One thing to note-
That article is from a while ago. It's been posted and discussed on Garage Journal quite a bit. The HF torque wrenches were made in Taiwan for a long time, and that's what the article used. Now, they seem to be transitioning to Chinese wrenches. It's not clear the new Chinese ones are as good as the Taiwanese version.
I own both high-quality USA-made torque wrenches (Armstrong and CDI) and the HF torque wrench. The quality torque wrenches are better, but the HF torque wrench works quite well. Mine is now about 6 or 7 years old and it still checks out as more than accurate enough for my needs.
I will add, the torque adapter they tested in the article is a very interesting tool that I've used a lot more than I thought I would. I pretty much only use it for testing torque wrenches, but to me it's well worth the price for that use alone.
Originally Posted By: Chris142
I looked at the 5 on the shelf @ HF and all were already broken. I found a USA made one on clearance @sears
How did you determine they were broken?
Originally Posted By: redbone3
I calibrate torque wrenches for a living. Do yourself a favor and get the Craftsman click type. They have a distinct click action, are easy to set to the desired torque, are long enough to give you a good leverage, and are reasonably priced.
The Harbor Freight wrenches are short and don't give a very good leverage on the high end, the "click" on them is often hard to detect, the markings on the barrel often don't line up properly and they are generally crude. They fail calibration a lot!
Which Craftsman torque wrenches are you referring to, the older USA-made ones (which are now gone) or the new Chinese ones?
My experience with the USA-made Craftsman wrench and the HF wrench do not mirror what you're saying. My Craftsman wrench didn't really click at all. It made pretty much no audible sound, you just had to feel for when it "gave."
The HF torque wrench I own clicks audibly. As I already noted, my HF wrench has been properly stored and is still plenty accurate after more than 5 years of use.