Has anyone out there in Torque Wrench Land ever experienced receiving a brand new dial indicator style torque wrench fully cal'd by the manufacturer and then cal'd again in the cal lab with no adjustments required or removing of the needle required, and then have it returned to the cal lab because the needle fell off immediately after it was turned over to have a socket mounted to it by the user?
Yeah the customer "just" turned it over and it fell off. So when did they drop it would be the question I ask. Or you could check out that beam and see if its majorly deformed because of the massive overloading and the needle actually came off because it hit the stop so hard it causes it to fall off.
Voodoo magic
Or operator misuse
Your choice
Well if you can pound in a nail with a crescent wrench maybe a torque wrench will do it better. Could be from just the right shock at just the right angle, not nescessarily very hard either. Odds against are high but people win the lottery too.
I'd give it a better chance of happening on a brand new one rather than one thats been around a while assuming niether was abused/mishandled.
I'd say misuse. Seen it for years in the Navy and at an AF lab.