Torque Wrench

[Black02Silverado]

Just a thought.

 

How many on here use a torque wrench in their daily maintenance?

 

Also how often do you get it's calibration checked? Where do you take it?

 

Do you keep it in an enviromentally stable, (in the house) enviroment?

 

Just curious.

[carguru]

I usually take mine into work after hours to calibrate using a torque watch. I also have a second one that is lower torque that I set to a specific torque and check both with. Plus I also keep them inside the house in a fairly stable environment.

 

There are places you can send the torque wrench to. Griot's Garage used to have a service that calbrates torque wrenches.

[The SPEEDY]

Well, I use one at work, and school. I still haven't baught my own. At work it stays in the boss' desk when it isn't being used. At school it also stays in the teachers desk. We are suposed to send them to Snap On about once a year, but I doubt that it has ever been done.

[RyanbabZ71]

im getting one for xmas

 

Previously I just used my dads

[MCourson]

I have a cheap Craftsman ft lbs that dose not get used very often. I cant remember when the last time it was re calibrated. Now for inch pounds I have a pretty nice Snap-On. On the recalibration, it depends on how much you use it. On the karts I use the Snap-On almost daily so it gets calibrated almost monthly. For normal use I would have it recalibrated once a year.

[SnakeEyeSS]

I have a needle one, And I I hate trying to read it, it gives a dirrerfent reading depending on how har you pull(of course), but am not sure when to stop! usualy when I pul and it gets to what I want, it ends up turning the bold more.

 

I need a clicky one.

[MCourson]

I used the needle one once....I love my clicky.

[Black02Silverado]

Yep the clicky's are cool. Although the needle torque works great for those 4-30 inch pound torques. Setting up my rear diff pinion preload was fun. Initial set at 8lbinch for a new set up but when I had to change my pinion seal it needed to be set around 24lbinch due to being broke in. Kind of a happy median since it was broke in persay but not totally since it was low mileage.

 

Don't forget to set them at their lowest setting when you're done.

[Import Hater]

I have a Snap-On Techwrench. It has an LCD display. You set the torque up or down and can convert to nM or inch pounds too. As you tighten, the torque displays on the lcd. And when you reach the set point, it makes a beep noise and the handle vibrates. Cool...

 

Rob

[Black02Silverado]

I have a Snap-On Techwrench. It has an LCD display. You set the torque up or down and can convert to nM or inch pounds too. As you tighten, the torque displays on the lcd. And when you reach the set point, it makes a beep noise and the handle vibrates. Cool...

 

Rob

Sounds expensive.

 

I want one!!!!

[Import Hater]

Some of their super duper accurate ones are over $1,000 and don't have nearly the bells and whistles mine has. The 3/8ths 100ft.lb. model I have was around $300.

[99Silver6.0]

SnapOn!! Kinda pricey but I like mine. TQFR250D.

[gnutruk]

I will never ever use a needle type t-wrench again. I have a Taiwanese clicky that I got on sale. It seems ok. My brother has a nice Sears; Craftsman, I guess. Better feel than mine.

 

I would love to get a Snap-On, but I just do little maintenance sort of work on my truck, so kinda hard to justify the cost.

 

I have never had my torque wrench calibrated. Of course, I've used it fewer than 100 times. So I figure it's still pretty close to factory spec., whatever that might mean regarding torque wrenches.

 

One thing I always do is set it back to its low setting before putting it away. The instructions that came with it were very adamant about that.

 

I store mine in the house. It's in with my other "nice and clean" tools. Would it be a problem kept in the garage? Is there some part inside the mechanism that's environmentally sensitive? What is it; temperature fluctuation?

 

gnutruk

[WEEKEND WARRIOR]

A cheap way to test calibration

 

Mark the handle 1ft from the center of the square drive. Now put the square drive in a vice so the handle is parallel to the ground. Hang a known weight (20lb bucket ect.) from the handle on the mark made earlier with the wrench set to the weight. the wrench should just click!

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This was for ft. lbs. You should check it with more than one weight.

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The easiest way for inch lbs. is to convert to ft. lbs an do the same.

[MCourson]

SnapOn!!  Kinda pricey but I like mine.  TQFR250D.

QD2R200