Torque wrench recommendations?
 

School me please.

When young I'd grab one from my Dads toolbox at the shop. Now I've been borrowing ours from work when needed, but it's decades past time for me to invest in my own.

Under the hood work, suspension work.

Most of my toolboxes are full of Craftsman tools with an occasional Snap On set, so that's the price/quality level I'm looking at.

What do you guys use?

I use craftsman
I think it is more important that it is calibration checked used and stored properly more than what brand it is.

Hi Rick... GRM? https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/choosing-torque-wrench/

If you're locked in quarantine and have an hour...
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+1 on craftsman

also +1 on calibration and the way it's stored. after use, set it back to 0 ft/lbs and back in the box.

Snap-On...

I think you'd have more consensus if you'd have asked opinions on tires, oil or IMS bearing :D:D

Any brand is better than not using a torque wrench at all. If that means Harbor Freight, then so be it.

Purely a matter of how you intend to use the tool; if you are just putting wheels back on, just about any torque wrench will do because some accuracy variance does not really matter. If you are assembling engines, you definitely want a tool that you can count on its long term accuracy and reproducibility.

As someone once commented, "If you have a $10 head, buy a $10 helmet. But if your head is more valuable to you, expect to spend more...………."

If you assemble engines for a living, then yes the higher-end wrenches are the way to go, Snap-on, etc. IF your tools are your livelyhood, get the best you can buy and they'll eventually pay for themselves. But if you wrench for a hobby, you'll never get back that investment.

HF, Craftsman, Kobalt, etc. are all perfectly fine wrenches.

The important thing, as has already been mentioned, is how you store them. ALWAYS run them back to zero, and always in their case.

HF also has a low cost ~$30 digital torque adaptor that comes with a calibration sheet. You can use that to check and adjust the reading on their $12 torque wrench.

As others have said, if you wrench for a living or are building an engine, you need high quality very accurate tools. For most DIY, HF is fine.

As a side note, I checked my el-cheapo HF torque wrench against my indy's expensive just calibrated snap-on and was within 1%

HF also has a lifetime warranty, so if it breaks or is too far off, they will replace it free

After about a year, I buy new and my old HF Tq wrenches become cheap hammers and bars.

I've been quite pleased with my gearwrench torque wrenches and the prices are reasonable.

That works too :rolleyes:
Or you could just take them back and get a replacement for free

Steerage/suspension/brakes I just count the uga dugas. and I'm a "pro". LOL

Inside the engine/transmission/rear end I will either use my HF wrench or I steal a snapon wrench from work.

I don't believe its so much the wrench or the quality of it. Its all about the calibration and when the calibration was done last. I know the snapon wrenches at my work get calibrated often so I can trust them. NOW if I had the choice between a NEW Harbor freight tool and a rusty ancient Mac tool... I'll take the HF one.

Thanks guys - I appreciate your answers. I heard from the guys I was hoping to hear from.
Jon - thanks for the video. I now remember that article from GRM a while back.
Now to go shopping. You guys rock - thanks!

I just use my calibrated arms :D

Craftsman 1/2 drive. They did have a lifetime warranty ? Sears is gone in Canada so no warranty here.Mines seen better days but is still within a lb as compared to my neighbours Snap On.

Sears is gone everywhere. Try Lowes. They now sell Craftsman. Maybe you can get a warranty replacement there.

Lowes doesn't honor craftsman warranties. They tell you to mail it in.

I've tried a few stores and eventually gave up with my 1/2" extension.

I think they will accept warranties if you bought it from Lowes, but that seems kind of dirty IMO.

Mailing it in wouldn't be a bad option, I guess. How much is a new 1/2" extension vs. the price of postage?

If they didn't benefit from the original purchase, it's hard to hold them responsible for the warranty. So I can't say I blame them for that. But hopefully they will, in fact, accept warranties for the ones they sold. But then you'd probably have to produce a receipt, whereas you never had to when Sears had them.

Not worth my time to mail it. It sits in my tool box at work... broken.


Shouldn't have bought the brand if you couldn't accept the responsibility. Craftsman has always had a premium price; that price should reflect the service. I shouldn't have to keep track of receipts for all my tools for the higher price. Just like I expect the Snap on man to show up and prostrate himself before me.

I'm with Q here: you buy the brand, you buy the liability. They wanted the benefit of the brand, but not the liability? That's B.S.

Ther brand's worth nothing if you don't honor the brand's commitments.

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Yeah, I get that side of the argument, too. I have some craftsman tools and it would be nice to just walk into a store with a broken tool and walk out with a new one like I used to be able to do.

Having said that, if Lowe's wouldn't carry it, most likely the brand would have died altogether.

Frankly, I don't understand why they even bothered to carry it. Craftsman was Craftsman because it was the first and only consumer brand to offer a lifetime replacement guarantee. Now, most brands have the same offer. So it's not the brand it used to be, and it doesn't have the loyalty it used to have.

Lowe's is probably not going to see much benefit from it, It's actually competing with it's own Kobalt brand, so really I don't see their logic here.

So, I can forgive Lowe's for not honoring the warrantee for tools they didn't sell. But they're keeping the brand alive, so at least we still have a place to mail in for a replacement. Just my 2 cents. And I respect your side as well. :cheers:

Your problem is when did you buy your Craftsman tool? The Craftsman brand was sold to Stanley tools sometime ago, which is why Lowes and other outlets like Ace hardware now carry the brand. I'm sure Stanley made the purchase without any responsibility for warranties issued by Sears. And long before Sears sold the brand, the entire Craftsman line had turned to Asian junk, so they want no parts of what happened before they bought the line.

For clarification, I don't have a problem with it. I don't blame Lowes for not honoring the warranty for tools it didn't sell. But yes, Stanley/Black & Decker owns the right to make and sell the the brand. Lowe's just carries it. And yes, the quality has suffered over the years. As I said, the brand isn't what it used to be. ;)

all of this in context, they (Stanley, or whomever else has ownership now) should've bought the company and rebranded it. That's the most common practice for someone buying a company with liabilities. And yes, any promise made by the acquired company is, in fact, a liability. I deal with this all the time in my business. Yes, it sucks to acquire a brand / business with undisclosed liabilities (Craftsman's warranty wasn't "undisclosed" though) but most companies are made-up of good people who will move heaven and earth to honor those commitments. This proves itself to be the absolute BEST thing they can do, from a marketing perspective, because people know it sucks, but they honor it anyway: Instant Brand Loyalty.


Here's MY problem with Craftsman, though. (Not too dissimilar from what you said too, JFP)
The ONLY thing Craftsman has had going for it in a very long time is the lifetime swap-out warranty. Their tools form anytime since about 1985 are just junk. Sure, it's nice to know you can take it in and trade it.... but what about when the failure happens at 7pm on a saturday at the racetrack? Or while you're laying under a car bench-pressing a transmission into place? a tool that is junk isn't worth having, regardless of how easy the warranty process is.

Just my $0.02

Sears stopped honoring torque wrench warranties long before Eddie the a-hole sold off the brand. Left mine on the counter there probably 15-20 years years ago.

The "new" craftsman provides 1yr on electric or micrometer torque wrenches. About as solid as the warranty on my kitchen garbage can liners - LOL

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1585933862.jpg

Stanley only wanted the brand identify when they bought Craftsman, they knew the tool line had gone to junk, but people still remembered the name, which has value. Once they had the name, the expanded their existing tool line (which was somewhat limited) into a full line of mechanics tools and tool boxes, none of which were holdovers from the Sears days, and started to re-enter the market via outlets like Lowes and Ace Hardware, where Stanley already had footing. They will probably do a good job over time, but it is early innings just yet.