Inch/pound torque wrench...Sears or Harbor Freight?

[Dan Forman]

I need a torque wrench for maintenance of my Bryd Shelix cutter head. They specify 55 inch/pounds of torque for the carbide cutters. Sears has one for about $60, Harbor Freight wants $17. I'm sure it will only see very limited use, when replacing or turning the cutters. Is the HF model likely to be accurate enough for this application? I don't think it would get enough use to wear it out, so my main concern would be accuracy. Please correct me if I'm wrong about wearing it out though. Thanks,

Dan

[Rick Lizek]

I would look at the local auto parts store as well. I have a well stocked one that carries an import line of wrenches that are lifetime guaranteed and the prices are between Sears and HF.

[Randal Stevenson]

HF has had them that were MARKED lifetime guaranteed, where as Sears are a 1 year warranty for non commercial use (90 days I think, commercial).

Having said that, I have several torque wrenchs (used to mechanic), and one high dollar one I bought, arrived when a friend of mine was going to get his calibrated (FAA requirement). I had done some work for him (free), so he took them and had them checked. The new one was WAY off, where as the HF cheapy that was bought in an emergency was right on.

The big thing is to remember to back if off when your done with it!

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

In this order:
Snap On, Mac, Sears.

Harbor freight isn't on the list.

[Steve Roxberg]

Dan,

For a piece of Carbide spinning at xxxx RPM I would buy the best one I could. Money doesn't always = Quality but I'd be carefull, you didn't go cheap on the Byrd head, don't go cheap on the tool to keep it tuned. :)

[Scot Ferraro]

HD has Husky Brand and I think that it has a lifetime guarantee -- I bought two sizes a few years back and they work great.

Scot

[Pat Germain]

Husky makes good tools. So does Matco. Of course, Snap-On is considered the best and you pay for it. Craftsman hand tools are also good and a good compromise since Snap-On and others aren't readily available; you have to find a dealer.

I used to work aboard nuclear powered aircraft carriers. The engineering department was strictly controlled by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They used Craftsman torque wrenches in engineering.

Any decent torque wrench will probably do ya. :)

[Chuck Lenz]

Lifetime guarantee on Harbor Freight Tools, LMAO, now thats funny.

[Mark Rios]

In this order:
Snap On, Mac, Sears.

Harbor freight isn't on the list.



I agree whole heartedly with Cliff on this one, except maybe for the Sears one. Snap On first FOR SURE and then Mac but I'd evn go Matco before I'd go sears.

As an aside, a "Lifetime Warranty" or a "(however long) Warranty" will be for tool failure from most tool manufacturers, NOT for calibration accuracy necessarily. (Snap On, Mac and Matco DO warranty for calibration however during whatever warranty period the tool has which, with these manufacturers, is rarely an issue.:D)

[Matt Meiser]

Lifetime guarantee on Harbor Freight Tools, LMAO, now thats funny.

Is that based on experience or prejudice?

As someone else stated already, you could buy an expensive torque wrench and have it be calibrated wrong or a cheap one and have it calibrated right. Obviously buying a better brand will increase the odds of a good calibration. You can check the calibration yourself. Google "torque wrench calibration" and look at the first result for an idea how. This probably isn't ultra-precise, especially for a wrench measuring in inch pounds but will probably give you an idea.

You might check and see if you can borrow or rent one from an auto parts store. I think Autozone as a tool-lend program where you basically give them a deposit for the value of the tool and they give your money back if/when you bring it back.

I'm not sure Craftsman is much better than Harbor Freight these days. Knock on wood, I've yet to break a Harbor Freight hand tool (I have some big combination wrenches, a mallet or two, and a set of pipe wrenches .) I'm in Sears a few times per year replacing things like sockets, pliers, rachets and screw drivers and I don't really use them that much. I've bought some things from Harbor Freight I've been disappointed in and they've not hesitated to take them back--based on that, I'd expect the warranty would be handled in the store the same way.

[Chuck Lenz]

Matt, I wouldn't dream of takeing a Harbor Freight brand tool back UNLESS it was broke or missing a part when I opened the box. I would just figure I got what I paid for, throw it away, and not do it again. You get what you pay for. Call me what you want.

[Russ Filtz]

I think the HF warranty is lifetime of the TOOL, not the user! :D

Dang fine print! :p

[Al Willits]

Lifetime warrt doesn't mean much unless they calibrate them under it also.

I have had the chance to use them a bit though out my life as a mechanic, drag racer, engine builder, whatever, I found the Pro series Craftsman just as good as the Snap on version and a bit cheaper, I would get mine calibrated once a year and found both of the one I owned to be very accurate, one was inch pounds, the other foot pounds.

Do they give ya a plus or minus on the toque specs?

Seems like a shame to buy a high end wrench just to use it once every blue moon, maybe find someone with one or rent one, hard to verify accuracy with these, but you'd probably be close.
Especially if you borrowed from a good mechanic.

Other alternative is to buy the cheaper beam style and have it checked, you lose the fancy clicker to tell ya when you reached set torque, but depending on accuracy needed, it would probably work well, they used that style for many years and got by, willing to bet it'd work fine for you, and save ya some money.

Its all about how accurate ya want to be, and I'd think/bet either style of wrench would be accurate enough for this purpose.

Here's a few from Sears fwiw
The first one looks like it would work the best for what you want, you like the required torque to be in the upper end of the wrench's capability if possible.

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?cat=Mechanics+Tools&pid=00944596000&vertical=TOOL&subcat=Torque+Wrenches&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?cat=Mechanics+Tools&pid=00934186000&vertical=TOOL&subcat=Torque+Wrenches&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes


Good luck either way. :D

Al

[Bill White]

I have a deflecting beam torquer from Sears for 30 years plus. Used it on all the engines I used to build (MC roadracers). Nary a problem. Within the concept of all things being equal, at least I knew that the nuts and bolts were all torqued the same. Were they all set at exactly __lbs/ft ( and, by the way, what happened to foot pounds)? I don't know.
I think that we tend to overthink some details. Is my table saw top flat to within .002? I don't ever recall having a board that flat for more than two days. Plus or minus .002? WHAT?
I'll shut up now.
Bill

[Al Willits]

"""""""""
I think that we tend to overthink some details. Is my table saw top flat to within .002? I don't ever recall having a board that flat for more than two days. Plus or minus .002? WHAT?
I'll shut up now.
Bill
"""""""

I think its the "I try and be as accurate as I reasonably can whenever I can" thought, and that's all about what you consider reasonable...:)

Personally I like the tools as accurate as I can make them, I can control that, even if I can't control wood movement, and with accurate tools you only need to deal with the wood...imho

Al

[John VanDivier]

I just had to reply to this post. I have had two Sears 150 lb/ft micrometer torque wrenches fail exactly the same way. The internal nuts came loose and lost all calibration. Sears wouldn't give me the time of day since each one failed after the 90 day warrantee (the second one failed on the second use). They just say send it in and we'll fix it and calibrate for $39.95. Factor in two-way shipping and it comes out to more than I had paid ($59.95 at that time). So---never again Sears for me. I can fix it myself but still looking for a convenient place to calibrate. John

[Dan Forman]

Thanks for all of the replies, guess I'll do some looking around yet.

Dan

[Jason Roehl]

55 in-lbs of torque isn't much. That's about 4.5 ft-lbs. My truck's lugnuts get 150 ft-lbs. Plus, you can calibrate your torque wrench all you want, but any amount of contamination in the threads will throw that off. Nevermind the physics of the difference between the coefficients of static and kinetic friction. That's why torque on bolts is always supposed to be measured while the bolt is still turning.

My BIL used to work at Cummins as a MechEng. They found after much study that torque + angle gave a much more consistant result than trying to measure torque alone. I.e., they would tighten cylinder heads to x torque + y angle instead of just tightening to z torque.

I have the Craftsman in-lb (25-250 in-lb) torque wrench and the large ft-lb (up to 150 ft-lb, I think) torque wrench. Both have done what I have asked of them in quite a bit of automotive work--I mostly turn my own wrenches rather than taking my vehicles to the shop. There is one more torque wrench between those two that I want to get as I figure these wrenches are more accurate in their mid- to upper-range.

[Per Swenson]

We have a 18 inch spherical head on the woodmaster.

That is a lot of lil pieces of carbide.

To much torque, they snap. To little, they crack and fly later.

Pain in the keister I tell ya.

I went the auto parts, sears, and cheap route for 3 days.

At which point I questioned my sanity and found these people.

www.torqwrench.com

Problem solved with this driver.

Aint cheap, but as has been noted above the head ran quite the bundle.

Per

[Al Willits]

I might mention when you people are slaming sears, I agree they make some junk, but if your buying cheap, expect cheap.

I spend many hundreds for my set of two (don't remember but the cheaper was over $350 years ago) and used them along side mechanics that swore by Snap On, my sears wrenches faired no better or worse than the snap on brand, but cost a bit less and sears was always closer to me than my snap on dealer when a tool broke.

Ya get what ya pay for ... usually. :)

Al

[Tom Ruflin]

Byrd Tool sells a wrench for $90 calibrated to 50lbs. Look under accessories on their website byrdtool.com

[Mike Seals]

I can fix it myself but still looking for a convenient place to calibrate. John

I've checked spring height on a valve train using a digital scale and a drill press, a little imagination could get you a calibration set up. Hmmm, got a bearing press??

[Morton Heller]

I have been using Sears torque wrenches for many years, and I find them satisfactory for my cars - now mainly a periodic oil change.
I used to do things like spark plugs, but it has been awhile.
I have 3 Sears torque wrenches and have never regretted their purchase.
I can't say the same about some other Sears/Craftsman tools, but the Craftsman wrenches have all been fine, quality tools.

[Bruce Page]

There’s no such thing as guaranteed for life when it comes to torque wrenches. Maybe the mechanism is guaranteed but the calibration certainly is not. We use Snap-on exclusively and they are put on a two year calibration recall system, (I work at a government R&D lab). As good as Snap-on wenches are, they still fall out of calibration and require adjusting.

Randal gave the best advice when he said “The big thing is to remember to back if off when you’re done with it!”
To answer the original question, I wouldn’t even consider the short term accuracy of the HF to be reliable, let alone long term.

[Greg Mann]

Do a google on Wiha. This is a German company that makes torque limiting screwdrivers that can be had in various settings. We use replaceable insert cutting tools that benefit greatly from using preset torque limiting drivers. If you think the Byrd heads or equivalents are important try cutting aluminum at 20,000 RPM while using up 60HP! The Wiha drivers take the guesswork out and are reasonably priced. BTW, these guys make very high quality hex driving bits (but probably not square drives). Can be had through: rjrcooltools.com

[Bruce Haugen]

Wiha tools can also be obtained straight from their own web site: http://www.wihatools.com/

The American distributor is located in Monticello, MN, only 45 miles from me, and going through their warehouse is equivalent to a trip through Lee Valley, IMHO. I'll take one of everything, please:D

Bruce

[Dan Forman]

Thanks for the additional options.

Dan