$10 Torque Wrench

[JayG]

Just got a Harbor Freight coupon that has torque wrenches for $10

Are these as good as Snap-on, probably not, but for the occasional use many of us fall in, its fine.

I bought one a while ago and had it checked against my Indy's expensive one and it was within 1 lb

Looks like a good deal on a jack as well

Here is a link to download the PDF
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ohmwigzpu13anss/HF%20torque%20wrench.pdf

[Top_Ramen]

I've got a 1/2in torque wrench from them too when it was on sale for 9.99. I've had it for about 2-3 years now and it works just fine for what i use it for(mainly torquing lug nuts/studs on). Very eager though to have it tested to see how accurately it still works.

[DennisAN]

IIUC the HF is an older clunkier design, but still accurate. The patents on this design apparently have expired so you can copy it cheaply.

[Dragonwind]

Originally Posted by DennisAN

IIUC the HF is an older clunkier design, but still accurate. The patents on this design apparently have expired so you can copy it cheaply.

That's what I kind of thought myself as the Sears one I paid $80 years ago was not any better. In fact my HF one us doing a much better job.

[Deserion]

I picked up one of the HF torque wrenches last year when I replaced the cylinder head on my Mercedes. I was pleasantly surprised that it was made in Taiwan and not China.

[demick]

I have all three (1/4", 3/8", and 1/2"), and for the price, cannot be beat. Like any other torque wrench of this style, you need to dial the torque back to zero each time you put it away. If you do that, it will stay accurate for a long time. Leaving the torque dialed up (spring compressed) will ruin the accuracy of any torque wrench - but perhaps much more quickly on a cheap torque wrench such as these.

[Perfectlap]

^ good tip.

Hmm... I need a little metric one for my bicycles.

[SeanZ4]

I have the torque wrench and the jack from HF. Both are fine for occasional use. +1 on turning it back down to zero. A friend of mine told me to do that when I got mine...

[kjc2050]

For the record, I have purchased stuff from HF; this is just for fun:

[Pdwight]

I had to steal this...too good

For the record I have a few HF tools as well

[JayG]

Originally Posted by demick

I have all three (1/4", 3/8", and 1/2"), and for the price, cannot be beat. Like any other torque wrench of this style, you need to dial the torque back to zero each time you put it away. If you do that, it will stay accurate for a long time. Leaving the torque dialed up (spring compressed) will ruin the accuracy of any torque wrench - but perhaps much more quickly on a cheap torque wrench such as these.

+1. That's also what it says in the HF torque wrench instructions included in the box

[JayG]

KJC, that is tooooo funny!
The only thing missed is the sale date should be either Aptil 1 or Feb 30

It reminds me of an old ElectroVoice speaker data sheet they made for the RearAxial SoftSpeaker
http://www.techaud.com/images/ev.pdf

[steved0x]

That is hilarious! For the record I have the 1/2" torque wrench from there, that same jack (it is labelled 2.5 tons but it is the same jack), and 2 pairs of their 3 ton jack stands. A lot of my other stuff is from there as well. The only time I got in trouble with the wrench is when I tried to use it to torque the oil drain plug on my Toyota FJ. I can't remember the setting, but it was very low, like right at the very lowest setting on the wrench. I also had not been resetting it to the lowest setting, I hade been leaving it up on 85 or 95 ft/lbs. Since then I learned always reset to the lowest setting, and don't use it for delicate adjustments at the very bottom of its range, and it has been fine.

[Pdwight]

I had one of those and my Stepson destroyed it...seriously..took a hammer and destroyed it and bought me this....



He said it was the cheapest possible torque wrench that could be trusted

It has worked well for me so far

[thstone]

More...

[986_c6]

Funny! Although I have the 1/2 drive torque wrench from HF...works great.

[Pdwight]

I never got to use mine. At the time my Stepson was a Master Mechanic for Toyota and had 200 Grand in tools. He loved Snap ON, thought Craftsman was OK for a home Mechanic and disliked Kobalt outright along with Blue Point.

[mikesz]

I actually have many tools from HF never had a problem. Bought a torque wrench and DOA.

[mikeman]

There are some decent tools at HF (and Princess Auto, the equivalent here in Canada..). I own quite a few, but this isn't one I would put in my box.

I've had an expensive torque wrench fail which caused me to overtighten (and snap the heads off) some sensitive bolts. It hadn't been checked for accuracy in a while. This is one of those tools that you need to be exact or there's no point to even using one. The difference in a few inch-pounds was enough to ruin what I was working on.

no way I would trust a cheap one to be accurate straight out of the box, the quality control of the place building them for $10 can't be up to par...

For wheel bolts/nuts? Sure , probably okay. For something like a head bolt? no freakin' way.

[rdass623]

generally a torque wrench is going to be hit or miss. either it is good or bad. i have purchased a few cheap torque wrenches which i had calibration checks done on them and they were fine. just remember a torque wrench is NOT a breaker bar, don't drop them (they can be knocked out of calibration), and release the tension on them during storage (set to lowest possible setting). if you follow these simple steps a torque wrench will last forever. FYI, i am a former aviation mechanic and used torque wrenches more than ratchet wrenches on most days wrenching on aircraft.