Took 6 evenings to finally get my torque wrench routine down

I've been turning wrenches for about 8 years now, and for the longest time I'd just torque stuff by feel if I was in a hurry. Then last month our lead mechanic caught me doing that on a flap actuator and gave me this look, you know the one. He said, 'feel is how we get hangar rash on the logbook.' So I started timing myself on every fastener that called for a specific setting, and I kept a little tally on my phone. First night I was slower by maybe 15 percent, but by the sixth evening I was actually hitting the right values on the first try, every time, without double checking. It turned out my wrist was way more consistent than I thought, but only when I stopped rushing and set the wrench to click, not to guess. Anyone else find their accuracy jumps once they force themselves to use the clicker instead of muscle memory? For me, that little piece of discipline changed everything in probably 5 hours of practice.

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charles6401mo ago

Did you notice any difference in wrist fatigue after forcing the clicker habit?

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