Had to choose between a cheap torque wrench and a name brand one on a big job

I was rebuilding a Cummins ISX15 last month and my old torque wrench started acting up. I stood at the tool truck staring at a $400 Snap-on or a $70 Harbor Freight option. I went cheap to save money, and of course it clicked way too early on a head bolt. Now I'm pulling the head back off to re-torque everything properly. Has anyone else had a budget tool cost them more time than it saved?

2 comments

2 Comments

hayden7209d ago

Yeah I gotta push back a little here. A torque wrench is one of those things where you really do get what you pay for, but a $70 Harbor Freight one isn't automatically junk if you know how to use it. I've been using the same cheap click-type from them for years on everything from lug nuts to suspension work and it's been fine. The trick is you gotta test them against a known good one every few months, and never store them under tension. Sounds like yours might have been out of calibration or you just got a dud, but blaming the brand instead of the tool's condition doesn't quite sit right with me.

aaron1979d ago

Whoa hold on, I gotta disagree a little bit on the storage thing. You're right that you shouldn't leave them cranked all the way up to max torque, but you're actually supposed to back them off to the lowest setting before you put them away. That's what the manual says for most click-style wrenches. Even the cheap ones. The internal spring gets compressed and can lose its tension over time if you leave it set on a high number. So yeah, if you store it at 150 ft-lbs all week, it's gonna be junk by Friday no matter the brand. But I think the real issue here is calibration drift. Even a brand new torque wrench can be off by 10% right out of the box if the factory didn't set it right. You gotta check them against a known standard before you trust them on something serious like head bolts. The Snap-on might hold its calibration longer but it's not magic either. If your cheap one clicked early, it could just be a lemon from the factory, not a sign that every cheap wrench is bad. But on a job like that, I'd rather spend the money and know I'm good.