Torque Talk

[Marvo]

Quite often I find my self doing the torque up and still checking again afterwards by hand as I don't trust the torque screwdriver

I honestly don't think you can beat an experienced hand/arm when it comes to making good connections

Is that a lack of trust in the accuracy of the screwdriver or lack of trust in the manufacturers published torque spec?

When you say you recheck by hand afterwards do you mean you 'tug test' the wires or you go again with a normal screwdriver?

 

[davesparks]

Howany electricians using torque screwdrivers actually know how to use them properly?

 

[LukeD]

If you don't have one in your tool bag, and you ever find yourself in court defending an installation such as a consumer unit that has e.g. overheated or caught fire, how do you explain how you did the terminals up to manufacturer's instructions. My college tutor used to tell a story about this, of someone being cross examined about the contents of their tool bag after such an occurence, they didn't see where the questioning was leading.

Always have whats legally required. Down to you if you want to use it , But have it

 

[littlespark]

I’ve got a torque driver, only gets used on boards though. I don’t go back and retighten with a regular screwdriver…. That’s just pointless.
I will, however, check every terminal in a board even if I’m just working on one circuit… although that only finds loose connections, not over-tightened ones.

Someone else on here has my ones twin.

It came with a #1 and a #2 +/- bit which I manage to break the tip off the smaller one on an RCBO at not very much N/m setting (warranty replacement, got both sizes in return)

Also the one I have doesn’t fit any other brand of driver bit. Just slightly too small.

And final gripe, the increments go up in .2 so 1.0, 1.2, 1.4 etc
When most published torque settings for MCBs and the like end in .5


In a response to some other comments….

“I’ve done loads of boards without a torque driver, and none have gone on fire”……
That you know of. Maybe further work has been done, which has been blamed.

“Always have what’s legally required. Down to you if you use it”
This is sadly true. How many instances of drive by EICRs have we seen where the £1000 MFT has never left its box.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Is that a lack of trust in the accuracy of the screwdriver or lack of trust in the manufacturers published torque spec?

When you say you recheck by hand afterwards do you mean you 'tug test' the wires or you go again with a normal screwdriver?

Go back round checking with a normal Screwdriver

 

[Rockingit]

Hey Stranger! Good to see you - was beginning to wonder if all was OK.

As for Torque screwdrivers..... I've got one, bottom on the toolbag, never been asked to show it on any inspection ever! It's not VDE and it's also never been calibrated, but it does do a really good job of holding my extra-wide flat bit for doing up tray bolts

 

[slartybartfast]

The wiring regulations (Regs) themselves do not mandate the use of torque screwdrivers.

However they state at 134.1.1 that "the installation shall take account of manufacturers' instructions".

The word "Shall" in British Standards means a requirement, or in plain English a MUST.

So the Regs state that you MUST take manufacturers instructions into account.

However it is odd that the Regs do not explicitly mandate that the manufacturers' instructions are adhered to.

Even if you MUST adhere to manufacturers' instructions, they do tend to be rather vague and very poorly written. Very few state categorically that connections MUST be set to specified torque.

Quite why this is so vague is beyond me, rather inexcusable of British Standards in my book.

Read into that what you will. I read into all this that torque screwdrivers are optional but can see that in some cases use of them is good professional practice; maybe that is the real intent behind the vague language from British Standards.

 

[DPG]

The wiring regulations (Regs) themselves do not mandate the use of torque screwdrivers.

However they state at 134.1.1 that "the installation shall take account of manufacturers' instructions".

The word "Shall" in British Standards means a requirement, or in plain English a MUST.

So the Regs state that you MUST take manufacturers instructions into account.

However it is odd that the Regs do not explicitly mandate that the manufacturers' instructions are adhered to.

Even if you MUST adhere to manufacturers' instructions, they do tend to be rather vague and very poorly written. Very few state categorically that connections MUST be set to specified torque.

Quite why this is so vague is beyond me, rather inexcusable of British Standards in my book.

Read into that what you will. I read into all this that torque screwdrivers are optional but can see that in some cases use of them is good professional practice; maybe that is the real intent behind the vague language from British Standards.

You've answered your own point about why the regs say that manufacturer's instructions do not have to be strictly adhered to - if we did that with some of the badly written/translated rubbish that often comes with items these days then it wouldn't go well !

 

[slartybartfast]

You've answered your own point about why the regs say that manufacturer's instructions do not have to be strictly adhered to - if we did that with some of the badly written/translated rubbish that often comes with items these days then it wouldn't go well !

Quite why this is so confusing is mind boggling....

 

[DPG]

Quite why this is so confusing is mind boggling....

What's confusing? The regs say manufacturer's instructions should be taken account of. That's not confusing.