Wilsons Sandbox

Someone was talking about the Scorpion but I don't recall which type they were talking about...I am mostly on the asphalt. Allen-Forestville-Sonoma County-CA

You can improvise a torque wrench for tight places using a hand held spring scale & a box end wrench. Torque is a force applied at the end of a radial distance, perpendicular to the radius. So all that is needed to torque a bolt is to use the spring scale to pull a certain force perpendicular to the wrench a certain distance from the bolt center. An example is a bolt that needs 40 inch-pounds of torque (a force of 40 pounds at a radius of one inch from the bolt center). Here is how you would torque it using a spring scale & regular box end wrench. First measure the distance on the wrench from the center of the box to the point where you will hook the spring scale. If the distance were six inches you would only use 1/6 of the force at that point to give you the proper torque on the bolt. You can hook the scale any distance you want up to the wrenches max length. In this example if you pull the force with the spring scale at a distance of 4 inches from the bolt center you will only need to pull 10 pounds (1/4 of 40 inch-lbs.) to get the 40 inch- pounds of torque. It would work the opposite if you were doing foot- pounds with a wrench that was less than a foot long. Ex.: If you were tightening a bolt to 10 ft-lbs. & pulling the force over a 6 inch, 1/2 ft., distance you would need to pull a force of 20 lbs. to get 10 ft-lbs. of torque. The thing to remember is to pull the force perpendicular to the wrench so all the force goes to torque the bolt. You can pick up a reasonable accurate spring scale relatively cheap at a fishing tackle shop. The one I have only goes to 28 lbs., but a 50-lb. scale would be more useful. Pete Chester A16