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Digital Torque Adapter

Saville

Well Known Member
A recent Kitplanes had an article called:

"Can You Calibrate Your Hand?"

where the author - Jon Croke - mentions a "Digital Torque Adapter" which can be used to tighten a fastener to a specific torque value. It goes between the fastener and a regular wrench.
See thumbnail.

Does anyone have any experience with these? Are they accurate enough? Do they have to be calibrated every year?

I have a torque wrench but I haven't had it calibrated in years because I haven't used it in years. So it's probably out of cal.
I've needed one more re4cently but of course I have to get it re-cal'd.

It costs $100 around here to get it re-calibrated. If this torque adapter can do the job I may get one.

Opinions welcome.
 

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I have a torque wrench but I haven't had it calibrated in years because I haven't used it in years. So it's probably out of cal.
I've needed one more re4cently but of course I have to get it re-cal'd.

It costs $100 around here to get it re-calibrated. If this torque adapter can do the job I may get one.

Why not check the accuracy yourself?

Accurately measure from the center of rotation of the socket nub, to a point on the handle (such as 6 inches, 12 inches, etc.) and mark for reference.

Make something that you can put weight (lead shot, nuts/bolts, etc.) into and hang exactly on the point marked on the handle. Use an accurate scale to get your apparatus equaling the weight value you want to check.

Clamp the socket nub in a bench vise with the torque wrench as close to horizontal as you can get it, and oriented so that when you hang weight on the handle it will be applied the same as when you are tightening fasteners.

Start checking at different values and do the math (support the weight and release it very slowly so as not to shock load the wrench)..

Example - on a larger torque wrench, 20 lbs of test weight applied at 18 inches on the handle should equate to a torque wrench reading of 30 foot lbs

Weight X distance (in inches) / 12 (inches in a foot) = Foot Pounds. (If doing a small inch pound tool you can skip the divide by 12 and have the total inch pounds)

Add and/or remove small amounts of your weight material to find the trip / no-trip points of the wrench (if it is the bump style) and determine what the percentage of error is.
If you want to do the equiv. of what a cal. lab would do, you need to check it in the opposite rotation direction as well but since we pretty much never use a torque wrench on left hand threaded fasteners (on RV's anyway) it is not really necessary.
 
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