> Anyway gents...I'm in the market for new torque wrenches. I say that in
> plural because I think I need two...one small: for up to 75-80 ft-lbs, and
> one large: for the real numbers. Am I right to think I should split the
> "weight categories" up? or do you suppose I can get away with one, VERY
> GOOD torque wrench, to do everything imaginable that requires a torque
> setting?
I currently have three torque wrenches:
1 Husky 3/8" 250 in-lb
1 SK 3/8" 100 ft-lb
1 C-man 1/2" 150ft-lb
The Husky is nice for real light torques... 250 in-lb is just over
20ft-lb, and the other two wrenches are too low in their range to be
accurate down there. I was surprised how many fasteners are down
there in that range.
The SK is nice... of course... A&I just had a sale (on the back of the
most recent catalog) so I picked it up. This one will be my workhorse
as 9/10ths of the fasteners I work on are in the 10-100lb range.
The C-man 1/2" is good, but I think if I was to do it again, I'd get a
250 ft-lb 1/2" drive. Mostly I use that one for the big stuff (wheel
lugs, hub nuts, etc) and I didn't think I'd need over 150 ft-lbs, but
I ran across a hub nut recently whose spec was 157-224 (or something
like that) so all I could do was 150ft-lbs. A friend has a really
nice SnapOn 250 ft-lb... I think I'm gonna steal it from him. ;)
If you're gonna be working on trucks, I think the possibility of a >
150 ft-lb torque is likely.
Your best bet for just two torque wrenches is a 3/8" 10-100ft-lb and
a 1/2" ?-250 ft-lb... at least that's my opinion.
cmh
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Chris Heerschap - UNIX Systems Mutilator/Postmaster
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