The torque wrench complaint that made me flip my whole approach

A customer came in last month with a snapped bolt and said my torque specs were garbage, so I checked the chart and realized I'd been using the same numbers for rusty hardware that I use for clean stuff. He was right, on rusty threads you need to back off about 15 percent or you'll over-stress the fastener, and I'd never even thought about it in 12 years of doing this. I changed my practice to always knock 5 foot-pounds off for anything with corrosion, and the difference in comebacks is night and day. But here's the flip side, my buddy says that's overthinking it and you should just hit the manufacturer spec and let the bolt fail if it's going to. So what do the rest of you do, do you adjust for rust or stick to the book?

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olivia_bailey17d ago

and honestly i was doing the exact same thing for years until a buddy of mine had a wheel stud snap on a trailer and it took me like two hours to fix it on the side of the road. after that i started dropping torque about 10 percent on anything that even looks slightly rusty, and i mean it's not exactly rocket science but it just never crossed my mind before. your buddy saying just hit spec and let it fail feels like the kind of thinking that causes more headaches down the road, not less. i'd rather spend an extra minute adjusting than deal with a customer coming back with a snapped bolt and a bad attitude. plus once you start paying attention to the rust factor you notice it everywhere, it's not overthinking it, it's just being real about what you're working with.