Scaffold fittings - how tight should they be?

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A scaffold wrench is about 300mm long. (not much leverage) A scaffolder just tightens and gives it a good pull/push. Job done.
 
Almost every scaffolder I know are now using the Hilti drivers. Seem to crimp up the fittings nice and tight without being overly tight.

You could almost tighten a scaffold clip with your fingers and it won't slip, though I would not recommend it. You never see a scaffolder tightening the bejesus out of a fitting.
 
Almost every scaffolder I know are now using the Hilti drivers. Seem to crimp up the fittings nice and tight without being overly tight.
I used the excuse to get the Makita DTW281Z as I've already invested quite heavily in the makita 18v range. Seems to work really well, although at the moment I'm using it with an old metric spark plug socket and a 1/2 inch -> 3/8 inch adapter. Not sure how long that pairing is going to last :LOL:

Anyone know where to get a 1/2 in drive impact wrench socket bit 7/16th that's just the right length to accommodate the threads and no longer?

thanks,
S.
 
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For one off impact deep drive sockets, Laser Tools often comes to my rescue.
Surely the 7/16th isn't the nut AF size? Seems a bit small!
John :)
 
For one off impact deep drive sockets, Laser Tools often comes to my rescue.
Surely the 7/16th isn't the nut AF size? Seems a bit small!
This link: http://www.scaffolding-direct.co.uk/scaffolding-tools-spanners/
has plenty of what it calls 7/16ths spanners. I don't know what that means though. I wondered if those spanners are for other (non-48.3mm) fittings but there are surely too many of them. There is also a 19/21mm spanner. I'm using a 21mm metric socket at the mo, and I just measured some AFs and got variation between 20.3 and 20.6mm, so hard to say what the intended dimension was. I have googled this and in spite of reading a very interesting wikipedia article on the history of scaffold I'm none the wiser in respect to nut size. Maybe I will have to ring up one of the scaffold suppliers and get an in-depth explanation :LOL:
 
Almost every scaffolder I know are now using the Hilti drivers. Seem to crimp up the fittings nice and tight without being overly tight.
I used the excuse to get the Makita DTW281Z as I've already invested quite heavily in the makita 18v range. Seems to work really well, although at the moment I'm using it with an old metric spark plug socket and a 1/2 inch -> 3/8 inch adapter. Not sure how long that pairing is going to last :LOL:

Anyone know where to get a 1/2 in drive impact wrench socket bit 7/16th that's just the right length to accommodate the threads and no longer?

thanks,
S.
 
Yeah, I know it's an old thread, but I felt some extra info was warranted.

Many designs assume 50Nm torque so this is a good rule of thumb for a minimum. Unfortunately, corroded bolt threads result in less grip of the fitting for a given torque, so it may be worth going a bit higher if that's the case. BS EN-74 discusses this. It seems you may be able to go up to 100Nm depending on your fitting but repeatedly doing so may end up stretching your bolts. Not sure what it'll do to the hinge pin. 50Nm seemed about right for a podger spanner, so for DIY stuff (1-2 storeys, light loads, 2m bays) I think that makes sense. Anything more complicated than that you probably want to call an expert for a proper design anyway.

The impact wrench has given me wildly varying torques, so I only used it for the initial wind up. And then after some time I just dropped it altogether in favour of the podger. I just use the impact wrench on the car now, where it does save a bit of time. My advice: Don't bother with one.

NB: The bolts on my drop-forge fittings have corroded somewhat since my original post 3 years ago, so I probably should have put something on them. Otherwise the fittings are like new on the galvanised part.
 
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