I need a Torque Wrench, recommend me one guys

tomstickland

I've got a £25 Draper wrench and it's fine. I wouldn't worry about accuracy better than 15% - most tightening torque goes into overcoming friction in the thread and the uncertainty on that is large. Hence why stretch bolts and angles are used for critical jobs.

vaio

Keith wrote: »

Never say never, the last nut I had a problem with has to be torqued to 260Nm (hub nuts)……..And I've a huge breaker bar and scaffold pipe so my other tools are safe …….

The big numbers are easy, 260Nm = me swinging on the end of a 10 foot tube

Wig

goldspanners wrote: »

not at all,as long as the tool is marked with the halfords professional stamp then they should replace it at any store.

But they don't, citing their displayed terms and conditions requiring a reciept. Their arguement (which could be b0ll0x) is that they have people go through the bins at the rear of the store to get broken bits and then come in for replacements. It is probably really just them trying to save money.

I have a broken Torx 45 3/8" bit socket (I put about 100Nm on it :rotfl:) They refused to replace it.

steveo3002

whatever you buy...unwind the spring after each use and never use it as a breaker bar to undo stuff

fwiw i had my selection calibrated once when i worked at a dealer, the draper and some other cheapie was well out...a teng brand was spot on

Felix

Are these cheap ones suitable for doing car wheel nuts?

KeithP

Felix... Yes.

goldspanners

Wig wrote: »

But they don't, citing their displayed terms and conditions requiring a reciept. Their arguement (which could be b0ll0x) is that they have people go through the bins at the rear of the store to get broken bits and then come in for replacements. It is probably really just them trying to save money.

I have a broken Torx 45 3/8" bit socket (I put about 100Nm on it :rotfl:) They refused to replace it.

i had (still have) a power bar, the end broke off it,took it back no reciept and they stuck a new end on it no hassle at all.

thescouselander

Wig, I think you are right, it was this one http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=28459 which I bought. As I remember, at the time it was on special offer and being sold at the same price as the version without the calibration certificate.



Regarding torque range, I agree that the wrenches with a narrower torque range will be more accurate for smaller torque settings. The reason I went for the larger torque range was because I mainly use my torque wrench for tightening wheel nuts to around 110 Nm.

As an asside, I remember doing a project on bolt torque settings as a graduate trainee at an engineering company I was seconded to. The company was suffering bolt failures on bus axels they made and I had to find out why. There were two main reasons:

1) Even though the tools being used at the factory were very high quality they went out of cal quickly (probably due the rate of use).

2) Predicting an acurate bolt tension for a given torque setting is a very hit and miss afair and is highly dependant on how well the threads of the bolt are lubricated and the tightening action used (one continious turn or several separate turns).

The conclusion is that it doesn't matter too much if you have a completely acurate torque wrench because there are too many variables at work. The most important thing is not to over tighten the bolt. I reckon for the DIY mechanic a cheap torque wrench would probably be ok.