Cheap torque wrench calibration check saved me from a bad carbon frame repair

I had a customer bring in a carbon road frame with a stripped derailleur hanger thread in Portland last month. I was about to helicoil it, but something felt off with my beam torque wrench so I borrowed a digital one from the shop next door. Turns out my old wrench was reading 20% low at 5 Nm, that would have been a cracked dropout for sure. Anyone else ever bother to verify their cheap torque tools against a known good one, or do you just trust them until they break?

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1 Comment

nelson.wren22d ago

Man, that 20% low reading is scary as hell, glad you caught it before something bad happened. I always get paranoid about my cheap tools too, especially after a near miss like that.