HF torque wrench wore out

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Originally Posted by JMJNet
Originally Posted by BrownBox88
Give it back for a new one. HF torque wrenches have lifetime warranty and I've done this many times.


Not for torque wrench. Unless the user still store the paper that said "Lifetime warranty".
Otherwise it is only 90 days for Torque Wrench.


Maybe you are confusing this with Craftsman? The Harbor Freight site shows lifetime warranty for these gems.
 
Let's face it. Nothing from Harbor Freight is great. As a professional, you will want something better. As a guy in the driveway, Harbor Freight tools work.

It's a good wrench, if you are not looking for precision. It gets you "close enough". I use it all the time for lug nuts. For decades, I would change a tire or rotate tires, tighten the best that I could using that X shaped lug wrench, then finish it by pulling on one side and stepping down on the other side. It never failed. I never lost a wheel going down the road. The Harbor Freight torque wrench no gets me a lot closer to the actual torque spec.
 
Originally Posted by csandste
Originally Posted by demarpaint
I'd see if they warranty it. LOL If not for $10 I'd buy another.


Since I'm always misplacing stuff, I could lose 31 of these for one Snap On.

That sounds about right.
wink.gif
 
Just puttin' this out there... I have a Snap On 1/2" drive torque wrench. I bought it when I was nineteen. I'm 53 now. It's never broken and twice when I sent it in to be calibrated, it came back needing nothing. I believe I paid 250 for it back when I bought it. I've owned it 34 years. This works out to 7.35 a year.
It's earned it's keep many times over and one day, my son will have it.

I hate to sound like a fan boy but sometimes you gotta buy the good stuff.
 
Originally Posted by NYEngineer
I hate to sound like a fan boy but sometimes you gotta buy the good stuff.



You are correct. Sometimes you have to go for the best. If this is a tool of the trade, and you make a living but with it, you buy the best. If I walk into a shop, and see a mechanic with Harbor Freight, I would reconsider.
 
Originally Posted by BrownBox88
Give it back for a new one. HF torque wrenches have lifetime warranty and I've done this many times.

Yep. The screws backed out of mine and the pieces fell out. I returned it in pieces and got a new one.
 
Originally Posted by BigD1
Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
Originally Posted by AZjeff
How accurate do you think that $10 torque wrench ever was?


+/- 4% according to a Hot Rod Magazine test a couple years back.


You mean the one that got cherry picked.

Took me three tries to get one that actually worked. The third has torqued a good many lug nuts without flying apart.


Yes, they seem to have cherry picked the ones they tested.
 
Originally Posted by Vikas
When Snap On tool break - "You abused it"
When HF tool breaks - "It is piece of junk"


wink.gif
are you still abusing your junk ?
 
Actually, Snap On considers such things as using a 3/8 ratchet to do a 1/2 ratchet's job and prying with screwdrivers abuse. I very rarely had any broken tools and I was lucky to have a pretty generous Snap On guy but I do remember him complaining once at something I had broken and saying I know you own the bigger tool. Well, when I'm on the 60th floor of a building and my van is down on the street, I'm certainly going to try and do it with what I have with me.

After watching that torque comparison video, I'm going to stop one of my friends who is about to buy the HF wrench. Just not worth it.
 
Getting back to the original post...........

Okay. So what? It broke. $10. You getting a new one?


Originally Posted by eljefino
$10 1/2 drive. I never used it beyond the 150 ft-lb it's rated for. Started skipping and we get what we've got here, chinesium!
 
Originally Posted by eljefino
Originally Posted by Trav
For a few bucks more you can have a USA made one from Precision. 3/8 split beam..

https://www.amazon.com/Precision-In...mp;psc=1&refRID=RQBJBG98QPXRBFFSN4B0



$118 vs $10!

All I used the old one for was axle nuts and lug nuts.
21.gif


Won't do 150 like the 1/2" drive. [Zero idea why, but my Tundra needs 150 ft-lb on its lugs. I guess that was cheaper than using six lugs like everyone else? Heck the 1/2" drive HF is too short for my wimpy arms on that job.]

I did notice the screws backing out of mine the last time I used my 1/2 HF one, one is gone now so I should think about replacement I guess.
 
OP Bring it in, it has lifetime warranty.

For Lug Nuts and other "Non" critical bolts the HF torque wrench is fine, the resultant preload error due to a click type torque wrench is relatively high so if you really cared about your preload you would use a better tool.

Torque measurement of the bolt head is +/- 25% ( https://mmptdpublic.jsc.nasa.gov/mswg/Documents/NSTS 08307.pdf PG 23)


If we are talking about head bolts, something like that well I'll be using angle of turn which is usually specified by the service manual which cuts down the error to +/- 15%
 
Originally Posted by supton
Originally Posted by eljefino
Originally Posted by Trav
For a few bucks more you can have a USA made one from Precision. 3/8 split beam..

https://www.amazon.com/Precision-In...mp;psc=1&refRID=RQBJBG98QPXRBFFSN4B0



$118 vs $10!

All I used the old one for was axle nuts and lug nuts.
21.gif


Won't do 150 like the 1/2" drive. [Zero idea why, but my Tundra needs 150 ft-lb on its lugs. I guess that was cheaper than using six lugs like everyone else? Heck the 1/2" drive HF is too short for my wimpy arms on that job.]

I did notice the screws backing out of mine the last time I used my 1/2 HF one, one is gone now so I should think about replacement I guess.


For 150FT/LB you are going to want a 0-250 ft/lb torque wrench. Best accuracy is middle of the range of the tool and typically you dont use the top or bottom 10-20%, so using a 0-150 ft/lb for 150ft/lb is a no no. Using a 0-250ft/lb puts it right in the sweet spot.
 
Yeah, I need to find a bigger one, no doubt. But it's a lug not a rod cap. +/-10% is nothing compared what tire shops will do. I'm guessing it's over designed and getting above or below by a large margin was designed into the setup. Plus I'm not too far from when I was planning to trade this truck off, in which case I won't need such a tool anymore.
 
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
 
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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.
 
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