steady hand. Anyone else run into a bad calibration that cost you a whole afternoon, or am I the only one who checks with a beam style after?

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eric_carr12d ago

You ever have one of those wrenches that clicks but you can feel it's wrong before the bolt even moves? I keep a beam style in the box just for checking when something feels off, and it's saved me more than once on old hardware where the numbers lie to you. If you're gonna trust feel, at least verify it against something dumb and simple every few months, cause that new guy probably didnt have a clue his tool was lying to him.