wrote in message
oups.com...
You know what? I've been through this one so many times, but it's been
a few years, and I just don't have the energy to fight this fight
again.

There is NO "torque-limiting" power screwdriver-type tool that has both
the ability to prevent over-tightening, and allow sufficient "torque"
to be applied to screws installed into aircraft nutplates.




But... a power screwdriver set below the specified torque for a screw and
then torqued by hand with a calibrated torque wrench set to the proper
setting will work just fine, or am I wrong?

I believe that I am restating your paragraph below, but in a way that my son
or mother could read it.





A slightly boogered screw or nutplate will NOT be tightened
sufficiently, or else other screws will be over-tightened-there is NO
middle ground.



We were taught in A&P school not to reuse fasteners. I doubt very seriously
that this actually happens in the real world, but in the schools perfect
world, this should eleminate *most* of the "boogered" fastener problems.





In most cases, a quality torque-limiting screwdriver set at minimal
torque can be used by an experienced operator to run screws and
initially secure panels. The final "ginch" needs to be performed by a
human that knows what the **** he/she is doing.

There is a large portion of the "certified technician" population that
isn't smart enuff to use the proper bit for the type of screw to be
r/r'd, let alone to use power to drive it. It's not much of a stretch
to say that this applies to owner-performed maintenance also.

TC





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