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Hello.
Old style torque wrench questions.

I have had this one for a decade or so, never had a use for it. Now I'm looking at posibly rebuilding a 235 and noted this type of torque wrench was in the manual so before charging forward, I figured I would ask those in the know.

What are your experiences with this type of torque wrench?
How accurate are they?
When you used them, how were they calibrated?


This one points to 0, though the angle of the photo shows it off a hair.

Thank you
Chris

Use it as-is. They use the elastic bending of the beam to measure torque. They won’t really get out of calibration unless you over-bend the beam or mess up the pointer. Calibration is done by changing the length of the pointer.
I have one just like it. The only issue with them is seeing the scale when you’re in an awkward position.

Klhansen,
Thank you for the feedback. Good to know it's not just a wall hanger.

Chris

Still use the Craftsman my Dad had. That one must be a newer model because it also shows newton scale.

Don

I frequent the local habitat for humanity restore. This type of torque wrench shows up fairly often in the used tool section.
I guess everyone assumes they are inferior to the modern ones that Click or have the digital beep.

At work we have a fancy Snap-On digital and a Matco cube. The cube is a square block with 1/2" drive in and out. It's programable to read torque or rotation. The cube lets you use any type of wrench with 1/2" drive to torque with, pretty handy in some cases. I took my three torque wrenches to work and clamped the cube in a vise. I set my wrenches and the cube to the same torque reading then used each one to check to see how close they were to the cube. My good one that I use all the time was 3 ft lbs low at the three torque readings I took, the older craftsman was right on at the lower settings but off at the 150 lb setting by only 5 or 6 ft lbs, the old beam was right on the money at all three settings, it suprised the younger guys! The $1100 digital Snap-On was all most new and no surprise it was right on the money.

I have a Craftsman just like it (or almost) I got over 50 years ago for Christmas.

John

My Mom and Dad gave me one of those for Christmas when I was in highschool. I still use it on occasion!

I don't have really nice tools. I'm always checking my torque wrenches against each other. I'm a retired carpenter. I always checked my levels that way because they got banged around the truck. I kept the longer ones on a gun rack in the 53"s back window. That made it easier to see if I had a flat tire so win, win.

Back when I owned a diesel shop and road service in central California, I had a 3/4" drive deflecting beam torque wrench that went to 300 ft/lbs. Then a customer brought in a 1955 Freightliner with a 220 Cummins engine with a leaky head gasket- - - - -1" diameter head studs that needed 600 ft/lbs. of torque! I built a "torque doubler" the same length as the torque wrench from a piece of 1/2" X 2" steel bar with a 3/4" square drive male and female welded to the bar. That put the torque at the bolt head twice the reading on the wrench, but the wrench ended up being 5 feet long!
Jerry

Jerry,
Torque doubler, what is that? Is it like a cheater bar used with a torque wrench?


Chris

Pretty simple, really. Torque is measured in pound-feet. So double the feet (length of the lever arm) and you've doubled the torque.

I have a Snap On Torque Computer from my working days in the Nuc industry. It’s like a slide rule that calculates the torque required when using an adaptor or extension. We used it allot in places that had tight quarters, not so much to get higher torque values, as we had 1” torque wrenches.

I have learned a thing.
Thank you