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Comment by HumblyTossed | Hacker News Reader

> "Why is a wrench on the internet?!"

You're subscription only allows 250 bolt twists. If you would like to upgrade your subscription, please visit www.wescrewyousoyoucancontinuetoscrewbolts.com

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There is good reason to only allow 250 twists - you need to recalibrate after that many twists, and this is expensive.

I don't know how many twists you are allowed, 250 seems a bit low. People can die if calibration procedures are not followed. If the manufacture says 250 twists, then you follow that 250 or you will lose millions in court.

People can die in many different cases - I think it should be up to the wrench owner to make this decision, and not the wrench seller (who collects money for calibrating wrenches).

> I think it should be up to the wrench owner to make this decision, and not the wrench seller (who collects money for calibrating wrenches).

That would depend on the accreditations involved, yeah? One would certainly hope that the manufacturer goes through a rigorous design and testing process to ensure that the recommended service/calibration interval is accurate and occurs before the tool wanders out of spec for whatever its intended task is.

As the end user you should presumably be able to reasonably adjust that service interval but it should require a similarly rigorous and documented process to determine how much more you can open it up, not just squinting at the wind and saying "eh they over-engineered it so I think we can get 30% more use out of before calibration"

That's where the accreditations and specs come in. If I'm torqueing down a new Ikea bookshelf, I really don't care. New tires at a chain shop? Middling, to the point that they don't over-ugga-dugga my lug nuts on and destroy the bolts. I'm gonna re-tighten them myself after a drive or two anyway. Bolts in a new airliner being tightened down at the plant? You bet I want that shit to be to-spec, and the tools, too.

Generally the wrench sell is the one who paid the engineers to figure out the details. By the time I as a buyer/owner do the analysis I'm 120% of the way to building my own wrench. That is it would be easier to design a wrench from scratch than to prove someone else's wrench has the wrong procedure. (when starting from scratch you choose known alloys with known properties, when buying you have to figure out what alloy they used before you can figure out the properties of it - this is not easy)

There are people who've flown on a recent Alaska Airlines flight that would disagree with the distinction.

yeah, that's insane. i used to work in a pretty regulated industry and they would have all the calibrations done by the metrology department and every instrument would be tagged and made sure to be in compliance. you don't need some wrench manufacturer telling you to calibrate.

how does this help some guy in a shop somewhere that doesn't need strict calibration schedules and bought the wrench secondhand or even firsthand?

I’m pretty sure the main thread here about limited twists is a joke.

In saying that, there were devices with similar restrictions before any IoT existed. Smoke alarms, CO alarms, breathalysers are all devices I’ve seen with enforced lifetime and/or usage counts.

Then why can I buy more twists just by upgrading my monthly plan?

That plan includes (or at least should!) someone to come out and physically verify calibration traceable to NIST (or whatever your countries' equivalent).

You can get more bolt twists by enabling BoltTweet(tm) and connecting your social accounts.

Every time a bolt turns more than 90 degrees BoltTweet(tm) will let all your friends and family know JUST HOW MUCH YOU LOVE BOLTS.

So that's why this one bolt was put somewhere with only enough clearance to get 1/32nd of a turn, to burn through my wrench subscription.

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