Rattle guns

[Count Steer]

I say "almost entirely" 'cause I imagine F1 wheels are done up a fair bit tighter than MotoGP. It's gonna be ~500Nm, which is possible to undo by hand with a big bar but windy guns make it easier.

The lynx helicopter tail rotor hub nut is torqued to 440Nm, to get that off was a 4 man job. 2 people hanging off 2 trail rotor blades to stop them turning, 1 to hold the socket in place and one fat bloke (usually me) hanging off the 5 ft TQ wrench with full body weight.

It's a bastard of a job

You could make it easier and torque it up less.

[Trogladyte]

It feels like I should have one of these, despite the lack of any sense of how much torque you are applying making me twitch.

Any recommendations? Clarke ones any good?

[Demannu]

In my days of playing with car engines, the Mazda RX7 flywheel bolt is 350ftlb, had to heat it up until it was cherry and even then a 1" gun had problems!

[Mr. Dazzle]

I say "almost entirely" 'cause I imagine F1 wheels are done up a fair bit tighter than MotoGP. It's gonna be ~500Nm, which is possible to undo by hand with a big bar but windy guns make it easier.

The lynx helicopter tail rotor hub nut is torqued to 440Nm, to get that off was a 4 man job. 2 people hanging off 2 trail rotor blades to stop them turning, 1 to hold the socket in place and one fat bloke (usually me) hanging off the 5 ft TQ wrench with full body weight.

It's a bastard of a job

You could make it easier and torque it up less.

You certainly wouldn't have to worry about removing it in future.

[slowsider]

I say "almost entirely" 'cause I imagine F1 wheels are done up a fair bit tighter than MotoGP. It's gonna be ~500Nm, which is possible to undo by hand with a big bar but windy guns make it easier.

The lynx helicopter tail rotor hub nut is torqued to 440Nm, to get that off was a 4 man job. 2 people hanging off 2 trail rotor blades to stop them turning, 1 to hold the socket in place and one fat bloke (usually me) hanging off the 5 ft TQ wrench with full body weight.

It's a bastard of a job

I usually get caught out with left hand threads too

[Felix]

I got a Makita copy that allegedly is good for 520Nm. Got knows if its true. I think my old torque bar does 350Nm are there about so i could tighten a nut to the max on that and see if the rattle gun does more.

[Taipan]

Only ever use them to remove nuts / bolts, if the application requires torquing back up then use a torque wrench

That!^^^^

I often see people marking the nut and face with a sharpie and rattling them back up to that though.

[wull]

As has been said with regards to only using them for removal but where you will get away with using them for tightening up nuts is the clutch basket nut and similar. Been doing it for years with no problem.

Best one I seen the other week at work was the boss tightening up the bolts that hold the tines in place on the verti-drain with a breaker bar, bolt snapped clean off. It happened when I was the other side of the workshop and when I heard them moaning I went for a look and just had the head in hands moment

[mel]

It feels like I should have one of these, despite the lack of any sense of how much torque you are applying making me twitch.

Any recommendations? Clarke ones any good?

The one I have which is ancient has torgue settings all be something like 50 then 100 ,150 and so on till 450 nm cost about 400 pound 15 odd years ago I would imagine modern ones will have similar and be far cheaper
agree with most others great for taking things off , need to be very careful putting things back together with them apart from over torquing
things like rear wheel nuts sit on bearings in the hub and windyguns bang things on similar to using a hammer drill for when drilling concrete so not good on the bearings I used mine mainly for front sprocket changes when racing for speed on the day if at home I used a torgue wrench

[Trogladyte]

The rear wheel nut on the single sided Ducati is set to 230nm by the factory. To get that off i have a 2 foot breaker bar and a 5 foot scaffold pole over it .... to do it up i pull it F tight as it hasnt fallen off yet.

The Ducati forums are chock full of "which rattle gun is the best" threads as its the easiest way to shift the rear wheelnut. Funners has a DeWalt one he thinks is brilliant and spins it off in seconds with no grief. Most of the other recommendations are for Milwaukee or Clarks

To remove the front sprocket nut of the 600 fazer i couldnt get in to get leverage with the sockets i had and didnt have the big breaker bar to hand as it was on the lift at the training base so borrowed my eldest stepsons Dewalt Impact driver and it spun it off right away

What do you use to stop the engine turning?

[Mussels]

The rear wheel nut on the single sided Ducati is set to 230nm by the factory. To get that off i have a 2 foot breaker bar and a 5 foot scaffold pole over it .... to do it up i pull it F tight as it hasnt fallen off yet.

The Ducati forums are chock full of "which rattle gun is the best" threads as its the easiest way to shift the rear wheelnut. Funners has a DeWalt one he thinks is brilliant and spins it off in seconds with no grief. Most of the other recommendations are for Milwaukee or Clarks

To remove the front sprocket nut of the 600 fazer i couldnt get in to get leverage with the sockets i had and didnt have the big breaker bar to hand as it was on the lift at the training base so borrowed my eldest stepsons Dewalt Impact driver and it spun it off right away

What do you use to stop the engine turning?

I have an unbraked trailer with tiny wheels that had seized nuts, no amount of holding the wheel and using a socket set would get them off. Bought a rattle gun and they came off in seconds with just a gentle holding of the wheel, don't need anywhere near as much braking force.

[Bigyin]

The rear wheel nut on the single sided Ducati is set to 230nm by the factory. To get that off i have a 2 foot breaker bar and a 5 foot scaffold pole over it .... to do it up i pull it F tight as it hasnt fallen off yet.

The Ducati forums are chock full of "which rattle gun is the best" threads as its the easiest way to shift the rear wheelnut. Funners has a DeWalt one he thinks is brilliant and spins it off in seconds with no grief. Most of the other recommendations are for Milwaukee or Clarks

To remove the front sprocket nut of the 600 fazer i couldnt get in to get leverage with the sockets i had and didnt have the big breaker bar to hand as it was on the lift at the training base so borrowed my eldest stepsons Dewalt Impact driver and it spun it off right away

What do you use to stop the engine turning?

Bike in first gear, rear wheel on the ground and it popped right off ....seems the sudden impact of the rattle gun cracks it rather the prolonged force using a long bar does as Mussels said

[JackyJoll]

Off topic, but I was assembling a 14 litre Cummins and the head bolt torque was something huge in lb feet.

I did pull-ups to get a feel for my weight in lb, did some geometry on the floor with a sharp stone and applied that force to a bar of about the right length in feet.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I've done similar before with a fisherman's spring balance and a spanner of known length. If you do it carefully I'd imagine its just as accurate as a torque wrench, if not more so.

[DefTrap]

Couldn't get the wheel nut off my sssa bike, despite longer and longer tubes thrown over the extension bar.
Eventually ran it down the shop (knew them fairly well) for a bit of help.
They sent out - the b@stards - their absolutely tiny new girl mechanic with a normal spanner and a grin.
Fortunately she too failed, but it rattled-gunned off first go.

I do a lot of spannering and I can't say I'd use one that often. As a tool I covet though, yeah all day long.

[demographic]

Rattle guns to remove bolts and maybe spin tbem back in a bit (long threads or whatever) and then a ratchet or torque wrench to tighten to a tourque.
The guys in the local tyrefitters use torque sticks to limit the apllied torque from the rattle gun then they do final torque with a torque wrench.
https://torquewrenchcenter.com/how-do-t ... icks-work/

I use an impact screwdriver a LOT at work for putting screws in and nowadays its quite rare to see someone using a normal drill driver to do it but it does require some care cos they can snap the screws or strip the wood where the thread is if yer a numbhanded lump.

I also use them for spinning nuts onto threaded bars when joining staircase trimmer joists together.
As I usually have a nut on each end a rattle gun is better for shocking them round if the thread end isnt perfect.
Yesterdays job was joining two 310 mm or so deep steel H section joists with ten 220x45 bits of timber (6 bits between and 2x on each side) joist together for a floor that has a loadbearing wall above it.
As it was it took all day to drill and fit them but would have been a nightmare without a rattle gun to shock the nuts around wthout spinning the threaded bar.

They have their uses, just require the user to actually know something about how they work or they can get the job out of shape in a hurry.

[JackyJoll]

I've done similar before with a fisherman's spring balance and a spanner of known length. If you do it carefully I'd imagine its just as accurate as a torque wrench, if not more so.

Yes, that really is a torque wrench.

[JackyJoll]

I've found that the ones with torque settings are very inaccurate.

I expect that’s inevitable, but they may be good enough for things like car wheels.

[JackyJoll]

to get that off was a 4 man job. 2 people hanging off 2 trail rotor blades to stop them turning, 1 to hold the socket in place and one fat bloke (usually me) hanging off the 5 ft TQ wrench with full body weight.

It's a bastard of a job

Bastard of a way to treat a torque wrench.

[Jody]

I was working as a tyre monkey a bit earlier this year. We were supplied with Milwaukee battery powered 1/2 nut 'guns'.

Removal of nuts, whack it on, pull the trigger and wait. Except locking wheel nuts, these are done exclusively by hand.
Fitting of nuts, manually wind on to get the first couple of threads, wind the nut in with the gun until it touches, finish with a torque wrench. This isn't the way everybody on the depot did it, but it was the way I did it !