More you pay the more you get works up to a certain point, and I hardly spent top-of-the-line money for mine. The NIST certificate with my wrench's latest calibration certifies it to within +- 1% mid-range, which is in the fractional ft-lb range and thus acceptable for me.
My personal preference is to purchase any precision tool (under which category, for me, a torque wrench falls) from a manufacturer in Germany, USA or Japan (no particular order). Those three nations have a long standing history of quality precision tools and goods, and I feel very comfortable that QC and durability are going to be there. I also tend to view my tools as investments, so I'll pay extra for something that I can use over and over and over again, have it serviced, then use it for another half decade, get it serviced, use it again. Sure, my $25 service and calibration is the same as buying another low end torque wrench every time, but I have a kind of zen thing going with /my/ tools. I don't like replacing friends. :p And beside that fact I also know, each time, that I have a known and certified level of accuracy, so that gives me peace of mind by eliminating the guesswork. I would feel no second thoughts at all to tearing down the engine on any vehicle I own and then reassembling it torqued to spec with my wrench. Since I have a torque multiplier lever, I also feel no issues with doing axle nuts, CV boots, timing belts, strut jobs and whatever my forays into automotive mechanical mayhem may require (though I would like to get 100-250 ft-lb and 1-25 in-lb wrenches to compliment it). The beam type torque wrenches are a bit harder to read (as you have to read them in motion) but they are much, much more durable, and you can instantly tell by looking at the needle whether they're still calibrated or not (if the needle isn't on zero at rest, you aren't). The clicker type is easier to use, but also much more prone to incidental damage; it's varying spring forces inside the wrench that sets your torque level, so if you drop it and disturb the springs you can steadily introduce errors as bits and parts move inside. Tim's wrench lives in a toolbox, perfect home for a beam-type torque wrench. I, being the tool-nerd I am, keep my clicker inside the plastic case it came in up on the shelf, and bring it down when I need it rather than leaving it laying around to get dropped, knocked off the workbench or kicked across the floor. My $0.02, whatever that's worth in your neck of the woods. -Kurt On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 2:08 AM, surfswab <[email protected]> wrote: > I have the Harbor Freight click-stop type. > > The more you read about torque wrenches, the more chatter you'll get, > pro and con, about them (kinda like oil threads). I'm not convinced > that the more you pay, the more accuracy you get, and I doubt that for > our purposes, it's worthwhile to go top of the line. > > That said, I'd hesitate to use mine for anything requiring super > precision, like maybe internal engine parts, but it works fine for > general fastening. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en.
