Wheeler Engineering Fat Wrench... Did i screw it up?

[Mr. F]

So last December i bought a Fat Wrench to set action screws and whatnot. Used it once and put it away but forgot to set it to the lowest setting. Took it out today and it was set to 45 in/lb so its been set to that setting for 7 months.

Would you say thats enough time for "spring set in" to occur and render it useless?

Just want to know if i need another wrench...

 

[kortik]

So last December i bought a Fat Wrench to set action screws and whatnot. Used it once and put it away but forgot to set it to the lowest setting. Took it out today and it was set to 45 in/lb so its been set to that setting for 7 months.

Would you say thats enough time for "spring set in" to occur and render it useless?

Just want to know if i need another wrench...

Do not worry about it. Nothing changed in 7 months.

But if in doubt, call Wheeler and ask them.

 

[Snuby642]

+1 on that, damage normaly occurs at highest settings / tensions.
Thats why i leave 1 or 2 rounds out of long term magazine storage.

 

[Fursniper]

A lot of shooters own these, if you can find someone else with one it would be easy to do a comparitive test.

 

[Mr. F]

A lot of shooters own these, if you can find someone else with one it would be easy to do a comparitive test.

Any home brew way of testing it out? Not many of these in my area, youd be surprised...

 

[Fursniper]

Any home brew way of testing it out? Not many of these in my area, youd be surprised...

Well, any inch pounds torque wrench would give you something to compare to. Most mechanics would have one I would think. You might try at an AUTO ZONE store, they loan tools for free.

 

[vh20]

You could come up with some kind of test rig - inch pounds are just that: 20 inch pounds is 20 pounds on a 1 inch lever, or 1 pound on a 20 inch lever, or 5 pounds on a 4 inch lever, etc. You could come up with a rig of a known exact-weight on the end of an appropriate-length lever, come up with some way to couple it to a bolt or screw head, and see where it breaks. Should be fairly easy to come up with, at multiple points along the range, by changing the weight or lever length.

 

[kortik]

You could come up with some kind of test rig - inch pounds are just that: 20 inch pounds is 20 pounds on a 1 inch lever, or 1 pound on a 20 inch lever, or 5 pounds on a 4 inch lever, etc. You could come up with a rig of a known exact-weight on the end of an appropriate-length lever, come up with some way to couple it to a bolt or screw head, and see where it breaks. Should be fairly easy to come up with, at multiple points along the range, by changing the weight or lever length.

That's a much better and practical way to check out a torque wrench, and I completely agree with VH20.

Comparing two torque wrenches against each other, one being in doubt (OP's), and another of unknown practical accuracy potential, is going to lead to a certain confusion which one of the two torque wrenches "is telling the truth."

Mr.F, you really have nothing to worry about. If you sincerely believe that FAT was all right 7 month ago, torque limiting clutch spring will not take a permanent set at 45 inch-lbs., just because it was left compressed at approximately 2/3 of its working load for 7 months. Typically, correctly designed compression springs may take a permanent set when they are brand new and momentarily compressed to solid height, assuming these springs were not specifically designed to work at solid height, which is not really a common design application.

Boris
Borka Tools

 

[Rhyno]

If you're really interested you can contact ddd 007 he has the tools required to check torque wrenches and might be willing to check it for you.

of course they're fairly inexpensive I would just buy a new one, odds are it's been effected have that long of a period.

 

[vh20]

Thanks, Kortik. I still have the Fat Wrench that I started out with, but I also now proudly own a complete set of your wonderful tools (Adjustable Driver, Expanded Field Kit). Nice stuff!

 

[Fursniper]

"Comparing two torque wrenches against each other, one being in doubt (OP's), and another of unknown practical accuracy potential, is going to lead to a certain confusion which one of the two torque wrenches "is telling the truth."

Yeah, in retrospect, kortic, I think you're right.

 

[Mr. F]

That's a much better and practical way to check out a torque wrench, and I completely agree with VH20.

Comparing two torque wrenches against each other, one being in doubt (OP's), and another of unknown practical accuracy potential, is going to lead to a certain confusion which one of the two torque wrenches "is telling the truth."

Mr.F, you really have nothing to worry about. If you sincerely believe that FAT was all right 7 month ago, torque limiting clutch spring will not take a permanent set at 45 inch-lbs., just because it was left compressed at approximately 2/3 of its working load for 7 months. Typically, correctly designed compression springs may take a permanent set when they are brand new and momentarily compressed to solid height, assuming these springs were not specifically designed to work at solid height, which is not really a common design application.

Boris
Borka Tools

Appreciate your input and all the help/ideas from all other members that chimed in.

 

[JohnsMyName]

It's my understanding that springs don't lose much or any action force just by being compressed. The action of repeatedly compressing will eventually cause a break down of the structure, but simply being compressed won't cause degradation (in some cases of extreme environmental swings this is not always true, but for your purposes it should be). I wouldn't worry about it, it's not an expensive tool and if it is slightly off spec it won't hurt anything for your uses anyways. For example my Spuhr mount says something like 15-25 in/lbs of force, that's a pretty big spectrum.