My wife is looking to get me a torque wrench for x-mas. I have been looking around for one but it looks like alot of the craftsman one get bad reviews for a plastic piece that breaks in them and alot of the others are out of her price range (about $100).

 

I own two Craftsman torque wrenches, a 1/2" and 3/8" drive click style, and have never had any issues. A very good wrench in my opinion. Just take care it and you should have no issues.

 

I have a 1/2" Craftsman click style torque wrench, but it doesn't click any more. It's not covered by the lifetime hand tool guarantee.

 

I have the craftsmen beam style one which has a full lifetime warrenty


obviously not something that is going to be useful if you can't see the meter but a good torque wrench to have to check accuracy of your click style torque wrenches

 

If its something that you are going to use now and then the craftsman is ok, if you have to rely on it daily then go with a better quality wrench. I had a craftsman and the plastic handles do break internally and its hard to tell when it clicks because it makes 2 or 3 cracking sounds when you start pulling hard on it. Some of these clicks/cracks sound like its coming from the head and not just the handle.

 

Craftsmen is fine, very reliable, just don't be a jackass w/it lol

 

I freaking hate craftsman these days...........seems like more and more of their tools have no warranty. I always borrow my dad's Snap-On torque wrenches.

 

Griot has a nice digital torque wrench made here in the states.

 

There's nothing wrong with using a beam style torque wrench. Unless you're doing an awful lot of fastener torquing to the same torque value, it's all the average DIY'er will ever need. I've had my 1/2" for something like 44 years, and the little 1/4-drive one that I first got to do a little AT work almost 40.

Any beam style torque wrench that's any good to begin with will stay that way indefinitely, so they aren't risking much with that warranty.

I'll admit that beam wrenches can be a little difficult to read precisely if you're standing up torquing lug nuts, but I can think of at least three DIY solutions for that if you don't trust yourself to gauge the indicator needle's position on the dial while out of position like that.


I have heard that click-type wrenches need to be "unloaded" after use or they may end up not indicating properly over time.


Norm

 

I just got a click style Cobalt from lowes for $130 and it is very nice.