welcome to this series of videos we like to call talk the torque and in this video we're going to
take a look at the Torque Vairo screwdriver from Wiha yeah now when we talk about torque
we normally end up with three different groups of electricians ready to chip in
the first one and uh congratulations to those who already use that torque screwdriver be
good to get your thoughts on how this Wiha model compares to one that you may be using
already however stick around in the video because later on we'll give you some top tips on how to
look after a torque screwdriver and some other operating tips that possibly you may not know
the second group Gary what camp do they fall into the non-believers okay the people
that don't believe you need to use a torque screwdriver and we've made a separate video
where we've taken that myth and we've proved one way or another whether an electrician's
arm is actually calibrated for torque and i'll leave a link to that video in the eye above my
head and in the description below and then the third group of electricians are those who possibly
aren't even using a screwdriver and we don't mean screw-less terminals like you find on a Wago go or
something like that we mean electricians who are possibly using an impact driver to install consume
units and believe me there are quite a few of them out there because we've seen the results of that
and we've also produced a video that will show you what happens when you do use impact driver
on an MCB and other parts of a consumer unit so if you fall into those two camps hopefully we'll
see you back on this video after you've watched those where we'll look at torque screwdriver so
what we're going to do first Gary let's jump into having a look at the screwdriver and how to set it
up and maybe do some of the terminations up behind me in the Lewden consumer unit we're
going to need to set it to 2.5 newton meters of torque so bring in the adjuster bar and i'll roll
it round so you can see the numbers increasing so i've gone to 2.6 to get it to 2.5 it's the
window in between all right so this uh torquevairo from Wiha we find is useful for most electrical
installations because it goes from point eight to five newton meters so i've locked in our slotted
posi two slim vario bit and i'm gonna get it up to the required torque setting you hear it click
through and then on to the next one okay so when it clicks that is it to that 2.5 newton meter
setting it is yeah so just come along there all the same so the main switch and the breakers in
this board are all set to that 2.5 newton meters of torque just making sure my conductor's in
and then through we go so two more and then we're going to change the torque setting in order that
we can make the connections in the neutral and earth bar because they're not 2.5 newton meters
of torque no i'm gonna have to drop down to two newton meters of torque so again take out the
uh the bit holder and bring in that adjusting bar and again looking for the 2.2 so again this
is in the window this time isn't it yeah because it's an even number yeah you'll actually see that
number so we can come back in now reassemble and we're ready to do the neutral bar first so bring
it in just make sure you get it into position and a nice firm amount of pressure so don't slip out
and then we can click it through and we can do these at two newton meters it's also important
to double check any connections that were made in the factory to check that they haven't worked
loose during transportation so in this case the connection between the switch and the neutral
bar okay so just check that one and that's at this setting onto the earth bar next stays at
two newton meters i told you to a couple of these just to make sure that they're correct there we go
okay then back in again for the surge protection device so this is 1.5 newton meters so again it
falls in between two of the printed markings on the device um so again we're just going to
have to swap the bit on this one because it's a smaller screw terminal there normally smaller
screw smaller torque setting as well yeah good piece of device so yeah 1.5 now on this with the
slotted pozi one that we're using in order to get that up to the required setting there we go
it is an easy process to set up the we are told vary or screwdriver it would be good to have your
thoughts again on how that compares with possibly a screwdriver that you use and what features
are different for those viewers who've tuned in from across the pond and that means our friends
in america yes we are using newton meters when it comes to torque measurement i still believe
you use pound feet or whatever it is and yes we are in the UK and when we went to school we were
taught in kilometres and kilos and all those sorts of things although we still drive around
in miles and buy pints of beer well obviously when you were at school again it was probably still
uh still yards was it when you're running track pretty quick down the hundred yards okay when they
extended to be 100 meters it seemed to take a lot longer to get to the end however if all of this
is new newton meters etc we have produced a CPD training package that i'll leave in a link in the
description for it so you can go over there and increase your knowledge about some of the terms
that we're talking about in this video yeah and that is really useful for electricians who have
to keep up their annual inspection checks with organizations such as the NIC and Naipit but now
let's have a look at some of the top tips when looking after a torque screwdriver tip number
one don't over click is to stop when you hit the talk setting when you get the first click stop and
move it into the next position there is no benefit from going through and hearing several clicks to
suggest that therefore you're at the right torque setting one click is enough it's clicked then move
to the next terminal get it to click through and you know you're at the required torque setting
tip number two don't use your torque screwdriver to undo screws it should
be used to tighten them only use a conventional screwdriver in order to disconnect conductors
tip number three use a conventional screwdriver in this case a slotted pozi two in order to start the
process of tightening your conductors once they're all in place introduce your torque screwdriver
set to required torque setting in order to finish off the process of tightening the conductors
tip number four checking existing terminations for the required torque setting don't use your
torque screwdriver like this first of all back off the screws use a normal screwdriver
so you've slackened them back off before bringing your torque screwdriver and set to the required
torque set for the devices you'll see now that we're going on a forward motion with one click
we can now guarantee that that is at the required torque setting for that device
tip number five check your screwdriver head is correct for the size of screw that you're going
to tighten up in this case we should be choosing the slotted pozi one you must also check the rated
value of torque on the side of the bits that needs to be equal to or greater than the value of torque
you need to reach for that termination tip number six don't use your slim Vario bits in a drill as
they will end up like this sorry Gordon six top tips there for you however if you've got one
please leave it in the comments below so our community can benefit from your knowledge however
at this stage i have got a little confession i might have been in the past somebody that went to
maybe two clicks only two clicks on two clickers because we have earned be at three or four
sometimes depending on what's uh being installed and the other confession you heard in there
was uh if you return to the workshop and somebody has uh destroyed your slim Vairo bits
and let's uh remember so these slim Vairo bits from we are used extensively across lots of the
insulated screwdrivers that we've looked at a lot on the channel before got a lot in front of us
here yes let's have a closer look at just some of the other ones so here's my favorite the uh
the speedE so again you'll see the the bit just pops in the end there okay and then we're off and
running this electric screwdriver yeah it's like sure so great if you were doing lots of repetitive
operations uh check out the challenge uh where we went head-to-head with a manual screwdriver
and then into the some of these extensive packs which if you say working on a lot of different
equipment and you need lots of different screwdriver heads some of these kits are
fantastic and they even have a different range of uh obviously handles from a little stubby
through to one that's more suited for possibly electronic terminals as well let's remember
electronic journals are particularly sensitive to over torque especially if they're on PCB's
the class this is the starter kit here because obviously you get the the screwdriver the bar
to adjust the torque setting and a couple of bits being the slotted pozi ones and twos however for
me isn't a starter kit because if you already own the pouch you've obviously got a lot of the
slim Vario bits as well so of course this could easily be added into the pouch couldn't Gordon
yeah good and uh if you if you're not from that you've got your uh your pouch that you
started with yeah i'm very precious of this thing obviously my torque screwdriver and a standard
screwdriver in there which is obviously very handy because we now know we should be undoing screws
with our torque screwdriver and we should also start the tightening up process with
a standard screwdriver so that's all covered in this pouch here all right so that's a handy
only better kit for possibly those people are doing that final testing and inspection
the other question we get asked a lot is obviously how do you check that your
torque screwdriver is operating to the correct torque and that other thing about calibration
and how often it should be calibrated so Wiha's recommendation for calibration is once a year
5000 clicks or clunks okay and i can already hear people going oh something else something else
however let's think about our MFT tester obviously we look after that we keep it in the box we don't
throw that around in the back of the van because obviously it's a valuable piece of equipment that
we use in the electrical industry and we know that we have to have it calibrated every year as well
as continual calibrations ourselves that we record throughout that year things like carrying that
insulation resistance s continuity earth fault loop impedance and RCD tests on known circuits to
just prove in between times calibration is there and there's a bit of kit that can help us do this
with our torque screwdriver there is enough yeah and you're right it is just it is about treating
it like you would another piece of test equipment it's certainly not a screwdriver it looks like
a screwdriver yeah treated like a tester yeah absolutely yeah so Wiha produced this handy device
to check that actually the torque screwdriver is working to a defined torque and we can show you
how that works okay so let's have a quick look at it so okay there we go so this requires us to set
the screwdriver to 2.8 newton meters okay so it's the quick check it's called yeah you're gonna set
this sorry center again two point eight two seven eight so it's going to check it to a define so i'm
going the wrong direction there so let's just go to so every time i check it against this i set it
to 2.8 2.8 i've got a bar to interconnect the two together yeah that clicks in there so then switch
the device on we'll wait for an amber light insert the tool in there and i'm just going to do one
one twist okay and you see i've got a green light okay is that good yep that's good okay so just to
show obviously you do set it to 2.8 but if it wasn't obviously i'm gonna
implicate that it's not working to the right and we'll turn it down so we're gonna turn it down so
we should be checking in at 2.8 if it wasn't a 2.8 to replicate that you've
turned it right down we should see something happen when we do the quick check yeah so i'm
going to do repeat the process again so i've now set this to two new meters okay so we're
replicating a problem with the device because it isn't up 2.8 yeah so again just one click
yeah red light to show that it's not uh it's not hitting that 2.8 newton meter torque
that's really clever isn't it so of course not i'll get in front of it
so i'm going to have to have this calibrated aren't i uh no you don't have that calibration
that works for a certain prescribed amount it's not a calibration uh tool it's just a quick check
device as possible you've got a team with lots of torque screwdrivers out there you can obviously
bring them in period but you can have a quick a quick check for me it's when your MFT comes in
maybe a maximum of three months and you're doing all those checks internally on it maybe you've got
a check box again the torque screwdriver has been checked at the same time for that best practice
so possibly an idea for the wholesalers who are selling Wiha equipment to be to keep one of these
on the counter so when your customers coming in to possibly buy some other kit or pick up their other
parts for their projects they can quickly check whether there are screwdrivers are operating as
required but we're always interested to hear your thoughts about torque and if you're still
on the fence as to what you do with uh with the electrical equipment and setting the talk
check out those other two videos there's some absolute treats in there what happens when you
use an impact driver on electrical equipment and have electricians got calibrated arms