Anyone own this wrench model? How well built is it? Any comments or reviews please? I am looking to buy a first torque wrench to spec in items up to about 200 ft lb on a near daily basis. Most of my co workers own matco or snappy brand, but not have not seen an SK in action yet....


link


http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=46691


and the price is VERY competitive vs Craftsman/Snapon/Matco/MacTool

i have a set of 20 year old SK sockets that are nice quality. i dont know if the stuff they are selling now is the same

Alright, Ive got mixed feelings on these things. Sk is generally good stuff, but Im probably going to say No to this one. The reason is the plastic handle... Id imagine if it gets droped just right it will crack and break.

I would look into a proto from MSC. Cheaper than MAC, Snap on, MAtco etc but balls-on accurate and made in USA. I have been very satisfied with mine. The SK is a good tool but I question how thep lastic handle will hold up to daily use

Jim

not sure if its plastic...here is another pic of the same model wrench...(with gloves)

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=54874

Looks plastic to me.

Great price though... I'd buy that over a POS crapsman any day of the week.

Looks plastic to me.

Great price though... I'd buy that over a POS crapsman any day of the week.
Chances are the Cman and the SK are made by the same maunfacturer.

Somebody at work said that about my "Crapsman" snap ring pliers, and how much better their snap-on ones were. Turns out they're identical, with matching patent numbers. I paid $90 total for all of them, he paid $250...hmmm.

I've got the SK torque wrench in question. I like it. Doesn't feel cheap. I do believe the handle is plastic. I've never dropped it. I don't use it everyday, probably more like every other month.

Ed Nailed it. Same torquewrench.

I have used this plastic handled torquewrench (actually 2 different versions) and I use them often. They are indeed plastic, but assuming your careful with it, you should be ok. I dont know how accurate the truly are, but I know I use a 15-20 year old SK 1/2 with a metal handle and its still balls-on accurate

Jim

Its usually not too hard to adjust a torque wrench anyway.

Its usually not too hard to adjust a torque wrench anyway.


Spill the beans..........

You also may want to check out the Husky brand tq wrench at Home Depot. Same design, but unlike craftsman that has a 1 year warranty, the HD tq wrench has a lifetime warranty. So if the handle breaks you just go get a new one.

You also may want to check out the Husky brand tq wrench at Home Depot. Same design, but unlike craftsman that has a 1 year warranty, the HD tq wrench has a lifetime warranty. So if the handle breaks you just go get a new one.
Uhh.... just a heads up... I went through three of them. All of them were off by at least 10-20 ft/lbs out of the box. I don't know if they just didn't survive the trip from Taiwan or not. I ended up gettting a couple Craftsman units that were dead-on from the get-go and are still doing well....

I have the exact same one except mine has mastercraft name on it(canadian tire) it performs very well.

Uhh.... just a heads up... I went through three of them. All of them were off by at least 10-20 ft/lbs out of the box. I don't know if they just didn't survive the trip from Taiwan or not. I ended up gettting a couple Craftsman units that were dead-on from the get-go and are still doing well....
You may have me on that one, I have not checked the calibration. But then again all I use mine for is torqueing lug nuts. When the adjuster on my craftsman torque wrench broke I was unhappy to learn they only have a one year warranty.

You may have me on that one, I have not checked the calibration. But then again all I use mine for is torqueing lug nuts. When the adjuster on my craftsman torque wrench broke I was unhappy to learn they only have a one year warranty.

I don't wanna be a "wet blanket," but I would double check that warranty too. Most companies (even SO, IIRC) only give a 1 year warranty on click style TQ wrenches.

The Cmans are great - if you treat them like glass. :(

Lugs dont need to be dead on accurate. Hell, good luck finding a repair shop that actually used a torque wrench for lugs. Whats more important that torquing them exactly is torquing them EVENLY. HEnce why you can use a gun even without a torque stick... Its ok as long as you pay attention and do it CORRECTLY instead of hammering at them like a dumbass

Even the cheap TW should be good for lugs, for me its more of a "wheres it made" issue

Jim

I've been using a Husky torque wrench for about 8 years now and it's holding up great. of course, I keep it in it's case and take pretty good care of it, so that might have something to do with it.

Virtually every community of any size has a place where you can take torque wrenches to be re-calibrated. It is not rocket science, mainly you need a machine that registers the torque, and a slight know-how on how to set the calibration on your particular torque wrench.

If all else fails, find someone that works on planes at the airport. They have some of the most stringent torque management requirements of anyone in industry, and have to annually certify their torque wrenches, so they either do it in house or have a local resource available.

Know as well that there are a couple of different specs for calibration of torque wrenches -- 1% (costly!) and 10% (reasonable). It takes a serious high dollar wrench to meet the 1% standard repeatably, almost any decent modern wrench will meet the 10% spec once set correctly.

You should also know that there are a lot of factors outside the torque wrench that affect final torque, such as the clearance of the threads, the cleanness of the threads, lubed or not, and general operator error (like not holding the wrench correctly, torquing past the click, etc.). I worked for several years as a QA tech in a major hydraulics plant, and was responsible for calibrating and testing all torque instruments on a monthly basis, so this is reasonably accurate info.

Oh, and I use Snap On torque wrenches myself. I've seen the difference, and I tend to like those that repeat well for years... :D That's not saying that there are no other good torque wrenches out there -- there are, but out of the box, I've found the Snappy ones most consistent, and most accurate. Check out their new electronic versions -- they are dead nuts -- virtually all the time. Really no calibration to screw up - ever. They are also the only torque wrenches that come pre-certified for airline use, and are fast becoming the torque wrench of choice for airline mechanics. (BTW, did you know that most airline mechanics are forbidden to use anything other than quality HAND tools?)

I bought my snap on wrench certified from a nasa contractor for cheaper than a craftsman or husky, the thing never left a clean rooma dn is perfect in every way. I also have lots of older S-K (Wayne) tools and all of them are very good, not sure about their quality in recent years.

Spill the beans..........
First put the torque wrench in a vice and hang a weight from it to get your baseline. So, 40lbs at 18ins = 60ft/lbs
If it doesn't click, press down on the handle, then its too high. If it clicks before the all the weight is on, it too low.
Be careful, as it can break your vice...
Look Here (http://tmack.net/~tmack/twrench/) to see how it looks all taken apart. Here for a cutaway of a differnt wrench. (http://www.timgilles.com/photogallery/Engines/15.4Bcutawaytorquewrench.jpg)
There should be somekind of internal calabration... Adjust, recheck with weight.

I'll be honest, I've never done it, but my teacher showed me once. :flipoff2:

I've used the vise method to check a suspect wrench. Restored my confidence in it. And if you break your vise like that, it was fawked anyway. :D

Pete