Do Torque Sticks Work? 

Great video :)

Man assaults two BMW lug bolts for 13 minutes.....

Great video. I'm an Engineer. I believe that the hammer frequency is so high with the MID-Torque gun that its hammering when the torque stick is fully torqued, tightening the nut further. A traditional impact gun hammers at a lower frequency, in tune with the torque stick.

I see it's been mentioned a few times already but I would guess the mid torque gun has much less time between pulses. I suspect they are fast enough to the point where the torque sticks have not got a chance to recoil back to a nominal state. As to the difference between the short and deep sockets, I would assume it has something to do with the additional mass having to react against the pulses from the torque wrench. My 2 bits worth anyway!

The torque sticks are made to give at a set point which is built into there design that’s the reason for the different diameters. Now imagine ( in slow motion) that an air gun hits and let go then hits again and let go, which allows the torque sticks to reset every time the gun let’s go. The deep socket twists with the torque sticks not allowing the stick to twist and reset. It is a fact that deep sockets should not be used when using a torque wrench, so the same would go for torque sticks.but sometimes you need a deep socket so take into account the offset.

For precision use a torque wrench. Torque sticks get it close but not as accurate.

I would say if you use the same gun and leave it on for about two or three seconds after the cycle stops so I'll be pretty close. The amount isn't as important as that they're all the same to prevent rotors from warping. A reason I like to use the electric impact is because with air you could be down on air to where the compressor is going to turn on or high pressure for it's getting ready to shut off there for varying the torque. Again not as important being accurate as all the same

Doesn't air pressure in the compressor lines come into play too when using torque sticks?

the mid torque impact gun cycles faster so the stick does not have time to rebound and then retwist where as the high torque cycles slower therefore the stick has time to rebound

i firmly believe that the torque sticks are designed specifically for use with air tools. now maybe higher end torque sticks can be used with electric impacts, but definitely not harbor freight torque sticks

Does anyone know the exact model of the Milwaukee impact wrench he's using?

Engineer here, I think I know what might be happening--sorry that this is going to be long. First, a word about how torque sticks in general work. You'll note each stick is thinner as you go to lower torque specs. This makes each stick have less "torsional stiffness." Think of a graph with the torque on one axis and the rotation (in degrees angle) on the other. Each torque stick will have a different trace of torque vs angular displacement. The smaller ones have more angular deflection for a given amount of torque. Keep this in mind. When you have no impact mechanism, this reduced torsional stiffness is irrelevant because the force is constantly applied. Thus, all the torque applied is passed along to the end of the torque stick. And the time associated with force application is irrelevant because it's essentially zero. Now what happens with the impact mechanism? Starting with no or very low torque, the mechanism doesn’t actuate, you have no hammering action, just a steady/smooth. It takes a certain minimum amount of torque to cause the hammering action, which occurs when the torque (reaction torque, here) overcomes the dog/pin static torque, causing relative motion between hammer and anvil. Since we have enough reaction torque to activate the mechanism, the tool behaves differently. Now, it delivers torque in discrete “chunks.” The torque delivered is much higher, but is short in time duration-an impulse. This is how a regular hammer works in striking a nail-the mass of the hammer and its velocity determine that energy it will be able to deliver to the nail. But what if that carpenter’s hammer hits a nail covered with several thick layers of rubber? In this case, that impact energy is diverted into compressing the rubber instead of driving the nail. The same amount of energy is present, but less is delivered to the nail because more went into compressing the rubber matting over the nail. The torsional stiffness of the torque sticks creates the same effect-the discrete impulse of the hammer mechanism is diverted into twisting the torque stick, causing each impulse to be changed into a longer time but lower peak event. The less stiffness, the more time and the less peak force. The more stiffness, the less time and the more peak force. That time component is absolutely key. There is a time parameter associated with each combination of torsional stiffness and impact force. The more torque or the less stiffness, the more time is consumed by each event. After each blow, some time must pass when the energy absorbed (stored) by the torque stick is returned to the system. Engineers would definite a “torsional modal frequency” to capture that time. If the impact tool can apply another hammer blow before the torque stick has dissipated the energy it stored, then not all the energy from the torsional deflection will have been returned to the system yet; so the energy “accumulates” and the applied torque will increase. It’s as if before we had a swimming pool being filled at the same rate it was leaking out, causing the water level to remain constant, then suddenly someone plugs the pool’s leak and the water starts to rise. Because the deep socket is less stiff in torsion than the short socket, it mimics some of the effect of the torque stick and it makes that time factor longer. This makes it more likely that energy will “pile up.” More specifically, it lowers the natural torsional resonant frequency of the system. The shallow sockets have slightly higher torsional frequency, make the additional energy “pile up” at a much lower rate. All that to say this: the “medium torque” cordless has much higher rate of hammer blows, and that frequency being higher than the natural torsional resonance of the system, it will allow the energy to “pile up” a bit, causing the delivered torque to the exceed the rating of the torque stick. Torque stick manufacturers would do well to publish a maximum blows per minute “BPM” for each torque stick corresponding to its torsional modal frequency. But since they don’t know what sockets you’re using or anything, they can’t publish anything meaningful. The takeaway here is not that the torque sticks need to be “calibrated”-it’s that they need to be used with a tool that has a low enough BPM rate to fall beneath their natural frequency. PS: If you tried the highest torque rated sticks with the medium torque gun, you’d find this problem almost entirely disappears. WHY? The higher rated sticks are stiffer, have a higher frequency, and this frequency is almost certainly higher than the BPM rating of even the medium torque cordless gun.

All lugs are tight at 4 ugga uggas

"Hey, you wanna buy some torque sticks?" "You don't want to sell me torque sticks."

it has to do with the number of impacts from the hammers/anvils in the Mid Torque in a set period. What is happening is the torque stick is unable to spring back because of the rapid succession of hits that the Mid Torque delivers as opposed to the slower heavier hits of the impact or High torque.

I used them in school. We tested them against torque wrenches and they were good. Guess I don’t know how long they stay accurate though.

Having a little trouble with those curbs huh?

Torque it with impact till it snaps then back it out 1/4 turn 💯

It would be neat to get AvE to take a look at a set of these things.

This explains what you were telling me last time we talked. Nice to see your results. I use deep impact sockets because sometimes the short socket won't let the lug nut go all the way down before the stud hits the socket . Plus if you buy a set of "lug nut" sockets they're always deep. I think the deep socket let's the lug nut keep turning because it has the same effect as the Lisle socket designed to remove Honda crank bolts with the extra mass it has..

Torque sticks are not for final torque. They are to allow you to use impact tools to put on fasteners to a lesser torque than finish with a torque wrench to proper spec.

Torque sticks limit applied torque by flexing once the desired torque is reached. If the stick is constantly held in the sprung state it will act as a solid object and fail to limit torque. The problem is the gun used has too many impacts per second. Torque output of a gun is typically never going to be the issue.

My snap on guy has a torque tester so I had him check my wrench. 14 years daily use never calibrated and it was off 1 foot pound at 100.

Thanks for the info! I bought these with 1,000 ft pound electric impact. Just as good as my old torque wrench. But at age 50 and with arthritis i come to the point of retiring the manual wrench. Now i can take off and on lug nuts all day and pain free!

I never trusted torque sticks. I am only 21 and have had a couple of jobs at shops. One shop required you to use them and were always on your case about using them. I always torqued wheels with an actual torque wrench to the manufacturers specs. It only took like another 2 minutes and always let me sleep easy at night. Just glad I am not working at that shop anymore

I see two issues that might be affecting your measurements in a very real way: 1. Static torque vs Dynamic torque ( Wiki static friction for more details on that ) Once the nut is torqued and stops moving, the amount of torque required to get it moving again is significantly greater than the torque that was applied while it was being tightened ( this is called break away torque ). You can actaully see this if you use an old school deflection type torque wrench. For that 95ftlb example that you showed, you'd see the needle on the deflection type torque wrench go up to 95ftlbs, but as soon as it started moving the needle would quickly fall down to maybe as low as 80ftlbs. 2. Torque sticks can ONLY be accurately used with single hammer impact guns ( I don't know if this applies to you ) I once had a conversation with one of the guys that helped design these things. He explained that they worked by acting like a spring. When the proper torque on the fastener is reached, the torque stick flexes like a spring. This happens each time it is struck by the hammer in the impact gun. The torque sticks absorbs the blow by flexing, then springs back. This bounces the hammer in the impact gun back to its home position without rotating the socket/fastener any further. However, if you have a duel hammer impact gun the 2nd hammer is hitting the torque stick before it is fully retracted. This partially defeats the spring action force absorption in the torque stick causing it to apply a higher torque than its rating.

Personally I would never use these. I tighten them at the lowest setting, then use a torque wrench!

The condition of the square drives is very important, once the edges get rounded out the Margins on the torque obtained with widen out.

They don't work. The waste of time you spend trying to get it to the sweet spot you would be done with a normal torque wrench. I stopped using mine and they were better quality than Harbor Freight because I had lug nuts come loose. Also, look how the socket on impact is eating away at the aluminum wheel.

Did not know about these until this weekend when I had my tires changed at walmart. They used one on my car, but they followed up and checked them with a standard torq wrench.

Great vid.. in my personal application I would use the stick just lower than I want and still check the lugs with the torque wrench. speed up the tightening process while preventing over tightening.

The amount of metal shavings I can see in that bolt recess is concerning.. Guess I'll stay with manual tools for that job

I wanted to learn about these but since I like to watch these kind of videos with my daughters I'm very disappointed you felt you needed to include a shot of porn.

Interesting results. I believe there are two things. 1 is the extra mass of the deep socket vs regular. That could cause a very slight issue (not much). The second and the main reason is the higher rpm/ipm on the mid torque. High torque 2767 (1750rpm/2100 ipm) and the mid torque (2400rpm/3000 ipm). Great test to know about. I personally use both my impacts. Put them on power 1 when tightening and as soon as they are snug I stop. Then I use the torque wrench to make them all the same proper torque. I choose either impact based on the required power difference for nut busting (loosening) not tightening. Heck- my 1/4" m12 or m18 fuel impact driver can do both if needed under 100ft/lbs. Obviously I dont use them for that, but tested them just out of curiosity. If you over torque by a large amount the bolt/nut should be replaced since you permanently stretched the metal. I would rather be safe and under torque and do it by hand.

Find a combination. Verify results. Recheck for different wheel types. Bottom line is that without torque sticks, high power air guns frequently over torque the lugs. Over torque actually weakens the metal. If there is any doubt in your mind, use the sticks to 10 lbs under spec, then put it on the ground and use a proper torque wrench.

Keyboard Mafia! Cracked me up.

After my past visit to the local mechanic where they did some work on my wifes car, i found the my lug nuts were all different torques and in fact i literally had to stand on my breaker bar to loosen two of them. I called the shop to complain and they seemed surprised. The shop owner said they usually use torque sticks So in my opinion, no, they dont work reliably. I retorqued my lug nuts by hand using a proper torque wrench and hopefully i wont have damaged rotors now. They seem to be pulsating slightly during slow stops, due to shoddy workmanship here i may have to replace my rotors again next year Almost every damn shop out there doesnt take the time to properly hand torque lug nuts. Sooo many rotors are destroyed every year by low effort idiots doing poor work

the mid torque impact does more impacts per minute. thank you for the video!!

every time I get my car back from the tire shop I have to get a huge breaker bar, loosen all my severely over-torqued lug nut/bolts and retorque them by hand so that if I have to change a flat on the road I can get them loose with the factory lug wrench without breaking it. I hate when they do that.

".....I'm gonna bump the torque up....up.....up.....up...." *Strips the bolt*

It must be the weight of the socket that causes the bigger one to tighten the bolt more than the smaller one. Think of it this way, hitting an object with a hammer with a certain amount of force, or hitting it with the same amount of force, but with a bigger (thus heavier) hammer, the force which impacts the object would be greater on the latter.

Torque sticks work on torsion, they absorb rotational force. To work they need to be built with 3 things in mind, 1) desired output, 2) amount of torque input 3) recoil time. Most shops using torque sticks do not use top shelf guns, they use 600-800lb/ft double or single hammer. Knowing this, the manufacturer of the torque sticks can design it to function properly My clutch type nitro cat states specifically it can NOT be used with torque sticks as it does not allow for recoil of the stick. Most shops also require you use the next value lower (by a min of 5lb/ft) stick than final torque and finish by hand with torque wrench.

They work and there fairly accurate, and better than the tried and true put it on as tight as you can method

Ok I got it now . one ugah no dugah and its about close. 😆

Thats why I do my own so I know that its done right, and not rely on a Torque stick. I have had over torqued lugs before from a shop.

As someone who has used torque sticks almost everyday for 5 years all I have to say is you have to know your impact gun and listen to it or you might under or over.

The moment point of torque is where the female portion of the torque stick is located... When using a deep socket versus a shallow socket you effectively change the length of perpendicular measure of the moment measurement thus affecting the torque value ...basically the length of the torque stick extension with the socket length do change torques using different length sockets and/or socket extension lengths...I totally agree on testing out each torque stick with what that person is using... And also agree on the type of gun to use... I have both the Milwaukee guns and the large impact one is accurate but the mid gun varies too much and I believe is to do with blows per minute rating and power delivery.. I only use the midrange for lower torque requirements...

There are so many factors, and one of the biggest in my mind (having worked for a company that does torque calibration) is that impact is your problem. The impact causes the tool/meter/rod to feel less torque than is being applied because the force being perpendicular to the threads creates more clearance between the threads of the nut and bolt, but when it rebounds, the the threads re-compress on each other creating a higher final torque. When we used DC nutrunners, the final torque or loosening torque would actually be slightly less than the metered torque. We also had pulse pneumatic tools, which are more accurate and actually provide a better breakaway torque. The pulse tools "hammer" parallel to the threads rather than perpendicular to the threads.

How you use torque sticks is as follows... -Throw tires on -Use torque stick and preferred impact -final torque lug nuts with torque wrench, if done correctly you should get no more then 90 degrees, this is for speed. Flat rate. Torque sticks are very reliable, but you never use a tool like this for your final torque. It is irresponsible and not something a qualified mechanic will ever tell you to do. They are designed to allow torque to break so you can move fast in a shop with your high powered tools. I personally use a 65lb stick on passenger vehicles. Also, ONE click and move on. Never "check" it again by clicking it over and over. They do work and you will find they are reliable in delivering a consistent torque. What you worry about most is your driving tools ability to insure the lives of the people whose vehicle you are promising is safe to operate. I get in fights with junior mechanics about this and my answer is always the same. Hand torque wheels or get out.

This is great. I treat torque sticks as a way to ensure you are close. I carry a dewalt mid range cordless impact, lug sockets, and torque sticks in my trunk for quick side of the road tire changes and it’s great for being in the ball park. Which is way closer than if you use a long breaker bar etc. for home use I use a stock 10-20 ft lb less than final torque and always finish torque using that. I’d much rather have and use these than not.

Harbor freight sells torque wrenches also......torque it and move on already!!!

Lug nuts aren’t THAT critical. Torque sticks should be fine.

“Don’t care what the instructions say about calibrating to your gun” yet the issue up until that statement is that the torque sticks aren’t precise. Aaaaaand thats enough of that video then.

Just buy a torque wrench, one tool does all...for any wheel nut if you don't know by feel, then just give a burst with the gun then once all are in position then use the torque wrench to click them to the preset load..

the empactions per second between the two impacts might also make a difference.

I feel a little better about torque sticks after watching the video, especially if the HF tools passed muster. But 1000 lb/ft torque from a 1/2" cordless tool? I don't know when the definition of a lb/ft changed but it never ceases to amaze me how the ratings of impact wrenches keep going higher and higher. Does anyone realize what 1000 lb/ft really is? I work with some bigger heavier stuff and I have a 1" impact. 1000 lb/ft is way too tight for even the old 10 bolt Budd lugs on big truck wheels. There's no way on God's green earth that little 1/2" wrench will get anywhere near that torque. I'm envisioning me out on the end of a 10ft piece of pipe putting 100 pounds of pull on it to tighten a 1" bolt. And that 1/2" cordless tool is going to get that same bolt that tight? Sorry I turned this into a rant on impact wrench ratings, I just got on a roll! And btw, I "liked" the video!

3 ughas lol good to stop then

Never heard of a torque stick. Find them to be interesting. But will just tighten and then torque wrench like I always have.

The difference in mass of the socket will affect the result - all other things being equal... as it will change the dynamic of the function of the torque stick. Great video tho.

Poor lug nuts they went from looking mint to completed chewed up in seconds. No thanks!

I always run the lug nuts down on a low to medium setting with the impact and then finish with a torque wrench. This is how I do it for my car at 90ft lbs, pickup at 130ft lbs, and semi at 500ft lbs. Using torque sticks would simply be an extra step for me since I would still want to verify using a torque wrench.

Deep sockets have more mass so it alowes the tool to keep tightening because of the weight and mass during rotation also has to do with the smaller hammers spinning faster in the mid torque as well

Torque sticks aren't as bad as people make them out to be, it comes down to the operator not the tool. Like you said as long as you know how to use them properly, don't keep hammering away when they stop, and test them with a torque wrench to get a feel for them, you're golden. After I got mine I spent a couple weeks verifying the torque on every car and I've been 100% confident since then.

Torque sticks were designed to be used with pneumatic impact wrenches. They've been around for decades. I used to use them in a shop when I was young. The way that they were intended to be used is with a couple of solid taps following running the lug nut down. This is of course in the star pattern; first running all of the nuts down, and then tapping them twice on the second round. This may actually get better results with electric impact wrenches; given that torque is traded for RPMs in them. I'm not sure though. It's an interesting test just the same. Thanks for sharing.

I have the H.F. torque sticks and they work great. Some bozos see the Pittsburgh brand name and assume that H.F. has their own factory in China where they make everything. These torque sticks are made in Taiwan and are most likely sold under an number of brand names. Yes, it does matter if you calibrate your impact wrench to your torque sticks, that's exactly why you are not getting correct results and exactly why the maker of the tool tells you to do so. I use my mid-range cordless with no problems. More mass equals greater hitting power. There are sockets that are made just to remove Honda crank bolts. They have greater mass for a reason. Never assume a torque wrench, even a new one, is correct. I returned a brand new Craftsman Digi-Click because it was 16 pounds foot over at 100 - that's pretty substantial. I verified this with my digital torque adapters, (two different ones for verification). They can be had for as little as $30US. Don't get too pedantic about torquing your wheels. Even the best torque wrench is going to measure different from click-to-click. I used whatever wrench that came with the car for almost 35 years before using a torque wrench and never had a problem. If you watch the old racing videos on RU-vid, they never used a torque wrench when building a car - or for pit stops either.

I use sticks and have found them to be usefully accurate @+/-2%. As long as your impact wrench can do 400+Lb/Ft they seem to be pretty good. I have the DeWalt DCF899 which kicks @ 700lb/ft forward and 1200lb/ft reverse. I believe that the higher torque impacts produce enough power to allow the sticks to do what they were designed to do...flex and absorb torque applied over a predetermined rating. Mid torque wrenches might "stay under the radar" as it were and possibly over tighten fasteners to the limit of the tool if they don't hit hard enough to flex the stick. My .02Cdn!

What I learned from this video: To stop tightening a bolt once its at the correct tightness.

I use to send my torque wrenches out and have them calibrated once a year, now I just calibrate them myself.

The thing about engineers is they know how things work in the real world vs what's actually, really, physically going on, so you might be mistaken in thinking we have all the answers for you, but I think I can provide some insight on this issue nonetheless. A torque stick relies upon friction; friction within a lattice of, basically, iron atoms, laced with alloys and carbon atoms... a mix which we commonly refer to as steel. Now, the thing about friction is, it's made up of two parts: static friction and dynamic friction. I.e. the force required to get it moving and the force required to keep it moving are different, where the dynamic friction is lower. And, basically, torque sticks ride that equilibrium: they're weak enough so pneumatic and full torque electric impact tools, initially, smash through the static fase, but then get limited by the mallibility of the material, whereas medium torque electric tools never quiclky overcome initial friction and, thus, end up overtorquing fasteners.

I always used a stick 20 pounds lower and finished with a torque wrench. Just to be safe lol

I have been doing this for 40 years and here's my take on it. If I grab an 80 lb stick and it torques within 5 to 7 lb, that's no different and using the torque wrench that's been laying in your toolbox for the last 10 years and never being out for recalibration. Why do you think most Snap-on dealers have installed torque wrench Checkers on their truck now? To sell re calibration service because they know 90% of the torque wrenches in tool boxes are not calibrated. If I get them to within 5 or 7 lb my customers can get them off, they're even so I'm not going to warp a rotor, and I am doing a lot more to get them right then the other 50% of technician population that Just throws a socket on a gun and hammers them down.

you can hear how many more impacts per minute the mid-tech has. This wont allow the steel in the torque stick to fully recoil in between impacts therefor allowing it to continue to tighten and wow thanks RU-vid for a 2 year old video

Wheel Torque is not that critical if you know what you are doing. Can you say warped rotor, I can use my Impact alone to get desired results. Within reason, I would say that sequence is way more important than the torque. Torque Sticks are perfectly fine + - 10 ft lbs will not cause a problem whereas improper sequence can make all the difference. But hey, that is just a 40 Year guess.

OK OK Here is another know it all >>> ( ME )

This correlateds perfectly with my experience! Thank you for clarifying the reason!!! My experience is some shops having delivered very close together (+/- 5-10%) using torque sticks and other having HUGE differences, to the point where a brand new tire, perfectly balanced, would feel like unbalanced. Because of this i've always redone the nuts/bolts at home

50sKid Are those shiny bits METAL shavings in the lug wells you're testing? Spec or not, I'd be a LITTLE concerned if I were removing material under the head of ANY fastener I was tightening.

I have the Harbor Freight torque sticks and they are very accurate. I use them with a mid-torque Ryobi 300 lbs/ft cordless impact wrench. The deep well socket carries more inertia and can *_possibly_* cause the lug nuts to slightly over-tighten. That's one of the reasons you are supposed to calibrate your pneumatic impact wrench for each torque stick - each torque stick has a different weigt. If you've ever seen the socket they sell for removing crank bolts, it has a lot of mass. The reason being, an impact does not supply constant torque, it's on-off-on-off. The more mass you have spinning, the harder it is going to hit. If you were to tighten a lug nut with something that supplies constant torque, then mass does not affect the equation. Thus, using a torque stick with something that supplies constant torque, it absolutely will not work properly, it will supply the same amount of torque as is being applied by the tool.

borrow a dial torque wrench and test again.

Great video. Fwiw, are you sure you're using the correct socket size? It appears fresh metal is being chewed up and spit out when you tighten. Maybe I'm wrong.

Saw 50skid in front of Pearl Harbor Freight chasing his runaway BMW rim after all the lug nuts snapped

I am an engineer. This is a complicated subject in many ways and I don’t claim to 100% understand it either. Part of the issue is static vs dynamic friction. That is the reason that the only proper way to achieve correct torque is to use a torque wrench that is also used properly. The fastener must be torqued in one smooth uninterrupted motion. If the motion is stopped short of the proper torque, you must loosen the fastener and start again. Static friction is often 10-30% higher than dynamic friction. Look up the tables of coefficients of friction and you can see the difference for different materials. So, once you stop torquing a fastener, you can’t start again and get an accurate torque unless the new torque value is well above the difference in friction coefficients. For example, let’s say for clean, dry steel on steel as with lug nuts or bolts, that the static friction coefficient is 20% higher than the dynamic coefficient. Let’s torque the fasteners to 100 lb-ft and stop. Since this involved smooth motion, the applicable coefficient of friction is the dynamic one. However, to get the fastener to move again, we have to overcome static friction. Since that is 20% higher than dynamic friction, this means that you need at least 120 lb-ft of torque to get the lug nut or bolt to turn at all. So, you simply can’t accurately change its torque to any value between 100 and 120. As soon as the fastener moves with the 120 lb-ft torque applied, it will either go quickly to 120 lb-ft or, if you stop quickly enough, it will land at some indeterminant value between 100 and 120. Impact wrenches use impact to overcome static friction, but this makes it very hard to hit a specific torque value as it is hard to know how far past the static friction point the fastener will go once in the dynamic friction regime. That is why I use air or electric tools only to loosen and remove fasteners, never to torque them, unless they are fasteners where the torque value is simply not that critical. I consider holding my wheels on to be critical, so I only hand torque the wheel fasteners on my cars.

100-150 ft lbs is fine for mid size cars... this isnt nascar, i like atleast 100ftlbs i usually set the torque wrench to 120 if i use it but other times ill just go straight impact on it and rattle it on... even if it goes up to 150ft lbs thats alot better than the 300-700ft lbs the impact guns put out.. ive never seen anyone break or stretch a stud with an impact gun.. it can just make them a bear to get off, epecially if you have a flat tire and a small tire iron in the winter when its -20 out

First thing I do when I get new tires go home, get out my breaker bar, loosen the lug nuts, set torque wrench to appropriate torque and torque them down.

Are we testing h.f. torque sticks with a h.f. torque wrench?

Your results are differing between sockets because one is a shallow 6 point, and one is a deep 12 point. The deep 12 point transfers alot more vibration

Throw them in the trash bin and use your torque wrench,so many variables like battery charge,air pressure,elasticity of different sockets(yes each socket is different and you proved that) then add how many times that nut or bolt has been stretched. The type of wheel steel on aluminum. Bottom line they are garbage. It only take a few minutes longer to do it right.

This is the closest thing I came to a "torque" wrench from Eastern Europe. Its not ftlbs, its merely lbs (technically daN instead of daN x m ). I has to lever to multiple, so its like a long extension with a needle that measures how much it twists. I think its absolutely dumb, as the size of the bolt will change the reading, since the diameter becomes the arm for the force.... Im trying to find what these things would even be called in English since I never came across them (I am a certified aircraft mechanic and diesel mechanics). In the manual to one of the vehicles I own, they mention this...at first I thought it was a type but all the measurements were just force, not force times distance (It was in the chapter on differentials). Why would they do this? Don't know...but Im left in a pickle now. What torque do they come out to...

This whole video and all it's comments have two kinds of people to thank for this sort of crap. Lawyers and Insurance salesmen. They ruined the world and called it progress. We're seriously arguing about how to tighten a bolt ffs. What's next? You used too large a hammer and this roof is not insured?

Thanks for the time & effort you took to make this video. I appreciate you much. It was absolutely a help for my wondering mind. You are well spoken and thorough and not a whole lot of BS lol. Thanks again...

I have the same Harbor Freight set and use a 2yr old Harbor freight air impact at home that's not as strong as it was new, but still quite capable, however .I always follow up with a torque wrench afterwards and usually find they often will tighten some more with torque wrench after before it clicks , Some times I'll intentionally use the 100 ft blue one and find my torque wrench set at 80ft lbs still might even budge one or two. I don't care to have to keep laying into a noodle with an impact gun for more than 2 second per nut to reach the stick rated torque.

Your video combined with the corroboration of the engineer make this the best torque stick video on You Tube. And from some other comments, what we have here is metered Ugga Duggas! All the Ugga Duggas that would exceed the desired torque get absorbed out by the torsion in the stick. Useless Ugga Duggas, but none the less satisfying.

There is no proof the clock stretches the bolt or torques it more. When it “breaks” or releases, you only torque it more if you had so much force that the click made you speed up with your force and when the torque wrench head caught again because it couldn’t break away a second time....then maybe it could add a few inch lbs. But it’s a wives tale. I do two clicks for my own soul to realize that specific bolt was actually torqued. One two or three clicks is like arguing about a car driving the 1/4 mile faster with helium in the tires....

Great video bud personally I use the low setting on the torque gun then I use my torque to tighten them to specifications, it takes a little longer but it also shows the customer a little satisfaction by hearing the click of the wrench

I'm a industrial Mechanic Millwright and I have a set in my tool box, never used it ever. Torque wrench is more precise.

Right on. I've noticed a similar difference with the stubby 1/2 drive impact Mac tools make, compared to the big red brick Snap-on makes. The little 1/2 stubby has a faster impacting drive mechanism in the construction of the gun. My thought is it can hammer the torque stick multiple times before the stick can relax its twisting motion and therefore double hammering the stick. The sticks were designed in an era where the impact drive action on the guns had less impacting. I've run into this as well. Impact sticks save a lot of time and are safe to use once you understand how the work and use within there design. Just my 2 cents. Love your video. Great work. Please if someone knows different correct me if I'm wrong.

Video is a little old now, but has anyone tried using torque sticks with Milwaukee mid torque on power level 2 instead of 3 for less BPMs with short sockets?

If you don't have an impact gun that's way over torqued, they work fine

Off topic question: How do torque sticks behave when used as extension between torque wrench and socket?

Thanks 50s Kid, I thought this was good input, I have been doing similar testing kinda on the fly with mostly 1inch guns and adjusting the air regulator close to the gun,I have concluded that bigger slower guns are easier to tell than the smaller faster guns that want to keep tightening, the pressure can be regulated near the compressor, but the psi near the gun may need to be increased, as things wear psi may need to be increased, as things are replaced psi may need to be decreased, in a big shop it's hard to get cooperation so we had to go with at the compressor and use the service truck for the tough ones, Thanks for posting.

This video did not need to be 13 minutes.