Torque wrench input

[tarmy]

Well, I finally am going to get a set of torque wrenches...1/4,3/8 and 1/2".

Was planning on spending about 300 for all three, they will get used a few times a year...I would like to get a decent set...if I need to go up a few bucks I can...

I searched the threads here...alot of suggestions for PI, CDI and the like...but a set of those is around 500 or more...

Is Gearwrench stuff OK? The other make I found was Capri.

Tekton seemed like it got good reviews and was way cheaper...

Input and suggestions appreciated...thanks...

 

[crazyjim30]

I have older (15 years or so) Craftsman's torque wrenches. They work and probably fit your budget, however.... Craftsman no longer offers a lifetime warranty on them, only a 1 year one. I had to replace a busted one last week and was NOT impressed.
I can't speak to the other brands as I've never owned their torque wrenches. FWIW, I love Gearwrench's ratcheting wrenches. Depending on the warranty, I'd buy one their torque wrenches, no problem.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[CJM8515]

Gear wrench makes the craftsman ones.

 

[JohnDeere1]

I paid $130 for all 3 of mine I have 2 cdi's rebranded Cornwell and Wright 1/2 but different and a skidmore/Cornwell 1/4 oh I got a 4th one a nos craftsman made in USA same as sk still in the Pac for 30 bucks. Buying used torque wrenches is not a bad idea just don't buy it if it looks beat up mine all look new and are accurate.
I suggest CDI or the skidmores which are my personal favorite but you adjust them with an Allen wrench but very thin the Cornwell versions are best with the cornwell ratchet head smooth as butter.

 

[Fedwrench]

the question is what are you going to use a set of torque wrenches on?

 

[tarmy]

the question is what are you going to use a set of torque wrenches on?

Mostly servicing my waverunners, boats and a tractor...car/truck on occasion...

Not using them to make a living...but I am at a point in life where I don't/ won't buy cheapo tools. Just want a reliable small, med for servicing boat engines and large for the occasional tire rotation...

 

[vga]

My 2 main torque wrenches are both Proto bought new a few yrs ago. 1 3/8" and 1 1/2" both are Ft Pounds wrenches. Today I just picked up a 1/4" Nm diamond brand unit

 

[Yarpo]

If I had 300 to buy all three drive sizes, I'd probably do two from CDI or Precision instruments and one from Tekton.

I'd buy a very good 1/4 and 1/2 from one of the above and buy the 3/8" from Tekton. The Tekton wrenches are made in Taiwan and I was very pleased with mine, used it for head bolts on my last car without issue. That's how I do it I at least.

 

[mrborohachi]

Kobalt/lowes has Taiwanese made wrenches. I believe the Husky's are all taiwanese too. Too bad you missed out on the Husky USA wrenches, might want to search craiglist/ebay for those. Were those the last of KD made wrenches?????

I'm personally going to buy this as my next
1/4" drive torque wrench. It's being marketed in asia to bike shops working on bikes that are all carbon fiber. It's $130 on Amazon and i realize that will blow your budget.
https://www.amazon.com/digital-torque-wrench-insertion-SDT3-060/dp/B00932CFTK
http://www.eclatorq.com/eng_products2.aspx?AkindNo=A000001&FkindNo=F000001&SkindNo=S000006&PidNo=P200911130051

Being in Nor-cal if you in/next to any big city I would be religiously checking Pawn shops. Lots of industry up there, hell Toyota had New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) where they partnered with Chevy.

 

[80mirada]

The new Husky ones are Chinese, and have problems. The HF ones tested much better. The old Husky, Craftsman, KD, Gearwrench ones (made in USA) were great, but you would have to find the used or NOS. The Tekton and Kobalt do well in testing on the machine.

 

[Moparman390]

People seem to be happy with the Tekton ones, I am. If you aren't going to jump to truck brand, which is over your budget, stick with Tekton and save some dough.

 

[txvwnut]

Precision Instruments, buy once cry once and be done. I love mine and use nothing else even though there is SO and Matco in the box as well.

Torque wrenches are the one thing I suggest not skimping on.

 

[airrj]

I vote for the Protos. One shop that I worked in had wrenches from many manufactures and the Protos had the best success rate of passing the annual calibration tests. Also, the ratchet head had far fewer repairs.

Like Jrboulder said above, on sale you could do it for $300. I got all of mine off of ebay, and if you watch for a while you can find some really nice units for good prices.

Good luck on the search.

 

[Wabash]

Don't skimp on the torque wrenches. If I were looking to spend x amount of dollars on more than one torque wrench. The torque range based on the work you do would determine how I would select the torque wrenches. Spend more money on the torque wrench that is going to be used the most. My 3/8" has a range of 5-100 ft. lbs. and gets the most use. It toggles between inch pounds and foot pounds. My 1/2" would be next on the use list and my 1/4 and 3/4 the least for what I do now. Precision instruments make a really good split beam. I'd probably look at them first. CDI is a division of snap on and make good wrenches too.

 

[cvairwerks]

Instead of selecting by drive size, you need to select by ranges needed. Look at the tolerance and repeatability next. At lower torque values, the tolerance really comes into play.

 

[Fedwrench]

Center your purchases on the the torque values you use the most. Having said that, I would recommend getting a precision instruments 3/8 drive split beam flex head torque wrench, a Tekton 1/2 drive model, and a precision instruments micrometer torque wrench that measures inch pounds.
Now if you need to measure rotational torque like when setting bearing preload, then a dial type torque wrench may be useful.

 

[Twisted Sid]

Not to hijack the thread but I have a random question about torque wrenches. At my job, I was told that all the torque wrenches have to be stored at 20% there maximum value. So 100lb wrench has to be set to 20lbs ect...
Is this the norm? I was always taught to reset them to 0 after use.

 

[cvairwerks]

Typically, they should be set to the lowest value. Cranking some of them down to zero actually can damage the internals, or let them come apart.

Depending on brand, type and accuracy, most manufacturers quote the range of 20-80% full capacity as the band that will meet the specification for the particular model wrench. I used to deal with some torque watches that were in the range of under 1 ounce/inch max. You could almost breath hard on them and change the torque value. Here is a link to ones like we used: http://detercoonline.com/products/w...-mid-range-reaction-torque-watch-gauge-detail

And some guys grumble about spending a couple of hundred bucks on a torque wrench...

 

[Twisted Sid]

Ok, that's what I should have said, is ive been told to store them at the lowest setting, not 0.
What we are being told at work is to set it at 20% of it's highest value. So the 1/4" is set to 20 in lbs, the 3/8 is 30 ftlbs, 1/2" is 50 ftlbs, and 3/4 is 120ft lbs.

 

[pbon]

Cheap ones need to be stored at lowest setting. Quality split beam like Precision Industries, Snap On, Etc do not. I have both cheap and quality ones. The cheap ones are fine for most purposes but I would not build a motor with them. Store the cheap ones at their lowest setting as noted and they will work fine for years. I have one that is over 15 years old.

 

[junkyardwarrior]

Whatever you do, don't cheap out. I did a valve cover gasket and cam plug R&R on a Kawasaki a while back, which requires removal of the 4 nuts that are on the LONG head studs. Grabbed my torque wrench-which was one of the newer crapsman jobs, torqued, put valve cover back on, and the cover hits the end of the stud. The calibration was off so badly that it stretched the studs. So a 5 hour job turned into a 10 hour job, and I had to eat half of it because of a cheap torque wrench.

Local older gentleman was selling off some of the stuff he no longer uses and I jumped on the 1/2" and 3/8" Proto click-type torque wrenches, had them calibrated (they were spot on) and haven't looked back. Sold the crapsman to someone else-and told them my deal, they were ok with it. Dunno, maybe he was going to fix it or calibrate. But I wasn't having any more of it.

 

[427]

I use both Snap On and Proto at work. I really like the feel of the Proto and they arent to bad expensive.

 

[oldtools]

Other brands to consider (that have not been mentioned)

Utica
Tohnichi
Toptul
SK

 

[houdel]

Very highly rated on Amazon, 88 customer reviews, 97% rated it 4 or 5 stars.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M1D17AW/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[packet]

I have a craftsman, a PCI, and a couple CDI Computorqs. The craftsman is ****, the PCI is good, and the Computorqs are amazing. If there's one tool you should spend extra money on, it's a torque wrench. The feedback that the CDI has is awesome as it'll tell you exactly what your bolt is torqued to.

The PCI is decent as well, but the scale is fairly hard to read. I think I'm going to buy the 1/4" computorq once Zoro has a 25% off sale just to complete my set.

 

[EDH68]

bought this, and i do not regret it one bit...

 

[Schurkey]

I'm DONE buying used torque wrenches.

Found a lovely Snap-On 3/8 head in a 1/4 body inch-pound unit at a pawn shop. Just what I wanted...
...Sent it in for calibration. No parts available, out-of-spec. Condemned. Useless. Junk.




"Click-type" torque wrenches cost about half (or less) to recalibrate compared to electronic- or dial-types.

Split-beam torque wrenches cannot be used in the reverse direction--like for reverse-threaded fasteners.

 

[M6erfan]

Very highly rated on Amazon, 88 customer reviews, 97% rated it 4 or 5 stars.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M1D17AW/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Interesting, they look identical to the Tekton torque wrenches.

I'll chime in that I think Precision Instruments split beams offer a good value

 

[WhiffySpark]

bought this, and i do not regret it one bit...

My guy has the new 1/2 for 490. I’m trying to decide on that or a split beam. His selling point is you can’t use a split beam in reverse. But I can’t remeber the last time I had to torque a left hand fastener

 

[tarmy]

First off...thanks for the input and taking the time to comment on my question.

In a way I followed my own rule, after researching all the suggestions, and raised my budget.

Got two CDIs. One in 1/2" and one in 3/8", models selected based upon my likely torque needs...as many suggested.

I will post photos and comments when they arrive...

I will look further for the inch pound torque wrench in the coming week or two...

Thanks again for suggestions and advice...

 

[EDH68]

the digital snap on is nice, no more angle attachments, and i used dog bones for my HD shovel head cylinders, all i had to do was program it for what i was using it for, love it but not cheap, i was in motorcycle school when i bought it, it was on sale and also a discount for being in school, completely understand about cost, i prolly would have never bought it if not for those things......but like i said it does do alot

 

[tarmy]

Update...the new wrenches arrived.







Smooth nice tools...

They are basically Snap On...a bit pricey...but won't ever need replacing.

I am still looking into the inch pound selection...

The advice I got from you guys was very helpful. Thank you. I am happy with the outcome...

 

[Schurkey]

I wouldn't be without a beam-type inch-pounder.

Aside from torquing fasteners up to the limit of the wrench--120 inch pounds or so--they're needed to set bearing preload on differential assemblies and similar work.

 

[SGKent]

Talk to these folks. They have done work for me several times and will rebuild and calibrate wrenches. I sent one to them many years ago after another shop ruined it, and they do wonderful work. I make an excel spreadsheet of the shown vs real values, cut the cells out and tape it to the handle and one to my tool chest. http://www.teamtorque.com/ Don't just look at new wrenches - be open to some good used ones that can be cleaned and recalibrated for a very reasonable price.

 

[Moparman390]

Interesting, they look identical to the Tekton torque wrenches.

I'll chime in that I think Precision Instruments split beams offer a good value

Right down to the conversion table in the case, it's gotta be the same OEM.

I have it in Tekton form, paid $30 for it, the extra $2 is worth it to me for Tekton's great customer service in case I need to warranty.

 

[Formula]

I've got a bunch of torque wrenches between my work and home tools.

At home I've got a craftsman, a CDI, 2 gearwrench digital angle wrenches and a harbor freight. They're not the greatest. The gearwrench digitals were ok but have been flaking out a little bit.

At work I've got Matco click torque wrenches in 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2. And snap on techangle in 3/8 and 1/2. The matco and snap on are all top quality and well worth it.

 

[SGKent]

I'm DONE buying used torque wrenches.

Found a lovely Snap-On 3/8 head in a 1/4 body inch-pound unit at a pawn shop. Just what I wanted...
...Sent it in for calibration. No parts available, out-of-spec. Condemned. Useless. Junk.




"Click-type" torque wrenches cost about half (or less) to recalibrate compared to electronic- or dial-types.

Split-beam torque wrenches cannot be used in the reverse direction--like for reverse-threaded fasteners.

I heard that line too from a local certified rebuilder, They sent the wrench back to me in pieces plus a $40 invoice for shipping. I looked it over and the only thing wrong was the grease had hardened. Cleaned it up, reassembled it and it worked great. Sent it to Team Torque and they replaced my grease with one that did not harden. Calibrated it too. Only place I will send wrenches now. I think you might talk with snapon about no parts available on that one too. I've had them replace tools for that reason.

 

[Schurkey]

I heard that line too from a local certified rebuilder, They sent the wrench back to me in pieces plus a $40 invoice for shipping. I looked it over and the only thing wrong was the grease had hardened. Cleaned it up, reassembled it and it worked great. Sent it to Team Torque and they replaced my grease with one that did not harden. Calibrated it too. Only place I will send wrenches now. I think you might talk with snapon about no parts available on that one too. I've had them replace tools for that reason.

Team Torque was the calibration company I used. They were the first to tell me that there were no parts available, and it was way out of calibration.

I then sent it to Snap-On via my favorite local Truck Guy. Snap-On sent it back, no parts available, and no offer to replace or upgrade to another torque wrench.