I’m looking to spend less than $100, separately. I’m just a weekend warrior who does his own vehicle maintenance and such. The 3/8 will primarily be used to basic automotive tasks and the 1/2” for lugs.
What is the difference between a regular torque wrench and these split beams I keep seeing?
The PI torque wrenches look nice but appear a bit too pricey for me.
The click type torque wrenches use a spring in the handle to compress a ball into a detent. Complaints are that the click is less evident at low settings and it should be stored at the lowest setting to keep the spring from 'taking a set.' You can also break the cheap ones by unscrewing the handle too far because the ball is not captured and will fall out.
Opinions vary wildly on how much compression and for how long it will take to permanently warp the spring. Go to a gun forum and watch guys argue over storing magazine springs compressed or not. It is the same argument and hasn't been solved over there either.
The split beam uses two parallel beams that split during torque application then the deflected beam 'slaps' the straight one to make the click. The advantages are faster to set and don't need to be stored at a low setting. A disadvantage can be the scale increments. Every clicker I've used can be set in more or less 1 ft-lb or in-lb increments. The split beam will probably be marked in 5 ft-lb increments but the setting mechanism is inherently more accurate so it probably comes out about the same.
I would say the main advantages are for constant use. Split beams are faster to set and will maintain calibration through more cycles and tolerate more abuse (drops, etc). For DIY tasks every few weeks or longer the click types will last a long time if you don't abuse them.
I would get the 3/8" Tekton and the 1/2" PI one mentioned above from Tooldiscounter. You will have most of your needs taken care of for less than $200.
