That’s right, the one you use to verify the torque on your fixture bolts. The one you send out periodically to get calibrated. Think of how much money you will save on calibration!
You see the thing is that that torque wrench is probably not doing you any good.
When we are securing a fixture to a shaker, we really don’t care about torque. We care about clamping force. Since we don’t have a good way to directly measure clamping force, we use torque as an indirect method. Torque is proportional to clamping force WHEN THE THREADS ARE PERFECT!
Do you look carefully at each bolt before you put it into the fixture? Do you look again after you remove it?
When you remove a bolt do you place it carefully in a wood or foam bolt holder to protect those threads? Or do you just toss it into the drawer until next time?
Go down to your vib lab right now and look at your bolts. Hold them up to a light so you can see how the threads look. If you see threads that are nicked, flattened or curled, just put it carefully back in the drawer, and toss your torque wrench in to the dumpster on your way back to your office.
You can thank me later.
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