[Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the December 2009 issue of Grassroots Motorsports; for a torque wrench comparison from a later issue, click here.]
If you work on cars, you’re probably familiar with gutendtheit—we’ve all twisted wrenches until the bolt or nut felt “good and tight.” But is the bolt that’s keeping your engine together, suspension attached or …
Years ago, a Snap-On guy stopped at my neighbor's house to deliver a toolchest or something. I took the opportunity to have him test my Snap-On torque wrench (which at the time was a year old and only used for doing head bolts and other "precision" stuff), as well as a 6-7 year old Craftsman one that I kept in my track kit and had done thousands of lug nuts and always stayed at 90 lbft.
Been a while, but my recollection was that the Snap-On tested out about 4% off.
The Craftsman tested out at 3%, even though I never reset it, generally treated it pretty roughly, and it had a broken plastic locking collar. Sears replaced it a couple years later after I sheared off the nub while using it as an emergency breaker bar with a cheater pipe on the end of it, lol.
High-end manufacturers would love for us to believe that their expensive products are superior to their lower-priced competitors. And their marketing efforts do a good job of grooming us to think like suckers and willingly part with our hard-earned money. The truth is, there is almost always a sweet spot where good value can be obtained for a reasonable price.
Caveat emptor.
I have a Craftsman that I never had re-calibrated and it has torqued thousands of bolts. When I started building the LS for the LeMans I figured I would have it tuned-up. Turns out it was dead on with about 1% error at the top and bottom of the range. I also have a really good one I picked up at an auction sale. I forget the brand name, but the guy was a pro machinist and it was a name I recognized, like SK or CDI or Williams. It looked unused and (although nearly dead-on at about 2%), it was not as accurate as the Craftsman.
1988RedT2 said:High-end manufacturers would love for us to believe that their expensive products are superior to their lower-priced competitors. And their marketing efforts do a good job of grooming us to think like suckers and willingly part with our hard-earned money. The truth is, there is almost always a sweet spot where good value can be obtained for a reasonable price.
Caveat emptor.
When I was a grease monkey everyone laughed at my Craftsman tools while they had Snap On or MAC. Mine broke the same as theirs, but the difference was that I simply had to swing by Sears on my lunch break to get a new one. They either had to wait a week for the driver to stop by or drive to whatever town they were in that day and hope he had one on the truck.
I learned quickly that they weren't paying a premium price for a better tool, they were paying for MLM.
I know size matters for torque wrenches. I have this Armstrong 100-600 1" drive 41" long. Got it from a renter that was short 1 month. Finally got to use it on some 250 lb/sqft torsion axle nuts.
Try swinging by a Sears now, they are all gone by me.
In reply to GPz11 (Forum Supporter) :
Lowes carries craftmans now. Do they still take broken tools?
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
I caught the same E36 M3 in A&P school. Right up until one of my classmates broke his square and it took 2 weeks to replace it.
That said I do own a few tools that are just better from Snap-on. The stubby ratcheting screwdriver and four-way angle head wrenches being chief among them.
For torque wrenches mid-grade or better. I've had a couple really bad experiences with the cheap Harbor Freight ones.
The best torque wrench, IMO, is one that is checked for calibration on a schedule and holds the calibration well.
RossD said:In reply to GPz11 (Forum Supporter) :
Lowes carries craftmans now. Do they still take broken tools?
[Tongue click. Scoffs]
Yes. They do. Sadly my 'new' Craftsman ratchet is made in China and not as nice as the USA made one it replaced. But Lowes and Ace both honor the warranty to my knowledge. I need to get a screwdrive replaced so I'll go "audit" it once it get over being sick...
The0retical (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
I caught the same E36 M3 in A&P school. Right up until one of my classmates broke his square and it took 2 weeks to replace it.
That said I do own a few tools that are just better from Snap-on. The stubby ratcheting screwdriver and four-way angle head wrenches being chief among them.
For torque wrenches mid-grade or better. I've had a couple really bad experiences with the cheap Harbor Freight ones.
The best torque wrench, IMO, is one that is checked for calibration on a schedule and holds the calibration well.
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Another (formerly active) A&P here. That calibration and testing thing is pretty important. I used Craftsman torque wrenches exclusively and they were checked every year, had no problems using them during my professional career. Nowadays I use my own electric strain gauge to check all my torque wrenches every few months. The Craftsman torque wrenches still live in my box in the garage, and I carry one of the HF el cheapos in each of my cars. The HF wrenches are always in in spec, one of them I have had for over a decade, it has torqued God only knows how many lugs and it is still always in spec when I test it. I got it second hand from a pawnshop for like $5 too, no idea how old it actually is.
I've had some bad experiences with the 3/8" and 1/4" HF torque wrenches, but have had good results with the 1/2" model.
I've got a Tekton 1/2" that I picked up from Amazon. On calibration days at the work lab, I get it tested and it returns within ±2% every time. I think it was $110?
I got a couple HF ones years back and I have had it tested several times (not recently though) and it was always +/-3% or so.
i have a hf torque wrench 1/4 3/8 and 1/2 ones.. one thing i like to do, remove the cover on the head and put some red litium grease into it... even my freinds snap on was dry..no lube... and after i am done with the wrench set back to zero.. and never, never use one to loosen nuts/bolts
I grew up using my dads craftsman tools from the 60's, and was a loyal craftsman buyer into the 80's, when their quality started dropping. Slowly for years but, really dropped years ago. The last straw for me was trying to return a few things while the local sears was still open... They found excuses for almost all of 'em. Refused to cover the broken (no abuse, not even hard use) torque wrench. Said torque wrenches had always been on the exception list, and even showed that to me in writing.
Was disappointed when lowes got stuck with craftsman by the new VP. But the local manager does stand by the old sears swap policy. And since my abused broken ratchet is not made anymore, and the closest replacement was junky, so he gave me the nice 90 tooth. Don't know about the torque wrench policy currently.
Husky 1/2" drive here and it tested within 3% about a month ago. I love the sliding collar and the "click" it makes is very noticeable versus some of the other Craftsman/Snap-On/Matco versions ive had in the past. I believe it ran me right around $60.
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