How tight is hand tight?

[slappy]

I changed my oil and filter yesterday and was just wondering how do you know the oil filter is on tight enough when you just do it up hand tight. How tight is it meant to be? What I consider hand tight is going to be different from other people. I am always slightly paranoid afterwards that it is too loose and will lose oil or that it is too tight and has deformed and will leak. I use work gloves that give a good grip,any one else have any other method that they use?

[Lazarus]

usually use my "other" hand (i.e. im right handed so use my left hand to tighten the filter). tight enough that im not pulling any muscles at the time.

[kebab19]

I do mine up hand tight + then another quarter turn, any more and its a PITA to remove again for the next oil change

[jackojet]

According to Haynes manual
Tighten filter as much as you can by hand or by number of turns once seal seated as by instructions on the packaging. As Kebab says this can result in filter being a pain to undo next change.
I to solve this bought a Yamaha filter wrench that you can tighten with a socket or the square off a half inch extention bar. The torque setting is 17nm.
filter wrench is only about a tenner and worth every penny when want to remove filter with no hassles 

[slappy]

I have the same sort of filter wrench but have never used it to put a filter on,only used it to remove them.I will stick it on my torque wrench and see if it is 17nm.
Thanks for the replies. 

[AyJay]

+1 on the filter wrench. They're dirt cheap and a sight more useful than a chain or a screwdriver. And you can torque the filter up properly afterwards!

[Slaninar]

I put some oil on the rubber seal (smear over). Then i tighten it by hand and not full strength (since I'm known by a talent for stripping threads). Then I wipe clean round the filter. Fill new oil. Run the bike and see if it leaks. It never does. So it doesn't take much force. As time goes by, when I change oil and take filter off, it is quite hard to undo. Easy on - hard to go off.

So no need to make it too tight.  Do it light and check if it leaks when warmed up proper.