The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest HARBOR FREIGHT TORQUE WRENCH

HAS ANYONE BOUGHT A CLICKER TORQUE WRENCH FROM HF. ORKNOWS ANYONE WHO HAS? JUST CURIOUS. WONDER IF THEY'RE ANY GOOD? THIS IS NOT SOMETHING I NEED ALL THE TIME ,JUST OCCASIONLLY. SO REALLY DONT WANT TO INVEST ALOT. ANY OPINIONS?

Please kill the caps lock.

For now-and-then use, a "clicker" wrench from the parts store (Advanced, NAPA, etc.) should be fine, or you can check out the pawn shops - sometimes good tools turn up there for good prices.

I have bought tools from Harbor freight but will no more. The good thing is when they break on first use they'll refund my money. The bad is it's a 100 mile round trip to do it. Then I have to go buy a good tool to do the job. Now I buy the good tool first. I have never in my life said, "darn, I wish I had bought the cheaper tool." But there were plenty times I wished I had sprung for the better one.

Clicker torque wrenches need occasional calibration. I have become a 'beam' type man myself. I had a craftsman clicker that went out and they wanted a lot to redo it. So now its a breaker bar.

Hammers and cheap grinders are ok from HF, but I think I'd pass on precision tools. That would have to be craftsman or better (like my beam wrench).

David - I love harbor freight and have almost every tool they sell (well maybe not all). Most of the stuff is good, like answine says, hammers, jacks engine lift. You save lots of money on those and they are mostly bulk steel.

I have a small mill and lathe and both are very good for the price. But the percising tools suck! You would just be wasting money. Don't buy anything unless you know its good.

If you just need a one of two time use tool, most of the auto stores have a loaner program. Autozon, advance auto parts, and they will loan out specialty tools free. If you need a ball joint press (another bad harbor freight tool, bends before the ball joint moves) or a torque wrench you can se it free.

No need to but tools you may only use one time. Save the money for important truck parts. If you do decide to buy one, invent in a good name. Craftsman is good quality and much cheaper than mac or snapon. But any name brand is usually OK.

Harbor freight tools SUCK.You don't save money ,you throw it away.Save your hands and spend a few extra bucks.In the long run it pays for itself

Dan, I respectfully disagree. Some of their tools are crap. Some are just fine. They sell quite a few power tools that are factory refurbished name-brand equipment. You just have to be careful what you buy from them. If you want to throw away money on a MAC tool that you'll use once a year, be my guest.

I seem to recall the resident body repair guru, martinsr, endorsing their higher-level body tools late last year...

I have one Pittsburg brand from HF, piece of KRAP, do not waste your money!! Just for fun we rebuilt the thing when I worked at a calibration lab, took much adjusting to get the thing even in the ball park, so bad it could not be certified, was a REJECT! Only torque wrench that was perfect right out of the box was a Snap-0n, but which ever you have take it to a GOOD cal lab for service and cal, even if new. Before you build that dream motor either buy or borrow a Snap on.

Also, most torque wrenches that came to us were abused, used as Johnson bars,and treated with little if any respect by most mechanics. Scarry thing was that we got very little business from engine builders, using their father's 40 year old torque wrench and building motors worth thousands.

Where can you find a good calibration lab? I have a few clicker-types that I'd like to have checked/adjusted, and a Snap-On dial-type that I'd also like to have tested.

Should be in your yellow pages closest BIG town or search online. Our lab is gone, old guys all retired, we did alot of mail order and turned around the average torque wrench in under a week.

Id request BEFORE AND AFTER READINGS, make sure they disassemble the wrench, check for broken parts, and lube. We kept parts in stock for just about every torque wrench on the market. These should be checked throughout the range, not just a one or two places. Also be sure to store the wrench with setting at ZERO and don't toss it in the parts washer it'll dissolve to lube.

I have an old clicker I got from Harbor Freight in '73. I used to have it checked once a year and it was always within a couple of pounds of being correct,close enough for me. I'd give it to the Snap-On salesman,and he'd take it to Salt Lake City with him and get it checked when he went to pick up his orders and drop off his warranty stuff. When I left the shop,I couldn't do that anymore,so I don't know if it's still close or not. I never got him to tell me where he had it checked-guess I'll have to check into that next time I go over there.
speed

I own $30,000 in Snap-on, Matco and Mac tools all the guys in are shop buy cheap stuff and [censored] about guality and reliability, course they have other toys that I can only dream about cause I am still paying for my good stuff, If you buy cheap and dont mind replacing often then stay cheap, maybe I could start on my truck if I wasnt paying for the tools to do the work. No
I dont make my living with these tools, yes Iam an idiot with really nice tools and box.

I have a friend who used to own a tool cert lab. He told me that any new torque wrench needs calibrated, no matter what brand. He's seen every brand there is, and has had the best come in new and be off as much as 25%. His recommendation is Proto, usually a good by for the money for the average home shop. But if you only use it once a year, it's hard to justify. Right now my tool box has a 1/4"snap-on dial, 1/2" proto clicker and a 3/8" HF clicker. I rarely use the HF, just don't trust it.

thats about the same with craftsman life time tools cheape easy to replace the screwdrivers are real junk iv got a pile of broken craftsman to get replaced again

back up the post someone said the loaner tools are free which isn't "exactly" true. You put up a deposit as if buying it and they refund when its returned. So, if you have only have 50 bucks and the loaner tool is 75 more you will need to sweet talk the lady of the house!!! BUT, I recently had to borrow the rear axle bearing puller which was a $109 deposit. I pulled the bearings in 10 minutes and took the tool back. It is nice to be able to do that but not unless you can ante up the deposit.

My workhorse tool set is made by Stanley, that I got from WalMart a few years ago.. they don't sell that kit anymore.. I seem to recall it was just under $100 and is a big 2 gazillion piece set that closes up to the size of a breifcase.

I've done some real crazy [censored] with these tools.. I had a big 3/4 inch bolt that wouldn't come loose, so I dropped a 8 foot steel bar down the wratchet handle and pushed down on the end of the bar.. I gotta be honest, when I heard the 'snap' I thought darn.. that's the end of a good ratchet.. but nope.. it was the bolt breaking loose.

The same set would have cost me several hundred if it said Craftsman on it.. and several hundred more if it said Snap On or MAC on it.. but for a shade tree mechanic style guy, this set has been real reliable and dependable.

My experience is that there are four main tool catagories..

CRAP (KMART BenchTop brand, Big Lots tools,etc)
INTERMEDIATE RANGE (Stanley)
WORKING PROFESSIONAL (Craftsman, Snapon)
JAUGUAR MECHANIC (Mac)

I, as a general rule, try to buy tools in the Intermediate range.. some of the worst junk tools i've ever bought were from those annual traveling 'tool sales' that set up shop at the fairgrounds or in an old empty commercial building for 'one weekend only'.

Remember the old saying "You get What you pay for".Snap On is awsome however You have to find them, as to craftsman sears and now K mart(who carries craftsman) are all over.

I don't think that Proto tools are available anymore. They were bought out by Stanly a few years back and the products are now sold as Mac (stanly owns mac tools). If you want a good low price torque wrench, check out KD. That's the brand we keep for the guys that don't have their own, they seem to hold up fine. Personally I use a Snap-On Techwrench electronic torque wrenchs, a 3/8" and a 1/2". I also have a clicker type Snap-On 1/2" and a Mac 3/8" that I use at home. You don't want to mess around with an inaccurate torque wrench, you can easily leave something undertorqued, or worse make it too tight, which usually ends up with parts breakage.

Most of my stuff is Craftsman, but I do not have a torque wrench. I want to get one, but actually have no use for it so I have not. When I do I will probably buy a craftsman one, sounds like I will send it out to get calibrated when I do.

Kyle

Had a bunch of Husky tools which were made in the USA. Home Depot sells them but they are now made offshore. Snap-On are nice but try convincing the sales guy that you weren't prying something with that broken screwdriver. Craftsman in Canada are made offshore. I believe made by a company called Fuller. All Canadian Craftsman have a lifetime warranty but cost about four times the price of the same tool made by Fuller. Recently I heard that Sears USA are going to scrap the Craftsman line so they won't have to honor the warranty. I do know that the last time I looked at the Craftsman tool display in Washington State, I noticed a new line of tools made in China.

I work for Sears and haven't heard anything about scrapping the Craftsman line. I have seen the Companion line that you saw, their trying to compete with the off-brand tools from wally-world and such. I don't know about Canadian Craftsman, but most US Craftsman hand tools are made by Buffalo(wrenches), Stanly(screwdrivers), S&K(Pro-Line). Most of the power tools are made by Porter-Cable. I'll check tomorrow with the hardware manager about if the Craftsman line is being fazed out, I know that there are alot of changes since the merger.

I thought Craftsman screwdrivers were mostly Pratt Reed. I know that some of their table saws are made by Rexon which also makes the Tradesman line for Lowes. Ryobi, B&D and Ingersol Rand also makes some of their hand held power tools. Craftsman wrenches I thought were from Danaher.

Proto and MAC are now owned by Stanley and both are still available as seperate lines of tools. Links to each are located at the Stanley website. Stanley markets MAC as a mechanics line and pushes Proto as an industrial line.
Coach

Just bought me a new set of craftsman wrenches to replace my now defunct olympia tool wrenches(lifetime War.)however olympia tool is no more. all my new craftsman say made in the USA.

About 15 years ago I bought a no-name brand of klik torque wrench for 20 buck's.I took it to the shop and compared it to a snap on wrench using different size bolts and settings.It was right on at all settings.I actually check it every few years yet, and all seems ok.mabe I'm just lucky but it works fine!