Old lead installer told me to stop using my impact driver on satellite dish mounts

I've been cable installing for about 4 years now and always used my impact driver to crank down those J-mount bolts on satellite dishes. Thought it was fine, got the job done quick. Then this old lead installer, Mike, watched me put up a dish on a tile roof in Austin last summer and pulled me aside. He said I was over-tightening and cracking the mount flanges, causing micro-cracks that would rust out in 2 years. I laughed it off at first, but he showed me 3 of his old jobs with cracks around the bolt holes. Now I hand tighten with a ratchet and only use the driver to get it started. Time is a bit slower but I haven't had a callback since. Has anyone else had an old timer call them out on something like this? What did they say?

2 comments

2 Comments

sam_rivera2d ago

Man, did Mike actually drag you out to look at his old jobs? That's some dedication right there... most old timers just talk and move on. He was right though, those impact drivers just hammer the bolts in and you can't feel when it's tight enough. I stripped a few bolts myself before I learned that lesson the hard way. Hand tighten with a ratchet is the way to go, even if it takes a couple extra minutes.

seanh911d ago

Man, that's a good point about impacts. I actually read an article a while back that explained how impacts work and it said the same thing, you lose all that feedback when the bolt starts to bind up. It's like you're just trusting the tool instead of feeling it yourself. I've seen too many bolts snap or get stripped because someone got lazy with an impact and just kept hammering away. Hand ratchet is slower but you can tell way better when it's snug enough and when to stop.