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Time for a new torque wrench. Any thoughts on a mid-range 1/2" drive model (i.e. not one from Lidl at £12-99 with a pair of free axle stands included)?
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Well that's where i got mine from a few years ago, although i only use it to torque up wheel nuts i've always thought it a well made tool. If you're using it more often, do Screwfix do them?
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A quick look at eBay reveals products from the usual suspects (Draper, Sealey, etc) for sensible money.
Or for considerably less sensible money there are a few Britool and Snap-on ones going that will last forever.
Between the two, the Halfords' own brand ones are well made and worth a look.
If it's only for occasional use, I'd probably save the money and get the Lidl one. It probably comes from the same chinese source as the cheaper branded ones anyway. You have to throw away a lot of Lidl wrenches before that Britool one will start paying for itself.
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Are you building a engine or gearbox etc?
Got a draper thing here used it 3x times in 25 years glad i got it given wouldnt want to part cash for it.
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Thanks. I've always had a half decent torque wrench and the last one after 20yrs hard use has gone way out of calibration.
I expect it will be doing brake and suspension fixings mostly but head gaskets are not out of the question.... use for boat outboard stuff too.
There are a couple of decent tool places in town... I'll pop in shortly and have a look/feel.
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I bought one recently from Screwfix in order to tighten the sump nut on the Majesty after an oil-change - less than 20quid will do the job when I get around to it (!)
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Went for mid price from Teng Tools with lifetime warranty and calibration certificate. Like this one below but bought in a local tool place for £47. Screwfix have them just over £50 but they are always ordered in and not stocked.
www.motamec.com/teng-tools-1-2-drive-torque-wrench-40-200nm-lockable-1292ag-ep.html
It was a done deal once I realised you could get one to match the Alfa.
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Don't know if anyone was aware but a torque wrench should be stored with everything screwed right out and no tension on the internals.
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Looks a decent bit of FL.
My Britool wrench must be 30 years old and still 'feels' right, don't have a clue how to check it mind.
FC quite right, too easy to forget to release it in the frenzy to pack up after a long job and the heavens have opened.
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Yup, Britool products usually outlast their owners. There's always a good market for secondhand Britool tools at autojumbles and such.
IIRC Britool will recalibrate that for you for a nominal fee. Used to be a free service back in the day, may still be.
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Thanks TC, useful to know that.
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>> Yup, Britool products usually outlast their owners.
>> Thanks TC, useful to know that.
:))
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>> Don't know if anyone was aware but a torque wrench should be stored with everything
>> screwed right out and no tension on the internals.
>>
Oops.
*Legs it out to garage*
I was about to rant that it doesn't say this in the instructions, but just found them online and it's clear as day. Back to the old approach of just guessing at the torque, which in general worked very well!
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TBH not even the garages use a torque wrench for brake or suspension bolts/nuts they only use them on engine and gearbox rebuilds they will of course tell you they do.!!
The wheel nuts are done at fast fit places a good strong bar is all thats needed i use my trusty 1/2 drive Mac Tools ratchet had it 20 years never fails for everything else. :-)
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>> TBH not even the garages use a torque wrench for brake or suspension bolts/nuts they
>> only use them on engine and gearbox rebuilds they will of course tell you they
>> do.!!
Proper garages with decent technicians DO use torque wrenches..
That said, I have worked at places where they didn't, and TBH that were awful places to work for.
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>>>Britool products usually outlast their owners.
I'll give them a miss then... I want to outlast my torque wrench.
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>> >> TBH not even the garages use a torque wrench for brake or suspension bolts/nuts
>> they
>> >> only use them on engine and gearbox rebuilds they will of course tell you
>> they
>> >> do.!!
>>
>> Proper garages with decent technicians DO use torque wrenches..
>> That said, I have worked at places where they didn't, and TBH that were awful
>> places to work for.
I used to go to a tyre fitters where they did use torque wenches, but they still did a poor job generally. They probably used them to give a good impression to punters.
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Tyre fitter used a Torque wrench on my wheels yesterday. I have no idea what torque they were set to, and its probably so long since it was calibrated, the torque wrench has no idea either.
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I guess with the wheel nut torque being somewhat in the middle of an average 1/2" torque wrench settings it should stay in calibration better for that use. It's always the very low end of the range that I've known go out wildly on a cheap/faulty wrench. I always meant to get a 3/8" drive one that caters for the 15-75ft/lb range but so far haven't.
You can get a set of torque wrenches with set figures and I wonder if the tyre places use these?
There could be a bit of showmanship about wielding a torque wrench at the end of a tyre fitting job but I must say the place that did my Alfa tyres were the most by the book I've ever seen. The whole of the smart waiting room wall to the workshop was glass so you could see everything. Their care with selecting jacking points was impressive and the suited manager was the guy that went out at the end to do the final torque/tighten. It did make them slow though.
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>>. The whole of the smart
>> waiting room wall to the workshop was glass so you could see everything. Their care
>> with selecting jacking points was impressive and the suited manager was the guy that went
>> out at the end to do the final torque/tighten. It did make them slow though.
Interesting, because the place I mentioned used to have a viewing window, then when they expanded and removed the viewing area in the waiting room, the standard of workmanship went down. Funny that.
The only bit you would see is the wheel nuts being torqued outside.
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Only recently I watched a tyre fitter use a cosmetic torque wrench.
All the nuts were whizzed up with the windy gun. Then he went round each one with a real torque wrench.
The wrench clicked on each without moving any of 'em......rather unsurprisingly.
I've taken to keeping a 12v impact driver in the boot. It's smaller than a 3' length of steel tube to slot over the end of the wheel brace and as effective at removing overtight wheel nuts.
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I understand a windy gun shouldn't be used with a locking wheel nut key - it can strip them too easily. When did you last see that advice followed?
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That's how good the guys were that did my Alfa tyres... they never used the windy gun at all when replacing the wheel bolts.
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>> When did you last see that advice followed?
When I've told them not to use the gun on my locking bolts.
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Thinking of calibration the Teng Tool certificate shows they have done it properly...
A certificate specific to the torque wrench serial number, tested at either end and middle of range, at each value tested 5 times to produce a mean result and all results in a table to see. Certificate is linked to an approved UKAS test lab.
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>> Don't know if anyone was aware but a torque wrench should be stored with
>> everything screwed right out and no tension on the internals.
>>
>> I was about to rant that it doesn't say this in the instructions, but just
>> found them online and it's clear as day.
>>
My Britool paper instructions still stored in the originla thick plastic sleeve say store it in the slack state ( or something similar)
At a local tyre depot I watched a "fitter" use a torque wrench. It clicked and he just carried on heaving on it.:-((
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Always wind it back to the beggining to the stop end.
They should be calibrated every 12 months but there not these fast fit places it's more for show the air gun did the buisness and it saves time.
What torque wrench are you buying then?
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Should every 3 months, that's what we do. 5 points in it's range the error is dependant on the points tested but
is about 3%. Not sure on cars diy you need to go to that level.
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>> Should every 3 months, that's what we do. 5 points in it's range the error
>> is dependant on the points tested but
>> is about 3%. Not sure on cars diy you need to go to that level.
>>
We were chatting in another thread about the BAC 1-11 that lost a windscreen and nearly a Captain while out of Birmigham for Malaga. Quite a bit of discussion in the AAIB report about calibration of torque drivers. What the tech thought was the torque being set was actually the incorrectly sized bolts skipping over the thread of their captive bolts.
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I thought it was the wrong length of bolt rather than size. I remember the incident being taught to us but not in depth. Was the torque wrench out of cal ?
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The bolts were too short and made a "ratcheting" sound as they skittered over insufficient thread contact, making the tech think it was the torque wrench clicking correct torque.
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Not too sure how he managed that. How much short was it?
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>> Not too sure how he managed that. How much short was it?
Long story but here's the full AAIB report.
www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources/1-1992%20G-BJRT[2].pdf
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Ta I'll have a look through it when I've a bit more time.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Fri 18 Jan 13 at 21:15
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>> Not too sure how he managed that. How much short was it?
Short enough that they all pulled out! You wouldn't want them much longer than the captive nuts, the nuts are not that thick so the bolts dont have to be too short to only nip on one or two threads
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Still hard to do, you'd just know. I guess he didn't do it on purpose. Depends on the design on how far you go past the height of the nut. No doubt other things at play always is.
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>> They should be calibrated every 12 months
>>
12 months? Time related to the revolution of the Earth around the Sun?
What has a torque wrench got to do with that?
;-)
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>> They should be calibrated every 12 months but there not these fast fit places
The local ATS replace their torque wrenches every couple of months or so because the rachets wear out and just slip when they try and tighten anything up with them.
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>> Time for a new torque wrench.
>> not one from Lidl at £12-99
I thought most non food stuff sold at Lidl/Aldi was TUV approved?
TUV is the testing body responsible for safety testing.
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>>>I thought most non food stuff sold at Lidl/Aldi was TUV approved? TUV is the testing body responsible for safety testing.
Perhaps... I was just trying to indicate I was happy to pay for mid range quality.
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>> >> Time for a new torque wrench.
>> >> not one from Lidl at £12-99
>>
>> I thought most non food stuff sold at Lidl/Aldi was TUV approved?
Clearly, they don't test food stuff, the Rose wine I bought at Lidl the other week was disgusting muck.
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New torque wrench choice. - maltrap
