- Joined
- Jul 10, 2022
- Messages
- 3,480
Holy cow I'm shocked at the price. I have a 3/8" 5-75 and a 1/2" 30-250. Remember they are not accurate below 20% of the highest range, so 75 means not accurate below 15, and I needed 18 ft. lbs. for spark plugs. Pretty sure the 3/8 was like $120 and the 1/2 was like $140...The U.S. military is not the same as a shade tree mechanic. Unfortunately, the cost of calibration for civilians often is more than the cost of a "non-professional" torque wrench. I also seem to have seen a review of torque wrench accuracy out of the box and was surprised at the variance, cost of unit notwithstanding. I guess if I buy Snap-On I'm safe, but that's out of my budget. I use a surplus dial wrench, an old Craftsman beam wrench (seems like if the "arrow" points to zero at the start, it's pretty accurate?), and a couple of budget clickers. I'm most concerned about the inch-pound wrenches for small fasteners as the typical 4-10% accuracy seems like a lot on a little bolt.
I would welcome recommendations from people who have wrenches that they have had regularly calibrated and found accurate over time. That's what I would find helpful. If your wrench has not broken and it has "worked well for me", that does not tell me very much beyond you like it and it has not broken.
Any recommendations? Thanks in advance. ...and, I'm not trying to be snarky, just looking for good advice.
They have a calibration certificate inside the case, haven't recalibrated. But the 1/2" has been used on wheel nuts for over 9 years and not broken. The 3/8" has less usage. They don't feel like toys, as the HFT ones do.
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