Pat Riot
Contributing Member
The following is my opinion based on training and experience. I am not a metallurgist, a material scientist or a torque specialist and I don’t play one on TV 
I have worked on missile launchers in the Navy, in Aerospace and in the rail transit industry. Torque is very important. Especially when tightening fasteners on equipment that needs tension or torque consistency on more than one piece of hardware that is essentially doing the same job in this instance, like; scope mounts or mounting receivers and barrels to a stock. It’s also important for small screws that hold side plates to revolvers or sights on a gun so one doesn’t over stress the hardware or the frame threads.
Like the OP I found that when I started using a small torque wrench I found that what my fingers or hands felt like 10 or 20 inch-pounds my nifty new torque driver saw it as 7 or 14 (or so) inch-pounds. I also found that hardware recommendations of 20 inch-pounds “just didn’t feel right” to me on really small screws. In instances where my gut tells me that a torque is just too much and I am needing to torque several screws I will probably torque them all to a lesser value, but I will torque them all to the same value so they all hold with equal force, like on scope rings.
I got one of these for Christmas a few years ago.
It can be set for inch-pounds, newton-meters or gram-centimeters. It can be set for “peak” torque or you can see “live” torque.
Now, I have no way of calibrating this tool. It came from Wheeler with a calibration sheet. I have never dropped it and it being digital may not be affected by being dropped, but I am careful not to do that.
Even though I have this nifty little gadget I do still use feel and my gut feeling on torquing of small hardware. It is my opinion that you haven’t lived until you have broken off a very small and critical piece of hardware and then gone through the process of trying to remove that little broken piece of hardware. It’s good life experience that I hope you never have.
I am not above taking a gun to a gunsmith if I have any doubts about securing something or if I feel I have reached a limitation in my knowledge or just have a gut feeling that whatever I do with turn out wrong. See my signature line below.
A good example of that would be when I took my new to me model 10 to a gunsmith because I could not get the side plate screws to budge when I wanted to remove the side plate and I didn’t have a little mini torch to heat the screws. He had all 3 out in about a minute because he had the right tools and the experience to use them properly.
I have worked on missile launchers in the Navy, in Aerospace and in the rail transit industry. Torque is very important. Especially when tightening fasteners on equipment that needs tension or torque consistency on more than one piece of hardware that is essentially doing the same job in this instance, like; scope mounts or mounting receivers and barrels to a stock. It’s also important for small screws that hold side plates to revolvers or sights on a gun so one doesn’t over stress the hardware or the frame threads.
Like the OP I found that when I started using a small torque wrench I found that what my fingers or hands felt like 10 or 20 inch-pounds my nifty new torque driver saw it as 7 or 14 (or so) inch-pounds. I also found that hardware recommendations of 20 inch-pounds “just didn’t feel right” to me on really small screws. In instances where my gut tells me that a torque is just too much and I am needing to torque several screws I will probably torque them all to a lesser value, but I will torque them all to the same value so they all hold with equal force, like on scope rings.
I got one of these for Christmas a few years ago.
It can be set for inch-pounds, newton-meters or gram-centimeters. It can be set for “peak” torque or you can see “live” torque.
Now, I have no way of calibrating this tool. It came from Wheeler with a calibration sheet. I have never dropped it and it being digital may not be affected by being dropped, but I am careful not to do that.
Even though I have this nifty little gadget I do still use feel and my gut feeling on torquing of small hardware. It is my opinion that you haven’t lived until you have broken off a very small and critical piece of hardware and then gone through the process of trying to remove that little broken piece of hardware. It’s good life experience that I hope you never have.
I am not above taking a gun to a gunsmith if I have any doubts about securing something or if I feel I have reached a limitation in my knowledge or just have a gut feeling that whatever I do with turn out wrong. See my signature line below.
A good example of that would be when I took my new to me model 10 to a gunsmith because I could not get the side plate screws to budge when I wanted to remove the side plate and I didn’t have a little mini torch to heat the screws. He had all 3 out in about a minute because he had the right tools and the experience to use them properly.
