You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
There comes a time in one's adult life when one realises the time has come for a torque wrench.
I keep getting shown ads for Park and Pro ones. They look tempting. Socket arrangement looks like I can get into hard to reach places with an extension bar.
A friend keeps trying to persuade me to make do with some kind of £25 pocket one, but I like the idea of getting a decent tool that will last for years. Even if it costs a few bob.
But watching a video on the Park TW 5.2, the torque setting adjustment seemed a bit strange, and I wondered what experience people have had with other (good quality) torque wrenches?
Norbar. Easy to use, reliable and work well.
Norbar, recommended until the internals rust away and you have a giant paper weight (service centres words).
Nowadays I just use a cheap and cheerful one from Superstar, and will recycle it after a few years & just buy another, rather than worry about calibration.
PS: Store then 'unwound' to 0 on the gauge to stop premature wear & officially they need calibrating every 12 months
I've got a Halfords Pro, works great but I barely ever use it on a bike, wouldn't buy one just for bike reasons personally. I guess it depends a lot on your level of experience and confidence with tools but we're not dealing with stretchy bolts or cylinder head gaskets here, there's almost nothing on bikes that really requires precise torque setting.
@Northwind - Having just wrecked the thread on a very torque-sensitive bolt in an unusual stem, I see a need. Also, with more and more carbon parts around, torque settings are becoming more and more a thing people pay attention to.
Yep, that's the sort of thing that can call for it but tbf does that have a place on a mountain bike? What do you do if it needs doing up mid-ride, what happens once it's been dipped in mud? Or maybe I've jumped to conclusions and it's a road bike?
The little single-setting ones can be good for stuff like that though as they're more portable. One thing to remember is that most wrenches become less accurate at the ends of the range, so if you're doing small fiddly stuff with really low torque settings then it's smart to get a really low range wrench
What size stuff do you want to tighten? I've got a couple of barely used torque wrenches for sale. A Pedros and a Cyclo.
Norbar SLO 11123 4-20Nm is the one for bike components; made, I'm pretty sure, in the UK - I know my larger 130104 40-200Nm is.
The PX Jobsworth one at £19.99 (today) seems nice enough. I have two other higher range torque wrenches and they all seem pretty consistent where the ranges overlap.
I paid £25 for it.
I wouldn't waste too much on one, get a halford, draper or whatever for under 50 quid, you have two choices though, a dial wrench or click style wrench, one you can measure the torque and the other is preset to snap when you reach the desired torque, i tend to use the snap/click bar torque wrenches when you have a lot of repetition for torquing, such as large casings with lots of studs and a fair amount of diametric torquing required!
Reality is that a torque wrench outside a work environment can be limited, without a calibration every year it's an unknown, even to start with, you have no ability to check it, we'd have an acratork in our workshops to check daily and send off all wrenches annually for calibration.
Also remember when using a torque wrench, it's all about friction, if you have bolts/nuts that are dirty/rusty/dry then you will get higher friction installing, so potentially setting a lower torque than required, if you buy a torque wrench use it properly would be the only advice.
I'm sure I've read previously that torque wrenches should be stored at a low torque settings (around 1/5th of total) rather than at zero. I've had a Superstar one for years and it still works fine. I don't think a more expensive one would have been worth it as mine works fine and doesn't get used that often.
@CliveA - I tried a couple of the Park pre-set torque drivers and was not impressed at all with their calibration at >20% difference than their expected setting. Unless it is markedly better quality I would not be convinced at how close either the TW 5.2 would be to say 2nm or 14nm.
I have a few for bike and non bike things, don’t carry one when out riding. Some mechanical sympathy and counting the turns from a known good value is normally fine. With occasional light home use the calibration should not drift hugely that quickly.
Would definitely recommend the Wera 3-6nm t-handle and a Teng 5-20nm, comes out similar to a Park TW 5.2 price wise and likely gives greater accuracy.
- Wera 1.2-3.0nm torque screwdriver - delicate non-bike stuff
- Wera 3.0-6.0nm t-handle torque screwdriver - most commonly used for stems etc.
- Teng 5-20nm - bigger bike stuff like crank bolts, pedal lock nuts or derailleur bolts
- Beam type one for big stuff - can be used either direction to ballpark/sanity check
argee
Full MemberReality is that a torque wrench outside a work environment can be limited, without a calibration every year it’s an unknown, even to start with, you have no ability to check it
Anyone can check a torque wrench's calibration if they really want, you just need a weight, something to clamp it in, and some maths