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I've got one of these stupidly cheap and crap ones where you can't even read the scale properly, and half the numbers make no sense. It was £20.
Tool station have one with a calibration certificate for £29 which looks much better, but is still rather cheap.
Anyone got any suggestions for ones that are decent and still cheap?
Definitely no more than £50 so don't go on about having to spend a million quid etc etc, I know all about cheap tools but if there's no money there's no money.
What I am after is the least bad cheap one.
Is this for your bike? Bikeradar reviewed them recently, and liked the Wiggle one.
i wouldnt trust a toolstation torque wrench as far as i could throw it ..... rule of thumb - if i has moving parts dont buy it from toolstation.
What are you wanting to torque - and what range of torques and what size of head .....
all have different requirements.
for irregular home use id be tempted to get a bending beam type however they are not so common these days - I had to buy a park one to do the timing belt on my car as you cant hold a specific tension on a clicky type.
I have a small 1/4" one for my bike, it's decent quality or appears it.
This is for the car, putting the suspension ball joints back on; hub bolts and the like.
Although the spec for the balljoint bolts is 100nm and I think last time I tried to do that much I was physically unable to put that much torque on with the cheap one I have.
This one: made by Laser so not specific to Toolstation
http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p22733?table=no
If it's for the car then I would recommend the [url= http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/tools/spanners-wrenches/halfords-professional-torque-wrench-8-60nm ]Halfords Professional Torque Wrench 8-60nm[/url] which I've had for 7 years.
It's easy to set and very accurate. I've had it calibrated every two years at a local engineers and only recently needed a small adjustment.
I also have the larger 60-200nm but most jobs on the car I don't need it for other than torquing up wheel nuts and hubs. The smaller one covers the large majority of jobs.
[url= http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/accessories-tyres/36087/torque-wrenches-tested ]Also took the Autocar Best Buy award.[/url]
I've got one of these works fine... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TENG-TOOLS-1292AG-EP-TORQUE-WRENCH-40-200NM-1-2-DRIVE-NEW-/360409996262?hash=item53ea1c1be6:g:yMEAAOSwPe1UHDrT in budget and goes up to what you want
i have the teng one listed above as well it is good stuff - not quite the norbars we have at work but perfectly adaquate for sticking on your car bits. 2 heaves and a grunt 😉
ok ill give you a laser branded one will be ok - dont be surprised if toolstation supply you with a silverline one and tell you its the same thing .....
The toolstation laser 1/2" is supposedly calibrated - there's also a review online of a similarly priced laser but not the same, it says it's 3% accurate.
I asked my wife if, as a passenger in the car, she'd like me to buy a torque wrench.. she said yes 🙂
I have the Laser one it's fine, especially for suspension bolts. I might be more fussy if doing head gasket on an ally block/head.
Superstar one here.
I've yet to shear a bolt or have any of them loosen so it's working fine as far as I'm concerned.
You'll get a 3% variation in repeatability on wrenches at the cheaper end of the market. If you're that bothered about getting a wrench, get the beat you can afford.
I'd trust Sealey rather more than a Toolstation one, I've my eye on this one as being cheaper than getting my cheap one recalibrated.
[url= http://www.ffx.co.uk/tools/product/Sealey%20Ak624%205024209231473%20Micrometer%20Torque%20Wrench%201%202Insq%20Drive%20Calibrated ]Sealy from FFX, £26[/url]
Assuming that it's the same as the one my dad got from there for Christmas, it has the advantage (to me) that the "primary" scale is in lb-ft. (I.e. 1 turn = 20 lb ft, not trying to guess where between 11.7 and 23.8 you're aiming for).
I got the Laser one in 1/2". It was well worth it actually. It's nice and long so I could do the max 200nm without too much swearing. Certificate said 4% accuracy which is good enough.
Also the numbers on the sub scale are matched with the main scale. So the gradations go from 42 to 56, but there are 14 gradations on the handle that you twist, so you can find a round number easily. On my other cheap shitty one there's a difference of 14 between each main gradation but there are only ten sub-gradations on the handle so each one is 1.4 FFS.
Halfords one here for car stuff - very happy with it.
I've also got a posh Norbar one, but pretty sure the Halfords one is just as good..
Important thing apparently is they need regular service/calibration. I've never bothered and my smaller wrench I'm not convinced is anywhere near accurate any more. Have snapped a bolt torqued exactly to spec with it, but could be the bolt or the spec is dodgy. It did stop clicking a while after, so pulled it apart, regreased where I saw grease and put it back together again and works again, but I'm wary of it now and hand tighten going by feel instead. It's for lower torques and even then the low end is 5Nm and most my small bolts are around that and torque wrenches are apparently not very accurate at the extreme ends of the scale.
My big wrench seems to work better, but with either of them I go by feel also. If I think it should have clicked by now, I'll stop.
With any torque wrench you reset it to zero after use to prevent strain on the spring which would knock it out of calibration. Dropping them is also a pretty good way to ruin them.
[i]molgrips - Member
What I am after is the least bad cheap one.
[/i]
Somewhat amusing, after that gearbox bolt thread you dragged out for several pages [b]although[/b] you later claimed to have already tightened the bolt/s in question after the first page.
😉
However:
[i]molgrips - Member
I have a small 1/4" one[/i]
😆
All things come to he who waits.
Halfords one is good ime. Or at least, the one I bought about 10 years ago is, who knows if it's the same today. I don't use it a lot, only for torque-critical stuff, so I suppose it's had an easy life.
Always Norbar. A bit above your budget but worth it.
I got a Norbar 1/4 one off ebay for less than £50. I've also got a Halfords 40-200 Nm that I paid £50 for in a sale. Halfords torque wrenches are made by Norbar. Oddly Halfords ones are usually around £79, while the same one in Norbar box is over £100
I've got one of the Giant ones which I'm pretty happy with*, it was a bit cheaper than this when I got it though (although thinking about it that was probably about 7 years ago so, duh!)
*Nothing's snapped or cracked anyway!
Get bending-beam types like the Park ones - they don't go out of calibration (well, if they do, you can see it's not at zero).
Bending beam ones are fine if everything is stable and you have good comfortable access to what you're tightening up. They aren't that great in practice which is why no one really uses them in industry - not that I've seen anyway.
Yes, but we're talking about bikes, aren't we? Not on an oil rig or something.
Though, to be honest, I never use the torque wrenches I own.
"Bending beam ones are fine if everything is stable and you have good comfortable access to what you're tightening up. They aren't that great in practice which is why no one really uses them in industry - not that I've seen anyway."
my workstand holds my bike stable and access isnt an issue around my bike and for the most part my car where torque values as timing belt tensions.....which is why i said for home use they would be good.
Unlike at work where i can be working upside down in a 6 inch space where i cant get behind the pointer ......
This is for cars, Ben. I have one of those Giant ones for bikes. Christmas gift.
Mine came from Amazon, from memory I think it's a Stanley. Came with a certificate and had a useful range from "small jobs" to "big jobs." Seems all right as far as I can tell.
I have 2 torque wrenches.
One small 1/4 from 0-15/20 Nm and one large 1/2 20-100Nm mainly for the car, BB or spindle lock for cassettes.
Only use them as I've been too heavy handed with 4Nm stem bolts.
I also have that Teng albeit the 3/8 one, fantastic bit of kit and can be recalibrated if you have the rig available.
I recently bought an unused Halfords Professional ½" drive one off a guy on eBay for about 50 squids. Adjusts easily and quickly and seems well made. It replaces a Norbar one I had for about 20 years and I only replaced because I took it apart and lost the tiny pawl spring in the sawdust on my shed floor