torque wrench recalibration? Where

[Brad54]

Where do you send a torque wrench to have it recalibrated? I have a Craftsman click-style torque wrench, and last night it was acting odd. I've had it for about 10 or 15 years, so it's due for sure.

Where do you guys send a torque wrench to have it checked and calibrated?

-Brad

 

[scofo]

You could buy a snap-on torque tester and calibrator stock #TTC2000 and do your own at home.

 

[Phatsub]

$30k for that machine! That's rediculous.

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

Find your local airport (smaller, personal planes) or ultralight group. FAA requires that they be checked every so often. I worked on a friends, fathers van and didn't charge him, and he took my torque wrenches in along with his son's for recalibration.
He wouldn't charge me (so I don't know where he went).

One thing that did bother me, I have multiple torque wrenches, and my new one (proto that was supposed to be accurate to 2%), was out of torque by something like 5%, his son's HF lesser used size, was right on the money. (I wasn't happy)

 

[dxdexter]

Search your local yellow pages for "instrumentation". Call them and ask if they calibrate torque wrenches and if not ask them if they know who does. This service should be readily available in most cities, if not an online search will give you some alternatives if you choose to ship the wrench.

 

[Brad54]

Search your local yellow pages for "instrumentation". Call them and ask if they calibrate torque wrenches and if not ask them if they know who does. This service should be readily available in most cities, if not an online search will give you some alternatives if you choose to ship the wrench.

I hadn't thought of looking under "instrumentation." That's a great tip. Looks like I'll let my fingers do the walking on Monday morning!

-Brad

 

[Charles (in GA)]

http://www.qualitydigest.com/nov98/html/calserv.html

Found this link via Google. It appears to be old, but I'll bet most of the places are still in business. Many of these calibrate torque wrenches. Its not something you will find in many towns, you probably will have to ship it off.

My experience at work was that the guys with the cheap torque wrenches had no better or no worse luck than anyone else with their torque wrenches being accurate. Our airline's mechanics used to be able to keep their own precision tools and the company would calibrate/verify calibration of them. Very rarely did anyone have any tool, be it a torque wrench, a micrometer, a caliper, whatever, that was not within spec (company rules say max of 3% on torque wrenches). The company no longer allows us to keep our own calibrated tools. Somehow they imagine a savings in having everyone take a hike to the tool room, check out the tool, use it, and walk back and return it. Somehow, and I don't see how, that is a savings, over paying one guy to sit in a room and calibrate them, now he just has more free time on his hands, as he has less work than before, he only has to do the company owned tools now.

Charles

 

[wakeboarder311]

ARP will do it for you if you are near a track or one of the big car shows they might be there.

 

[z28toz06]

I had a link for doing it your self but i cant find it.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Doing it yourself will get you in the ballpark, but that is all. I did a little research into recalibration of torque wrenches, and discovered, that a good calibration shop has a gravity survey done so compensation in the equipment for greater or less than normal gravity can be taken into account when doing this.

I have one of the sears electronic torque transducers, 1/2 male drive on one end, 1/2 female drive on the other end, wires out to a multimeter looking box. I made a fixture to snap this into and mount it in a vise, then I can pull torque on it and compare the electronic box with the tool in question, works pretty well for determining if the TW is close to spec.

Charles

 

[jay50]

Where do you send a torque wrench to have it recalibrated? I have a Craftsman click-style torque wrench, and last night it was acting odd. I've had it for about 10 or 15 years, so it's due for sure.

Where do you guys send a torque wrench to have it checked and calibrated?

-Brad

My day job has a complete calibration shop for TWs, including some repairs. I just drop mine off and they have them checked out with print out of torque range accuracy at the end of the day.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

My day job has a complete calibration shop for TWs, including some repairs. I just drop mine off and they have them checked out with print out of torque range accuracy at the end of the day.

Same here, but I still like the sears digital torque transducer for quick checks at home.

Charles

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

Same here, but I still like the sears digital torque transducer for quick checks at home.

Charles

Do you have a part number for that (wondering if they still sell it)?

Is it like the one OTC used to sell, that plugs into their multimeter, or does it have its own readout?

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Do you have a part number for that (wondering if they still sell it)?

Is it like the one OTC used to sell, that plugs into their multimeter, or does it have its own readout?

It has its own read out box. They discontinued it, thats why I got it. It was about $120 and I bought it for something crazy like $40. There was a whole thread about it.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12678

Charles

 

[330Scott]

Team Torque sounds like a pretty decent place as well.

 

[VDubJoe]

I bought one of the sears units off ebay. Works great.

Joe