Torque Wrench quality?

[Speakrdude]

Is there any difference (or negliable?) between a torque wrench from say Harbor Freight or a Craftsman, snap on etc.?

 

[Bondo]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

Is there any difference (or negliable?) between a torque wrench from say Harbor Freight or a Craftsman, snap on etc.?

Ayuh,.... I have Snap-on, Mac, Matco, 'n Craftsman torque wrenches...

Harbor Freight just sells things that Look like real tools...

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

I am going to disagree with Bond-o this time. My Harbor Freight torque wrench was used to re-install the cylinder heads on my 97 Mercruiser 5.7. Worked flawlessly, and I didn't have one bit of trouble with headgaskets blowing out. So for the price difference, I was able to buy a full tank of gas, thank you very much.

 

[guy74]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

I have mainly snap-on and matco torque wrenches. I believe you get what you pay for when it comes to precision tools that you use everyday. For a limited use, the cheap one will probably do fine, it just won't maintain the accuracy of the better ones over time.
My $.02

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

As per Tilliam statement..

I have the standard Fleet farm torque wrench. Nothing special, but not totally junk.
I'm sure the torque value of the harbor freight, fleet farm and snap-on will be different. But not by much.
As for Cylinder heads.. I can't tell you how many heads and intakes I've put on with my wrench.. Besides, most cylinder heads now are torqued to a number then turned a number of degrees. For example, the last saturn i worked on.. Torqued to 15, torqued to 35 then turn each head bolt 70 degrees.. Kinda put the exact ft pounds to a loose fittings...

now I'm sure there are areas where you may need 16.5 ft lbs. No more or less. But in everyday life, your standard Harbor Freight will get your job done.

 

[marcoalza]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

When I was a motor technician and couldn't find the torque wrench we used to tighten everything FT.
That was either Fairly tight or F***ing tight.

 

[CR CRUISER]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

Years ago my wife gave me a Craftsman 1/2" torque wrench for my birthday. The first time I used it was to torque down a V8 cylinder head to something like 160ft/pds. On the second bolt the ratchet broke and I stuffed my hand through the side of the battery. I don't know if it is still in orbit or burned up on re-entry but I've only used Snap-On since then.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

I am going to disagree with Bond-o this time.

Ayuh,... I guess I should have prefaced my reply with,...
I'm a professional Mechanic....
Not a weekend Diy'er...

 

[partskenn]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

I have mainly snap-on and matco torque wrenches. I believe you get what you pay for when it comes to precision tools that you use everyday. For a limited use, the cheap one will probably do fine, it just won't maintain the accuracy of the better ones over time.
My $.02

I agree. If you are going to use it once or twice, the cheap one is fine. If you are going to use regularly for years, you get what you paid for. The professional one will stay accurate for years. I have had a Snap-on in my box for 35 years now.

 

[MrBigStuff]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

>I'm a professional Mechanic....
>Not a weekend Diy'er...

Or someone who is basing quality on one, single use??
I've bought HF stuff in the past and will continue to do so but not precision tools.
Too many infant mortality failures on lesser tools like pneumatic body saws, grinders etc.
IMO, it's a false economy to cheap out on certain types of tools.

Fortunately, a lot of mechanical work has a high degree of tolerance for inaccuracy in torque values. You could probably torque the older style head bolts by feel and still get acceptable results most of the time. Torque To Yield (TTY) head bolts that were mentioned become a bit more intolerant as you are actually stretching the bolt during the angular tightening and the initial torque values are relatively low. That means the wrench needs to be more accurate, not less, and it's in an area where the cheaper wrenches tend to be problematic.

Remember to release the spring tension on your clicker style wrenches after each use by setting them back to zero!

 

[MrBigStuff]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

I agree. If you are going to use it once or twice, the cheap one is fine. If you are going to use regularly for years, you get what you paid for. The professional one will stay accurate for years. I have had a Snap-on in my box for 35 years now.

I disagree. Do you really think that will be the last time you use that tool? What's more likely to happen is several years down the road, another need will surface. Do you think that person is going to say, Oh yeah, that was a cheap wrench I should go out and buy another new one? No, they are going to wrest it from the bowels of their dusty toolbox, blow the dust off of it and use it again. It's probably even still set to the last torque value it was used for years earlier! Even if you did buy a new one each time, the economy of the cheap version would quickly dissipate. All this is assuming that budget wrench is even halfway accurate in the first place...

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

Ayuh,... I guess I should have prefaced my reply with,...
I'm a professional Mechanic....
Not a weekend Diy'er...

Yup, If you use tools every day, then the professional (higher quality) will be your better friend. I'm a weekender wrencher, so my cheap Tool Shop impacts, and Fleet Farm torque wrench with my Wal-Mart air compressor will and has done just fine in my garage for a few years now. I'm sure if I used these everyday, they wouldn't have held up.

I think what gets lost in translation is that Some people dont know if they should buy the Matco or Snap on tools just to do one or two jobs. My answer to that is, buy the Cheap ones. because it will probably only sit on your peg board from now on.
Now if you are going into the trade, or if you have broken 2 torque wrenches because of use, then you now need a higher quality tool.

 

[fireman57]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

I thought that we just had a Harbor Freight thread locked? Me, I enjoy reading the different opinions.

 

[Ibl0wstuffup]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

I have a snapon and a harbor frieght 1/2 in. Clicker torque wrench. When i had them calibrated at work (ford dealer) the harbor freight one was actually more accurate above 60 ft lbs than the snapon! Any torque wrench is a gamble unless you have it checked. It could have been dropped or put away with it set or just bad from the factory. Im not impressed with the quality of modern snap on stuff. I have some of my dad's 50 year old snapon stuff and its much better quality.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

I have some of my dad's 50 year old snapon stuff and its much better quality.

You mean you have temporary possession of your grandchild's tools!! Snap on tools never grow old .......they get passed along

 

[hrdwrkingacguy]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

Ayuh,... I guess I should have prefaced my reply with,...
I'm a professional Mechanic....
Not a weekend Diy'er...

No one that is a professional will go with HF for precision tools...I would rather buy a good name from a pawn shop then a new tool like that from HF...As a professional industrial/commercial HVAC tech, I can't get away with junk for most tools...Wrenches and sockets brake all the time pulling pumps and motors...I broke a 4' HF pipe wrench in half taking an inspection plug out of an air compressor at luke AFB last year...The rigid 4 footer had no issues...HF sells stuff to fill a need once and get put away for a year...In my business its pretty easy to spot the good techs...They usually have klein tools, and fluke meters...

 

[JB]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

Well, there are some tasks that call for the best. IMO that is Snap-On or Cornwell.

I bought my Snap-on basic set of wrenches in 1953, got the Cornwell Torque wrench at an estate auction in 1992. Never had occasion to regret a single one.

 

[Cofe]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

When I was a motor technician and couldn't find the torque wrench we used to tighten everything FT.
That was either Fairly tight or F***ing tight.

Reminds me of my first shop class. The instructor would have us put a bolt in a vise to practice what a certain torque felt like. It was surprising how practice would teach a person about the FT method. Eventually a person could be deemed as having a "calibrated" arm.
Just thought I'd mention that any torque wrench will get way out of calibration if you fail to back off the settings when you are done with it.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

Reminds me of my first shop class. The instructor would have us put a bolt in a vise to practice what a certain torque felt like. It was surprising how practice would teach a person about the FT method. Eventually a person could be deemed as having a "calibrated" arm.
Just thought I'd mention that any torque wrench will get way out of calibration if you fail to back off the settings when you are done with it.

Ayuh,.... As achris always says,...

"Torqued with a Calibrated Elbow"...










edit: benchmark, 37,000 posts...

 

[rogerwa]

Re: Torque Wrench quality?

When I rebuilt my Jetski engine last year I used one of those cheap torque wrench's with the little pointer arm that points to the scale. I was thinking that this thing could not be very accurate for the primary reason that it is impossible to read the guage will honking on the thing to get 75lbs pressure on it. My job came out OK as the ski has performed flawlessly all season, but that nagging feeling is there that I didn't get the head evenly torqued or didn't get it tight enough.

How much is it worth to not have that nagging feeling?