Originally Posted by royesses
The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten. I prefer CDI or Precision Instruments torque wrenches. I have CDI as I sometimes need to torque left handed threads. The PI split beam is great, but only for right hand torquing, I was injured once when a ratchet failed on a shop owned 3/4" drive torque wrench. It failed at 330 LB/FT. I have always owned my torque wrenches since then. I keep them clean and maintained. I never jerk to torque, always a smooth pull to torque. The CDI is a beautiful work of art. It feels like a ball bearing sleeve when adjusting the torque setting. While hot rod did test the HF wrenches they did not test for longevity. The quality torque wrenches will last a very long time and the ratchet repair kits for them are easily obtained. A 150 LB/FT CDI goes for $140 - $165 and to me is well worth the price. As Snap-On says" We'd rather explain the cost of quality than apologize for something less. CDI is owned by Snap-on Industrial. PI used to make Snap-On torque wrenches.
Also CDI claims that the accuracy is 3% or 4% of the setting. Most low cost wrenches are 3% or 4% of the maximum torque the wrench is capable of. This makes a large difference in the lower torque ranges.
Roy
Not true. The industry standard is a percentage of setting (usually 4%, sometimes 3%) I watched the comparison calibrating a harbor freight torque wrench on a earlier post, It appeared the technician was reading the NM scale instead of the FT/Lb scale. That might explain the error he got. I calibrated torque wrenches for a living and was never impressed with the HF wrenches. Although, if you adjust them to tolerance they will work. But, they are crude, the markings on the barrel don't line up well, and their handles are too short. You will find the quality wrenches universally have longer handles.