Torque wrench calibration

Hey Frank M; I will be back in the states in December and will be living in Clovis in January. Wouldn't mind meeting up and having a chat. I once was offered a job on a corparate farm in the Dalhart area, (MANY years ago) but decided not to take it. It was a large farm, and when I was told what my duties and responsibilities would be. I started wondering about why I would be replacing the manager th at was there because he was starting to sound like superman without a life. Also the person offering the job was (in my own opinion) of questionable integrity.

Let me know if your interested in meeting up some time. I haven't been up that far into the Panhandle and wouldn't mind making the trip. It's been a few years, but would be willing to help you out with any tractor/equipment restorations that you might be doing.

Muleshoe is about 30 (I think) miles from Clovis NM on Highway 60/84. Been there and through there quite a few times. Don't know if you saw my reply to your post on the taler's board, but a 462X0 and a 2W1X1 are the same. They redesignated the specialty codes back in 94 or 95. We still use "jammers" to position munitions and equipment on aircraft. Sounded to me like you had a lot more experience with a MOLT than I ever would like to have. Had to use one once a month when I loaded to stay current. That hand operated thing could be a real pain at times. Nice catching up with you again on the board. Take care, Jim

Clicker-type torque wrenches can get wildly out of calibration, especially if they are stored with the release-setting adjustment over its minimum or if the mechanism is either washed free of grease or contaminated. On the other hand, a well-made and well-cared-for clicker can hold its calibration for years.

A bending-beam torque wrench will hold its calibration just about forever -- just check to be sure that the pointer is tight in its holder and points to zero with no load on the wrench, and if not, simply reset the pointer to zero. This is a quick check that can and should be made both just before and just after use.

A dial-type torque wrench is a slightly-more-complex variant of a bending-beam wrench, and will hold calibration almost as well . . . but here are more things that can go wrong with a dial-type wrench and they are thus less reliable than the bending-beam models.

Considering the overall convenience-in-use advantages of the clicker over the bending-beam torque wrench, it's worth considering keeping a bending-beam wrench around to use as an approximate standard to check the clicker against. The home check certainly won't meet ISO or NIST standards for calibration, but it provides a good sanity check to help decide if the clicker is holding its adjustment or if it needs to be sent out for repair.

John

My collection goes from 5 inch pounds to 1200 ft lbs. My precision wrenches are 1% aircraft wrenches and yes, they are dial type and have "never" failed calibration. The Snap On click types have failed several times. They have been very well taken care of just like all my other tools and have been backed off each and everytime.

The last shop I work at had a calibration meter and to me surprise, my $10 Sams Torque Wrench had been holding great. I bought it to use as a large cheater more than anything else and have never backed off the spring or taken special care of it. It also uses Proto ratchet head parts!

Am I pushing cheap stuff? No, but its odd a $10 torque wrench holds up better than a $250 torque wrench!!!!

My inch lb. wrench is a MAC and it holds up fine. The only plonlems I have had are with the Snapon 1/2" drive 50#-250# and the 40#-200# click type. I noticed others must be having problems as well if they keep discontinuing them.

My son bought a digital Craftsman which he took back after a week, and exchanged it for a click type. To my surprise, it held up pretty good "so far".

The majority of our mechanics have swapped to Proto Torque wrenches and have been pretty happy with them for about a fraction of the cost as well. This has been some years ago and I don't know if this still holds true with the Stanley version.