flyingbrass

Below is what I posted at http://hfreviews.com/item.php?id=102#review1413


Maybe we hit a bad batch. I don't know. I had read good things about these being reasonably accurate. When they were on sale a buddy and I bought one each on the same day at the same store.

I don't have any fancy calibration equipment, but I had borrowed a 1/2" Craftsman torque wrench that had been calibrated several years prior (and carefully used and stored since). I also had my 3/8" drive Craftsman (20+ years old, stored in poor conditions and not always turned back to 0).

As a rough test/comparison, I wired together some weight plates to make exactly 50 lbs. as indicated by my digital bathroom scales. Using a socket and short extension, I put each wrench on a lug nut. Keeping the wrench handle as parallel to the ground as possible, I adjusted the wrench settings and moved the weight out until the wrench popped. I measured the distance from the center of the lug nut to the wire holding the weights and calculated. Here's what I got:

1/2" Craftsman set at 70 ft/lbs popped with the weight 16 3/16" out, which is about 67.4 ft/lbs. That's 3.7% low.

My 3/8" Craftsman: set at 62 ft/lbs popped at ~13 31/32", which comes out to
58.2 actual, about 6.1% low.

HF #1: set at 52 ft/lbs popped at 15 3/4", which is 68.3 actual. That's
31.1% high. Horrible.

HF #2: set at 52 ft/lbs popped at 15 5/32", which is about
63.2 actual. That's 21.5% too high. Ouch again.

I had previously done some other tests with these wrenches, including repeatedly tightening and loosening while marking the nut position at final torque. Both HF wrenches turned the nuts much farther than either Craftsman.

I took my HF wrench back and got a refund. IMO, don't trust these unless you have them tested or check them out yourself.

flyingbrass

My ~20 year old 3/8" Craftsman wrench broke shortly after. This seems to be a longstanding problem with the pull and turn Craftsman torque wrenches. The plastic thing in the handle breaks. I thought maybe mine was old enough to be free of this common problem, but nope. It sheared off while turning back down to zero.

Finding a good torque wrench isn't easy.

Elton

ive yet to check this s-k 250ft lb one i got for 35 dollars the worst thing you can do to them is leave them twisted up where u last used it

lunalobowolf

Let me tell you a story that a BMW master tech told me in a shop we worked in about 15 years ago.... he took a 'clicker type' torque wrench and used it against a beam type wrench and starting at 30 lbs and worked his way up to 125 lbs in 5 lbs increments, he found no corolation between the two such as at one setting the clicker was reading to light then at the next setting the clicker was to heavy and back and forth..... My only advise is that a 'clicker' type wrench in any brand will never be as accurate as a beam type.... we only use Snap-on dial wrenchs with the light indicater on the dial to indicate stop when you reach the desired setting. A 3/8 drive wrench is about $275.00 dollars and a 1/2 drive is about $375.00. Not a lot of money if you build engines or rearends and need a spot on torque measurement.....which if you drive a toyota, then its mandontory for the heads!

xxxtreme22r

I was a nuclear mechanic (Nuclear Machinist's Mate) we were only allowed to use beam type torque wrenches. Does not mater what brand clicker you get, as luna.... mentioned nothing will be as accurate as the beam. Reason being a clicker has too many moving parts that cause drag which correlates to a loss of torque reading. So most will be clickers will be on the "light" side. Add in user failure to properly counter torque the wrench and you wind up even further off.

flyingbrass

Beams are intrinsically more accurate, but how useful are they practically? At odd angles working on vehicles, I imagine they can be hard to read. If limited on funds, am I better off with a beam?

Since my 3/8" Craftsman croaked and I returned the wrenches I had borrowed, I'm torque wrenchless and wondering what to do.