A torque wrench is a tool that tightens bolts to a specific amount. It helps make sure you don’t tighten them too loose or too tight, which can cause problems later.
“Torqued to spec” means you tighten the bolt to the exact number the maker says to use. That number is there to keep the parts clamped correctly and safely.
Over-tightening is when you tighten a bolt more than it should be. That can stretch the bolt or damage the threads, which can cause the joint to fail sooner.
“OE applications” means how the factory designs and builds the car. It’s about the official specs used during mass production so the parts fit and stay tight the same way every time.
The idea is that tightening bolts the same way every time is safer. If bolts aren’t tightened consistently, joints can leak or parts can wear out faster.
A beam-style torque wrench works by bending a bar when you tighten a bolt. A pointer shows you how tight you’ve made it, so you can stop at the right setting.
“Quarter inch” is the size of the wrench’s drive square that the socket attaches to. Different drive sizes fit different sockets, and smaller ones are often used for smaller fasteners.
A “full electronic” torque wrench measures tightening force with electronics and shows it on a screen. Some electronic models can also track the turning angle, which is useful for certain tightening procedures.
“Torque to yield” is a way to tighten a bolt so it stretches a little in a controlled manner. Instead of just stopping at a certain torque, you tighten it until the bolt reaches a point where it’s permanently stretched, which helps clamp the parts together more consistently.
Clamping load is the compressive force a tightened fastener applies to the parts it’s joining. In engine and chassis joints, getting the right clamping load matters because it helps prevent joint separation and controls how much the joint can move under load.
Friction in the joint is the “drag” from the bolt threads and the underside of the bolt head. That drag uses up some of your tightening force, so the bolt may not clamp the parts as tightly as the torque number suggests.
The yield level is the point where a material stops acting like a spring and starts staying stretched. Torque-to-yield tightening uses that controlled stretch to get a consistent clamp.
A plastic zone is the area that gets permanently stretched. If you can control where that happens, you can make the bolt’s clamping force more predictable.
The head gasket is a seal between the engine block and the cylinder head. It helps keep coolant, oil, and combustion gases from leaking into the wrong places.
Rust on the bolt threads makes them harder to turn because of extra friction. That can throw off how tight the bolt actually ends up clamping things together.
Axial clamp force is how hard the bolt pulls the two parts together. Even if you tighten to a certain torque, friction can make the actual “clamping” be higher or lower than you expect.
The plastic stretch region is the part of a bolt’s stress-strain behavior where it deforms permanently. Tightening into this region is what makes torque-to-yield strategies rely on controlled bolt stretch for consistent clamping.
Foot-pounds is the unit used to measure how much twisting force you apply with a torque wrench. Tightening to a certain ft-lb number doesn’t always guarantee the same clamping force because friction can change the outcome.
Bolt stretch is how much the bolt elongates when you tighten it. Think of it like a spring: the amount it stretches is what helps determine how tightly it clamps the parts together.
A head bolt is a big bolt that holds the engine’s top part (the cylinder head) tightly to the bottom part (the engine block). If it’s not tightened correctly, the seal can fail and the engine can start leaking. That’s why mechanics pay close attention to how they tighten it.
Warranty numbers are basically how many problems show up after customers own the car. If a certain step—like tightening a bolt correctly—goes wrong, it can lead to warranty claims. The speaker is using that data to show why precision matters.
Term
OE
OE means the manufacturer’s original parts and specs. The idea is that the company tracks how often things fail under warranty when their parts are installed the way they intended. That helps show which steps—like tightening bolts—are truly critical.
Quantum Tools is the company being brought up because they make tools used for accurate tightening. The hosts are saying that having the right tool matters when you’re tightening critical engine fasteners. A guest from the company will explain how that precision helps.
Friction coefficient is a way of describing how “grippy” the surfaces are where the bolt turns. If friction is higher or lower than expected, the same torque wrench setting can tighten the bolt differently. That can affect whether the gasket is clamped correctly.
It’s a wrench that tightens or loosens bolts without you having to take it off and reposition it every time. Instead, it clicks as you move it, so it works in tight spaces where a normal wrench would be too awkward.
They’re talking about two ways to loosen/tighten bolts: a wrench that has the ratcheting built in, versus a socket with a ratchet tool attached. In tight spots, one setup may fit better than the other.
Some bolts are tightened using both force and rotation. “Click-to-angle” means the tool can do a normal click-based torque setting, and then switch to measuring the turning angle after the bolt is already tightened partway. That helps you hit the exact tightening spec the manufacturer wants.
A go-no-go gauge is a quick check for whether something is within the right tolerance. If it passes the “go” side, it’s okay; if it hits the “no-go” side, it’s not. It’s basically a pass/fail measurement tool.
Snug torque is the “first tighten” that removes looseness and makes the parts sit correctly. After that, you do the final tightening using the specified angle steps.
Seating torque is the first tightening step that “sets” the parts together firmly. It helps make sure the later tightening steps clamp everything evenly.
A torque spec is the exact tightening value the car maker wants for a bolt. It’s like the “correct tightness” number you’re supposed to hit with the torque wrench.
Calibrating means the tool checks itself so its readings are accurate. Some torque wrenches need you to set them down and let them “zero in” before you start tightening by angle.
The “accumulation effect” is about keeping track of the total turning you still need. If the tool resets when you back off, you have to continue from where you left off so you still end up at the required total angle.
Term
angle percentage
This is about tightening bolts by turning them a certain amount of angle, not just hitting a torque number. The tool has to keep track of that turning amount accurately.
An accelerometer is a sensor that detects how something is moving or changing speed. In this tool, it helps figure out the motion/position so tightening can be more accurate.
They’re saying to imagine the bolt as a clock: start at “noon,” then turn it until you reach the target number of degrees. It’s a way to guess the turn amount if you can’t measure it precisely.
This is a method where you tighten a bolt to a starting point, then turn it further by a measured angle. Instead of relying only on a torque wrench, you use the “degrees of turn” to get the bolt tight correctly.
Term
Guten angle
“Guten angle” sounds like they’re referring to a method that tightens bolts by turning them a specific amount of degrees. It’s basically the same angle-based tightening idea they were describing with the clock.
“Torque mode” means the tool tightens a bolt until it hits a specific tightness number. That’s different from tightening by angle, where you tighten a certain amount of rotation.
Elastic deformation is temporary stretching or bending: when the load is removed, the material returns to its original shape. In fastener tightening, the elastic range is where the bolt behaves like a spring and can still “bounce back.”
Plastically deformed means the metal has been stretched past the point where it can spring back. It stays changed, which is why torque-to-yield tightening is about controlled stretching.
A torque setting is the amount of “tightening force” your tool is set to apply to a bolt. If it’s set wrong, the bolt can either come loose or get damaged. Here, they’re discussing setting the tool to the torque you want, then releasing it afterward.
The spring inside the torque tool is what helps it apply a consistent tightening force. If you leave it compressed or loaded, it can change over time. They’re saying to release that spring tension when you’re done.
Permanent set means the tool’s spring gets “stuck” in a slightly changed shape after being loaded for too long. If that happens, the tool may tighten bolts with the wrong force. That’s why they recommend backing off the spring when you’re done.
Term
ISO
ISO is a set of official standards used to make sure calibration and testing are done in a consistent, documented way. If a tool is ISO-certified, it usually means someone checked it against standards and wrote down the results. The point is that pro shops keep tools accurate and accountable.
A “cycle” is basically one tightening job where the wrench is loaded. Manufacturers test how many of those tightenings a torque wrench can handle before it starts getting inaccurate. The idea is: more heavy use means you may need recalibration sooner.
That phrase means the torque wrench isn’t perfectly exact—it can be a little high or a little low. The amount is usually only a few percent. So even if you set a number, the real tightening might be slightly different, but typically not by a huge amount.
Term
breaker bolt
A “breaker bolt” here means a bolt that’s stuck and won’t loosen easily. The hosts are saying people sometimes grab a torque wrench to force it loose, but that’s not what torque wrenches are for.
A breaker bar is a heavy-duty bar you use to loosen stuck bolts. It gives you leverage for breaking them free, unlike a torque wrench which is meant for measuring exact tightness.
A micro click is a small, audible/feelable signal produced by the wrench’s internal mechanism when the target torque is reached. It’s described here as the “click” that lets the user know they’ve hit the set torque before the mechanism becomes effectively a solid joint.
A strain gauge is a sensor that detects how much something bends or flexes. In a torque wrench, it helps the wrench figure out how much twisting force (torque) you’re applying.
Angle mode means the wrench is counting how many degrees you turn, instead of directly measuring the twisting force. It can be useful, but it doesn’t tell you exactly how much torque you’re producing at every instant.
A load cell is a sensor that measures how much force is being applied. In torque tools, it’s part of how the wrench senses the twisting force.
Term
tensor
Here, “tensor” is the part inside the wrench that flexes when you apply force. That flex is what the strain gauges use to figure out the torque reading.
Metallurgy is basically how metal is engineered so it’s strong and lasts. For a torque wrench, the metal has to hold up without bending so the measurements stay correct.
The phrase “science in bolts” points to the idea that fasteners aren’t just generic hardware—bolt material, thread design, and manufacturing quality affect how they stretch and clamp parts. That’s why using the correct torque and quality fasteners matters for safety and repeatable assembly.
LIVE
It is the two guys who are out of podcasts.
He's Kevin Byrd.
I'm really being today.
We are talking tools, you guys.
Uh, those little devices that help us so significantly in the old shop, the garages, the weekend
warriors are, you know, the full-on guys do it nine to five, man.
Without right tools, you were, you were stuck.
You're nobody.
Yeah, man.
You're nobody without the tools, man.
Let me see you take a car apart with your fingers.
Yeah.
It ain't gonna happen.
It ain't gonna happen.
Well, think about it, man, from a mechanics standpoint, right?
Think about your toolbox, everything you have in there, right?
What's probably the most critical tool in a mechanics box for overall quality, right?
There's a lot of tools that get you out of jams, a lot of tools that make you money.
Sure.
But what's the one tool or tools that really define a quality job that probably isn't used
enough to be honest, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, it's, for me, anyways, specialty tools that can just save your butt, you know, regardless
of the job, the manufacturer to make the model, there's some tools that can just save you.
And by save you, that's a big umbrella.
It could save you because it saves you so much time and get a job done.
It could save you because you know you got something done right.
You know, one of the first things that pops into mind, torque wrenches, you know, torque
wrenches, especially nowadays, you know, they're key, got to have everything torqued to spec.
And some things, you know, you're stunned at how little torque is needed so you don't
over tighten things, you know, or any type of specialty tool that you just rely on to
make sure the job is done right.
Oh, man, it's a it's unique, man, to have that tool, save come by, because
really, that's all it is.
When you think about a tool, it's just a way to save your butt on a job, right?
Yeah, we got a guy that's made all kinds of tools, which is probably not a guy on this
planet or even a team, right?
That's probably done more development and like creation and, you know, probably patents
and everything else moving the tool world forward than the guys who got on today, Steve
Argo.
But you nailed it with the torque wrench from a quality standpoint, so many tools that
get you out of a jam, reach where you got to reach, get the job done.
But almost every critical mechanics job probably should have a torque wrench applied on that
job.
Right?
Yeah.
And, you know, it's funny because, you know, I grew up through mechanics, but I also went
through engineering and going through engineering, you learn the engineering behind a fastener
and in a high volume like OE applications, you learn like tens of thousands or hundreds
of thousands of repetitions on something because as an individual guy, you can goot and tight
it, right?
You can torque something without a torque wrench and you're like, dude, that's tight,
right?
But when you run test after test after test, you realize that, oh shoot, most of those
stayed tight, but these didn't, right?
Most of these held the seal, but this one didn't, you know?
So anyway, there's the consistency and the quality that comes with the torque wrench.
But sometimes it's forgotten, but man, it is absolutely crucial with anything of like
high strength, clamp load, especially engines, powertrains, suspensions.
But anyway, we got the guy that's kind of doing a rethink on torque, torque wrenches,
right?
Kind of interesting.
It's funny because how do you remake a tool, especially when, yeah, you know, it's wild.
It's a wild thing to kind of wrap your head around.
Like, how do you go about re-engineering it, you know?
Remaking it so it's smarter.
We think it's already been figured out.
Yeah.
I mean, think about in our lifetime, right?
You went from like a beam style, you know?
It just has a little bar on it.
And when you torque it, it bends over and points at a number, you know?
And then we kind of got the clicker.
I was like, oh, I got the clicker, you know?
Pretty sweet.
And then the electronics came on.
You're like, well, where do you go from there, right?
You got a digital display.
The thing beeps at you, right?
You got your number right there blinking and then, you know, torque to yield, right?
Now you need torque and an angle, right?
So requirements have changed a little bit over the years.
But interesting enough, man, we're going to dive into this torque wrench and what could
you do with it that makes it, I don't know, maybe a better value, maybe more durable,
maybe more friendly, all kinds of things.
Like I said, we got one of the guys that's been doing tool remakes forever.
So what do we got?
Why don't we go to a break, man?
We can pull Steve right in and start diving into, right?
Not only this, but some of his past on, right?
All the things that he's touched.
It's been a really interesting story.
Yeah, tools is a touchy topic.
And we're back with it.
All right, it's the two guys around podcast.
He's Kevin Byrd and Willie B. We're back after the break.
It is the two guys around podcast.
He's Kevin Byrd and Willie B. And today we're talking tools, man.
All the tools that make that job, well, make that job stick.
And I mean, when you think about it, obviously, we all know tools come in handy,
they're lifesavers.
We all know what a torque wrench is.
We've all used it, but the evolution is, it's insane, isn't it?
When you think about it, like you were just missing before the break,
you know, you had the clicker, but you had that,
remember that one with the gauge and you just would like,
Yeah, a little beam, beam style.
The gauge would go, yeah, man.
I still got a little one that's actually pretty handy for really light stuff,
a quarter inch one.
Yeah, that's what I grew up.
My dad had the big, you know, three eighths or half inch drive.
Beam style.
And so when I got my clicker, I thought, I'm on top of the world.
Of course, that was a long time ago.
Right, right, right.
Right.
And then, couple years, couple years.
Yeah, you know, I finally, I upgraded,
it's been a couple of years now too,
but I upgraded to full electronic.
And I was like, man, this is the best.
And then I was like, damn it, it doesn't do angle.
Shoot, you know, like, right.
You're always chasing tools to some degree, you know, depending.
And Steve, Steve can break it down for us because it has changed.
You know, because now you're right.
You know, now there's tied it to this.
And then, you know, this much angle, that much degree.
What are they talking about?
It's wobb.
Yeah.
Steve, can you explain the torque to yield?
Do you have a good understanding of why that is?
Yeah, the torque to yield itself.
So it goes back, actually, it was after World War II
when they first decided that torque alone was inadequate
for getting a clamping load that you needed in a joint.
And they didn't know how to take it to that next level.
And they realized if I can put an angle in,
rather than, because what happens in a torque mode,
I lose up to 80 to 90% of torque is lost from,
to due to friction in a joint.
So to get the actual clamping load I needed,
I would have to give you a torque number that was very high.
And then they finally realized, let's turn it at an angle,
and we can actually have control torque that we're applying
because we're going to turn it 90 degrees
or 180 degrees, whatever that is.
So now I'm having a controlled level of torque into the joint.
And what happened to that was they had no way of measuring it.
So they eventually came out with electronic torque wrenches,
which had an angle feature,
which then allowed you to measure the angle that you were applying.
And now you're having a controlled level.
And when it happened was,
and they started saying if you're using torque to yield,
you're actually taking the torque wrench into the yield level
of the material, which is an unstable place.
And so they needed to control it.
So they developed torque to yield bolts,
which would neck down
so they can control that plastic zone where it's stretched.
Yeah.
And then they'd have a much more consistent clamping load.
No, 100%.
And if you think about, let's say the joint
you're trying to clamp together, head gasket, let's say, right,
it doesn't care at all about torque, right?
That's the twist, the turn on the fastener.
So if you think about the threads that are turning
and maybe grinding in there as you torque, right?
What if you had some rusty threads?
You're going to be torquing at a really high level.
And let's say they're super rusted and you go to the extreme,
you might not ever get the head of the fastener onto the part
because of friction on those threads, right?
Go to the other end and use super little bit,
right?
Now, all of a sudden, torque, you can be spinning those threads
and clamp over clamp, right?
So torque is a tough way of gauging the actual axial clamp
because of friction.
And friction can change by what lubrication you use,
what coating is on the fastener, right?
What condition the threads are in, a burr or you name it, right?
So torque to yield is trying, like you said,
get into that plastic stretch region of the fastener.
But you do it by, let's say, torquing at a low torque
where friction differences are low, right?
You're not at 100 foot-pounds, you know, you're at 40 foot-pounds
where you're just kind of spinning it in there,
you're getting things engaged.
And like you said, an engineer will figure out,
all right, from that point, what angle do I need to get that stretch, right?
We always think torque, but it's really the bolt stretch like a spring.
Exactly, exactly what it is.
So when you get that, when you turn that to a certain angle,
you're getting consistently on every fastener,
like you said, for the head bolt, the head,
you get up 10 fasteners on there and you want to get them all consistently
to make sure that that gasket is snug at the right level across the whole gasket.
Yeah, as mechanics, we, you know, I go back to that thing about
gluten tight, you know, we kind of go by feel and all that, but,
you know, look at warranty numbers on an OE.
They track every critical bolt, like every time you torque something,
it goes into a computer, right?
And they're trying to nail it perfectly, but somehow they're still warranty.
So it shows you how critical some of these things are
and why you need a good tool.
Well, that's why we have the president of Quantum Tools on to, you know,
to help us through that.
And it is one of those things that, I don't know,
when you think about it, right?
You think, like you said, that they've got this down,
but reality is it's pretty complicated.
All those weird torque and friction coefficients and all that stuff.
So you want something that you can rely on versus, you know, the old gas gauge,
you know, that needle that was, you know,
ah, it looks like it's about 25 pounds.
That's where I needed 35 pounds, whatever.
These tools that we're using today, man,
they make it so much easier and so much more precise
compared to, I don't see how anything's stayed together,
you know, a decade or two ago, to be honest, you know.
Well, a lot of stuff did rattle apart, right?
Like, you know, and we created all the wire on the nuts and things
to keep them from flying off.
And we're still doing some applications and racing stuff.
But I mean, if you have an engineered joint, right?
And that's what the OE is going to provide you with, right?
Your vehicle, it's going to give you the specs
because they've engineered the stretch, the clamp,
and they've, you know, gone through all sorts of different tests
and they said, boom, that's it.
But going back where you mentioned, Willie,
we've got the president of quantum,
but I mean, if we go back in time, right?
You started in aerospace, right, Steve?
Yeah, that's right, just like you.
So we've got an aerospace guy that then went into big time tools.
You're at DeWalt for well over a decade, right?
Yes, 12 years.
So yeah, you might be a red tool guy or a yellow tool guy,
but I don't think you can argue the fact that, man, these tools,
I'm out of the company, but you know, at DeWalt have come a long way.
I got a ton of them in my cabinets over here, my boxes.
So at DeWalt, man, you probably had,
and you got garden tools, you got mechanics tools,
you got all kinds of stuff that you were probably playing around with.
Was that a playground or what?
Yeah, it was like a playground.
I was really responsible for all the corded tools.
That was everything with a plug.
I didn't have the cordless side,
but I did have a responsibility for all the corded stuff.
So, you know, I've developed hundreds of products over here.
If, hey, if there's people listening right now that are like,
oh God, that was forever ago, but it really wasn't that long ago.
It's wild, man.
To think pneumatic and power tools and plugging things in,
right?
It wasn't that long ago that we were using a bunch of them,
and it's wild to think how quickly it's changed.
I still have friends that are still denying the cordless.
Like that's how recent it is.
What?
No, man, I'm not buying into it yet.
I'm still cording everything.
Oh, wow.
That is wild, man.
Probably almost every dude has in their box right now
is some version of the gear wrench.
Absolutely.
That was, that was, that was you, right?
You and your team?
Right.
We developed a ratcheting wrench.
It was the first product line, and then we expanded it
into a full line of hand tools.
Man.
That became the number one hand tool brand
within the downer company.
I tell you what, that style of wrench
is probably one of my favorite tools.
Yeah.
Right.
Oh, that was a game changer.
When those first came out, man, remember that.
You'd have to take a box in, lift it off of the bolt,
right, spin it, drive it back on the bolt,
rinse and repeat.
Yeah, man.
To get that thing ratcheting, that was a game changer
for so many of us.
Man.
All those tight spaces.
You just want a wrench in there and not a ratchet in the socket.
Geez.
And then a philosophy was very simple.
It was every box wrench that was made, we put a ratchet in it.
That was the first step.
We went across the board and everything,
and then we added some extra joints,
and then we just kept adding specialty tools,
and it grew from there.
Yeah, man.
And then you got into welders.
You're at ESOP, right?
Yeah.
Drove that welder.
The Rebel.
Yeah, all in one with, man, amazing technology going in there,
right?
You've got all the inverter type stuff,
and then you've got your multi-functions.
Yep, it's a multi-process welder.
Man.
All right.
So here we are.
Here we are.
You've ejected from these big companies,
and you said, man, I don't need any of that stuff.
I got ideas.
I got a team I've been working with for years.
I'm going to focus on quantum.
So tell us, what's your lineup?
And then I caught you at SEMA, and you really got my eye.
We had a couple of minutes, and you hooked me on,
you've got a hybrid.
Is that how you call it?
A hybrid style of torque converter?
Yeah, we hold a click-to-angle hybrid torque wrench.
So it's a click in the torque mode.
It's a clicker, and in the angle mode,
it's an electronic torque wrench.
So it's a true hybrid, and you get the best of both worlds then.
You get the speed and simplicity of a clicker,
and the accuracy and the digital display of an electronic torque wrench.
Well, hang on for a second, because you say the best of both worlds.
So, right, if I go back ignorantly, I thought I was upgrading years ago
when I went from clicker to electronic without the angle.
I got a computer in my tool.
So tell me a little bit about what happens in, let's say an electronic version,
what happens in a clicker style, and what does that mean from speed,
durability, calibrations, any of that stuff?
What's sort of the trade-off in the traditional electronic versus clicker?
So to give you a little bit of a side story,
are you familiar with a go-no-go gauge versus a measuring device?
Right?
So you want to measure a hole with a no-go-go gauge?
It's very fast.
You're detecting, and then if you want to measure it, it's a slow process.
A clicker is a detection device.
You set it, and you just get to the torque, and you click, and you're done.
You're not going 42-foot-pound, 43-44?
I'm measuring it, right?
So it's slower.
So when you look at a guy, and he's going to do, like we just did a
Lincoln 4.6 V8 engine, we put a new head on it, and it was 10 fasteners,
and each one has a six-step process to tighten it up.
So I had to put a seating torque, or what they call a snug torque, of 30-foot-pounds,
then I have to put 90 degrees in, then I have to turn it backwards for 360 degrees,
then I have to go and put a 30-foot-pounds in again,
then another 90 degrees, and another 90 degrees.
So each time I got to put the torque in, if I'm measuring it, it's going to take me a lot longer.
With the C2A, the click-to-angle, I can just go through and click each one,
and I'm done in the torque mode, and then I measure the angle.
So it's the fastest torque wrench in the market.
Nobody can keep up with the speed of it.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
I mean, there's 20 bolts on that engine alone.
There were 20 bolts that had to be done, 10 on each head.
Yeah, anybody who's used one of these clicker style, you can just kind of not even look,
right? You're just, boom, swing and click, oh, swing and click.
It's a whole tactile and audible kind of boom.
There you go, right? Like I said, I never really thought about it like a go-no-go gauge.
So Steve, I got a question for you.
Is this torque wrench, does it eliminate the need to set it on a counter?
Here's what I ran up against for a couple of cars on Christmas.
On the torque wrench I have, to do the angle, you would have a torque spec and then an angle.
You would have to set the torque wrench down on a counter, zero it out or spec it out.
You have to go over to your fastener, get the socket on it, and you would torque the angle.
Let's say you're looking at a clock like the bolt.
Let's say you're going three to six, but you have interference at the six,
and you're still not at the angle.
You still got to back the torque wrench back up to the four, and continue the gap from the four
to the six, if that makes sense, to continue that angle.
But it resets the torque wrench, you know what I'm saying?
So you have to ratchet the angle part of it, and it would reset every time you did that.
Does that make sense in how I'm explaining it?
I think you have two things you talked about just then.
So first thing is, when you go into the angle mode of most torque wrenches, electronic torque
wrenches, you have to place it down and let it calibrate itself.
Yes.
As far as you don't want to do that, you just push the A button for the angle,
put it on the fastener, you hit the power button to get it into the active mode, and you go.
You don't have to calibrate it.
And then the second thing you were talking about, I believe, was the accumulation effect,
whereas if I'm trying to put a 45-degree angle, but I can only turn it, say, five degrees at a time.
Correct.
So I keep ratcheting it up, and it'll accumulate until you get to your full requirement,
at your target angle, and then it'll let you know you're there.
So yours does that, yours accrues the angle?
Because the one I have doesn't do that, and you lose your position if you have interference,
or if you've stopped to stop, you lose.
Yeah, no, we got it.
Oh, man.
You can do that.
All right, that's crazy.
Nice.
So what is in there that allows that?
Like, what is reading the angle?
And then, yeah, if you have to ratchet, you're going, let's say you're going to 90 degrees,
you can go 45, and then you got to swing back and add another 45.
All right.
What's in there that's calculating?
Hold on, Steve.
Hold that thought, because I want the full-length version of it,
and we're up against the wall to take a break.
So we'll answer that question when we come back.
That's interesting.
And then I have a way around the angle issue.
And then you're going to tell me if it's correct or if it's not correct.
OK?
Now, this is a, I'm going to lay it out on the table and put my neck out.
This could be completely wrong.
And if it is, you tell me it's wrong.
And I'll tell you, I'd never have done this before.
But if it's right, I've done it a few times.
All right.
So back out of the break, it's the Two Guys Ride podcast.
Kevin Byrd, Willie B. We'll talk to you in just a minute.
It is the Two Guys Ride podcast.
He's Kevin Byrd.
I'm Willie B. And we have our buddy, Steve, president of Quantum Tools.
Anytime you have the word president on your business card, you're doing something right.
All right, man.
So A, a couple questions.
Let's pick it up where we left off.
The first question is, what's in there to make the, well, that angle issue so much easier
than other torque wrenches that I was just referencing?
Because that's a big problem if you can't stack that angle percentage up if you have
interference in where the ratchet needs to move to.
You know what I'm saying?
So that causes a problem, but you guys have solved it.
So what we have inside that, we have a PCB and we have two key components that allow us to do
that.
One is an accelerometer and the other is a gyro.
And the gyro is what allows us to make the rotational movement.
And the fact that it's the latest technology is one of the reasons why we have capabilities
that a lot of other people don't because we have the latest gyros.
And then we have the accelerometer also, which allows us, because one of the things that you
have to do because we are a clicker in a torque mode, before I go into the angle rotation,
I still click my torque wrench.
So I can't count that click motion.
So I have to have the software and I use the accelerometer to subtract that out.
So you still click and then it measures.
So that's one of the key technologies that no one's figured out on how to do.
Nice.
Okay.
So is the gyro then in three dimensions?
Because you're not always holding your ratchet.
It's a very small chip, not like the old big gyros you should see in a car.
Yeah.
These are the gyros out there.
They're three-dimensional and it's very, very tiny.
Yeah, it's wild, man.
And you guys feature that.
I will tell you, it's a fairly new torque wrench that I have.
So you guys are doing something there.
I'm not seeing out on the market.
So that's the innovation there that is new and I'm sure much appreciated on the technician side.
I'm going to ask you something now that may be completely wrong.
All right.
But look, people need to know and if it's wrong, I'll just say I heard it.
But the angle percentage, let's say you're torquing the, you know, hypothetically 50 pounds
plus, you know, five degrees of angle or whatever it may be, right?
So is this a right way to think about it if you don't have a torque wrench?
Number one solution, obviously get your torque wrench.
But if you don't have that and you got to get the job finished.
So I think of like a clock face, you know, is like a circle 360 degrees in a circle.
Think of that like a clock face.
If I need a certain degrees or a certain angle, if you will, you know, I'm thinking degree.
But let's say 360 degrees in a circle, half of that where the six is 180, where the three is is 90,
right?
If it says move 70 degrees, then I know where that 90 is that is at the three.
To me, the 70 is, you know, right after the two on the clock.
If I just draw a clock on the bolt or imagine the clock around that bolt that the noon is
where I'm starting and I need to get just past the two to make it that 70 degrees.
Is that a correct way to do it?
If you don't have a torque wrench like yours, or you don't have something that can measure it,
you just have something old school, is to think about it like that?
Will that work?
Yes, that's exactly how they used to do it.
That was the original way.
Use it like a clock face and then you just mark it to where you think you need to go.
All right.
It's similar to Guten type, but it's like Guten angle.
Yeah, it's the same thing.
Now, I'm going to tell you something.
One of the features on this torque wrench is that we actually incorporated an old-fashioned
micro scale on it also because one of the biggest problems you have with an electronic
torque wrench is when you pick it up, the batteries are dead.
So what we did was we included a micro scale for the torque and this way, if the batteries are
dead, you always have a functional torque wrench in torque mode and then the angle,
you would do it just as you just said, you would do the old-fashioned way and mark the faster.
So you always have a functional torque wrench that never goes dead.
Nice.
See, that's slick, man.
All right.
So look guys, in case you need it in emergency, that's how you do it.
Man, I'm glad I was right, all these stuff.
Luckily, angles are angles.
So if you can get an accurate one, and that's the key, right?
Because as Steve mentioned before, to put the faster, especially a torque to yield,
in that yield spot.
So right, you've got elastic.
There we go.
So in the stretch of a metal, you have elastic.
So like a spring, you can pull it to a certain length and it'll go right back.
When you pull it too far, you have plastically deformed that spring and it doesn't go back all
the way.
And so that's what you're doing with the fastener.
You're stretching it past its elastic stand, and you're going into this plastic.
You're deforming the bolt.
It actually gets longer at next down, but you can only do that so much before it breaks.
So that's that narrow window that the OEs are trying to hit is past the stretch,
the elastic stretch, and before it breaks.
And that's why you only get to use them.
Typically, they say you can hit a faster three times.
It all depends on if you accurately hit it in the zone three times.
If you over torque it, you're already overstretching going into break.
But you kind of walk that little narrow zone if you hit it accurately like 23 times,
and then throw it away.
And usually a lot of times, the OEs have already hit it once or twice because they'll
like, let's say on a block, they'll crank the mains down, stretch the bolts, measure the diameter,
then they pick which bearing shell to put in there, right?
Then they take the bolt out, put the crank and the bearing in, put the bolt back in.
So they've already kind of hit it at least twice.
So that's why you usually just kind of go, I don't know what they did, so let me just toss it.
But yeah, if you can get an angle close enough to get you in that window so you're not too low
or too high in the breaking point, you're good to go.
But that's why, again, these more accurate tools we can have,
same thing like a machinist, man.
He's going to go to a micrometer.
You know, he's going to go to a dot board gauge, right?
Stuff that gets him damn on the money close, right?
Yeah, no doubt.
I got one for you, Steve, right?
The rule of thumb I'd always grown up with on a clicker is, right?
You're twisted up to get to the torque setting that you want.
And then when you're done, relieve the spring, is that required?
Yeah, that's still required.
It's normally recommended if you're going to put your torque range down
for at least three months or something like that.
But we always try to recommend people that they relieve the stress on the spring
because you don't want to get any permanent set if you can help,
because then it's got to be recalibrated.
So it's always recommended to take it down on a clicker, micro clicker style.
So most professional shops, right?
Engine builders and anything that's really high grade will have
routine recalibration of all kinds of tools, right?
The whole thing comes in electronic, whatever it is,
things get recalibrated, you get certified, right?
You're ISO this and that.
What do you recommend for, you know, we've got a lot of DIY guys out there,
a lot of shop mechanics and whatnot.
Typically aren't calibrating stuff at all.
What's usually the longevity of something like this?
If you take good care of it, if you relieve the tension on it, etc?
Well, the rule of thumb is that you normally recalibrate at the 5,000 cycles
for 12 months of calendar time.
That's kind of the rule of thumb.
You crazy, Steve, you crazy.
That may be the rule, but nobody's doing that.
But that's the rule of thumb.
And you look at the actual spec that's out there,
that's sort of how they make a manufacturer qualify the unit
that is good for the 5,000 cycles before it has to be recalibrated.
So as a manufacturer, you always recommend what the spec tells you.
Now, at Willie's point, nobody's doing that.
That's a reality, but that's what we recommend.
How much can they be off?
How much difference can there be in somebody
that hasn't calibrated their torque wrench compared to somebody that has?
Is it really get off that much?
It really gets down to how much you're actually using it.
Obviously, if you're not using it and you're a DIY and you use it occasionally,
the 12 months probably doesn't really matter all that much.
But if you're a guy that's putting a lot of torque into it,
let's just say you have a 250-foot-pound torque wrench
and you're running it up around 200 a lot above 200,
then in the 5,000 cycles, you should get it recalibrated.
How far off will it be?
You know, maybe a percent or two, probably not a huge amount.
But, you know, they're all designed to be like plus or minus three or four percent
out of the factory.
Yeah, so it sounds like for us grease monkeys,
it's probably okay for a little while if we take good care of it.
Yeah, you could carry it.
Yeah, you don't.
And then, of course, if you drop it, you should go get it recalibrated.
If you do something extraordinary with it, you should go get it recalibrated.
What if you use it as a hammer?
And you should get it recalibrated.
Well, on that note, right?
You always see that one guy, the young kid, maybe he's doing an engine build
or an engine tear down and he grabs the torque wrench
and starts to break the fasteners loose.
What's going on there?
And does it matter what style of torque wrench you have?
In the owner's mind, we say, don't do that.
And basically, if they end up breaking it and we know they do that,
then we're in warranty of the unit, probably.
But why they select it is because a torque wrench is a longer wrench,
so you get more leverage.
It's all intended to have the leverage to put the torque into it.
So as a person who wants a breaker bolt, instead of getting a breaker bar,
they're going to grab this torque wrench because it's nice and long and they can do it.
It's not recommended.
We don't recommend it.
Highly recommend not doing that.
So what happens internally when you get that click?
Does it disconnect any of the measuring type stuff?
Or is it still loaded?
So you click and then you crank a little bit more.
So that's a great question because it actually leads to another advantage
that we have in the angle mode.
So the way it works is you have a pivot arm that comes down from the head.
And there's a little fastener up top that's called the pivot point.
And then it goes down to the next position, which is a pivot pole.
And then after the pivot pole, there's a spring.
And you tighten the spring with the handle and that tension and compression,
the compression in the spring is what puts the load into the pole.
So when you hit your torque, it pops, right?
So it's a tilting pole.
So it tilts and the actual arm hits the wall of the tube.
When it hits that wall, that's the click that you hear.
That's the micro click.
That's what you hear that lets you know you're at the torque.
Now once that hits that, it's in essence a solid joint now.
So if I could go above my fastener torque and I'm not going to really hurt anything
because it's solid at that point, which in an angle mode,
when you do an angle on electronic torque wrenches,
when you start rotating the angle, you don't know where the torque is.
So if I have 100 foot-pound electronic torque wrench
and I start putting an angle in and my torque wrench happens to exceed 125 foot-pounds,
my torque wrench is going to break the strain gauge and shut off.
With the C2A, because it becomes a solid joint, I can never break the strain gauge.
I don't have a strain gauge.
So in the angle mode, I can never overload my wrench.
So I don't know if that helped explain it, but that's...
Yeah, so you're essentially disconnecting the measuring device with the click
to where, right, you keep going with the angle, you're not smashing your load cell in an electronic
one. Right, exactly. And I'm a solid joint because that bar is up against the tube.
There's nothing... Yeah, so you got some robustness going on there that
you don't get potentially an electronic one, especially, like you said, between torque and
angle, you overangle and get more torque than... Yeah, and you don't know where the torque is
at that point, right, because you're only reading angle.
All right, so I got a last one for you. And normally, we think about hybrid vehicles,
and now you got two of everything. You got an engine, all that stuff and fuel tanks,
and then you got all this battery and motors, and it's expensive. So in hybrid torque wrenches,
what are we looking at compared to, right, a digital full-on type comparison?
Is it way more expensive? Is it somehow hitting a sweet spot? The electronic ones are always
typically more expensive because of the strain gauge and attaching the strain gauge is a little
more complex of a process. On the mechanical clickers, we have more components because we have
a spring, a pivot pole, you know, we have all these extra components, and it does add extra
weight when you have all those components. So an electronic torque wrench, it just has a tensor,
strain gauges, and a wire going back to the to the board. So they're typically lighter,
but the strain gauge process and putting the strain gauge on is an expensive process,
which that's why typically you'll see electronic torque wrench, full electronic torque wrenches
are much more expensive. So is this a really good kind of price point then to get all the
features you've talked about? And it's a great value type of product because it's also giving
you more productivity. And then you're not typically, if you compare it to, I don't know the
name of the key competitors, but if you go to some of the key automotive competitors out there
driving around in trucks, we're easily half that price of an electronic torque wrench.
Whoa. Whoa. All right. So instead of double the price, you're kind of around that half price
point. Fantastic. That is way huge. That's huge, man. Yeah. Technicians are smiling right now for
sure. No doubt. Where are we? Where do you find these? Like how can how can you purchase a quantum?
So right now it's the best place to go to buy it is at quantumtools.us. We're selling it directly
to people. And, you know, we'll be looking at distribution in the future. But right now it's
we sell it on quantumtools.us. Quantumtools.us, man. Look, everybody needs to upgrade their
torque wrench. It's weird to say that, but we all do. It's one of those things we don't think
about a lot because we probably don't use it as much as we should. But man, it is the critical tool
in the toolbox and one that we just rely on that beep, that number, that click, whatever that may be
to tell us that we're doing it right. And that is, man, that is security. That is comfort. That is,
you know, especially when it is right. That is, that's a job well done. So quantum tools,
us. So quantumtools.us. Not us. That's right. There you go, man. Check that out. While you're
checking that out, make sure you check out our show, Aaron Weekends. It's available on Discovery
Turbo, also available on Discovery Plus. Thanks to our producer, Scoop, senior producer, Justin
Carter and executive producer, Bob Becker. Hey guys, don't forget, check out our website,
twoguysgarage.com. All our socials at Two Guys Garage and the Two Guys Garage podcast. It's
all rights reserved. Nice, Steve. I think, man, I think you educated, you caught us up and yet
again, you're doing badass cool things, man. If you could send me your addresses, I'll send you
some products and I get them in. Sounds good. Well guys, I hope you learned a few things. I mean,
there's some science in bolts, which you would never think, right? It looks like a round stick,
you know, with some curlies on the end, but man, the engineering that goes in it, the metallurgy
and all that stuff, it's wild. But anyways, hope you learned something, how to do it right,
what tools to use, where to find them with that, man. We're going to cut out of here.
We'll catch you on the next Two Guys Garage podcast.
About this episode
From specialty tools to torque wrenches, the hosts connect good workmanship to having the right gear—and using it correctly. They break down why “torqued to spec” matters, especially on high-strength joints like engines, powertrains, and suspensions. Torque-to-yield comes up as a response to friction and unreliable torque-only readings, with angle measurement and bolt stretch taking center stage. The discussion also covers tool evolution (clicker to electronic), calibration, and even how electronic tools can fail when batteries die.
This week, Kevin and Willie talk shop with Quantum Tools president Steve Argo about the fundamental mechanics of torque, how bolts actually handle stress, and how fastening technology has changed over the years. They also break down Quantum’s new approach to torque wrench design, one that bridges the gap between old-school reliability and modern tech. The tool pairs a traditional mechanical clicker with a digital gyro, giving technicians and weekend wrench-turners both the speed of a manual wrench and the precise angle tracking of a digital system.
