Thought torque sticks were a gimmick for lazy hands, then a guy in Gary let me test his on a 6 inch flange

Riley Carr · 2026-10-15T11:30:04.398513+00:00

I always figured torque sticks were for guys who didn't want to learn how to feel a bolt pull up right. Been swinging a spud wrench and a torque wrench for 11 years on boiler work and I never trusted anything between my arm and the nut. Last Tuesday a fella named Dale out of Gary, Indiana handed me his 1 inch drive set on a header flange and told me to just run them down with the impact. I was sure it was going to either under torque or snap a stud. We pulled 32 studs on that flange and every one of them hit spec when I checked with the torque wrench after. Number 8 stud on the bottom row came in at 300 foot pounds on the nose, same as the stick rating. I still don't use them on critical joints without a recheck but I ate my words on that one. Any of you run torque sticks on boiler flanges or do you still do everything by hand?

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Thought torque sticks were a gimmick for lazy hands, then a guy in Gary let me test his on a 6 inch flange | Boilermakers - Rigidtalk