How Accurate Is Your Torque Wrench?

[speedtripledan]

My torque wrench has served me well for 20yrs, it was cheap when I bought it so no complaints what so ever but, with the zetec rebuild of wild cams and arp bolts etc I thought time for a new wrench, off I pop to machine mart and buy a digital torque gauge. I then go to aldi for a few bits on the way home and they have torque wrenches for £16 so I buy one of those aswell (rude not to at that price) I get them home and test them, the new ones are identical both clicking off at 40 ft lb the old one clicked at 32 ft lb. Rather glad I bought the new ones as my engine may well have disintegrated if I'd used the old wrench. Garages have there's calibrated so don't blindly trust your old wrench.

[sj-bradley]

You're supposed to release the spring tension after using a torque wrench after using them.

 

But, how did you test them ?

 

Simon.

[Guest whiz]

he tested them on his nuts on a cold day :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[speedtripledan]

he tested them on his nuts on a cold day :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

summit like that

[sj-bradley]

And here I was thinking it was a clever application of levers ...

 

 

Simon.

[Jez Morton]

Torque wrench calibration is something I've looked into in the past but the price's just seemed too high.

Wouldn't it be good if a well known tool supplier we all use lets call them MM could provide a simple torque tester in their stores for customers to check their wrenches. This would cost MM a bit to start up but MM could charge a small fee and when people find out their wrenches are off then MM would recuperate more of the cost in new torque wrench sales. MM could even offer free torque wrench testing with every purchase, to encourage us to go in an buy something.

[spg]

http://www.wikihow.com/Calibrate-a-Torque-Wrench

 

Also some vids on youtube

 

Steve

[agent_zed]

Torque wrench calibration is something I've looked into in the past but the price's just seemed too high.

Wouldn't it be good if a well known tool supplier we all use lets call them MM could provide a simple torque tester in their stores for customers to check their wrenches. This would cost MM a bit to start up but MM could charge a small fee and when people find out their wrenches are off then MM would recuperate more of the cost in new torque wrench sales. MM could even offer free torque wrench testing with every purchase, to encourage us to go in an buy something.

 

assuming the ones they are selling you are anywhere near accurate to start with

[Dave R]

we used to calibrate our own where i used to work..... the bit of kit was calibrated yearly..

[speedtripledan]

The more expensive new one claims to be calibrated to bs en iso 6789 so one is assuming it's good enough

[sj-bradley]

Hmm, I thought so.

 

A luggage scale with the wrench held in a vice would do for rough guides.

 

Simon.

[Guest TerryBarry]

I used to hang a weight on the end of the wrench whilst clamped in a vice.

Until I retired I had the advantage of knowing the weight of any object on scales calibrated every 3 months at my employers expense.

[Dave R]

the torque wrench i used to have with a rifle i had, was an allen key with 2 points for a finger along its long length

you nipped the screw up then hung the rifle from the key with your finger in the right loop

it gave you 2 preset torques for the different parts

[owlman2222]

i calibrated mine at work and as simon says you should release the spring inside after each use to increase the time they stay calibrated

[IanS]

I have had a norbar one for 35 years, and always release the tension.

Changed employers a couple of years ago and the new employer has alibrated torque tested sp I tested my wrench and found it to approx 3% high at all the settings I tested.

I guess that it was made a bit high to allow for some wear