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Serious question, why do people trust torque wrenches from Harbor Freight on critical fasteners?
I was doing a prop strike inspection on a Cessna 172 at our field in Tulsa last week and watched a guy snap a cylinder base stud using a brand new Pittsburgh torque wrench that clicked at 180 inch-pounds instead of 100. Has anyone else had a cheap tool fail at exactly the wrong time on a job?
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troychen1d ago
People treat cheap tools like they're just as good as the expensive ones until something fails. That 180 inch-pound snap you saw is exactly what happens when you trust a $20 torque wrench to do a $200 job. Seen the same thing with guys using Walmart socket sets on semi truck lug nuts, then wondering why they strip out. It's all about knowing where the savings end and the risk starts.
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sammartinez1d agoMost Upvoted
You said "knowing where the savings end" and man, that hit me hard. I once used a Harbor Freight torque wrench to tighten my bike's handlebars and they literally spun a full rotation while I was going downhill, almost ate pavement. The 30% drift thing you mentioned is real, I tested my cheap click type against a borrowed digital one and it was off by like 40 inch pounds after just a few uses. Still have the scar on my elbow from that wipeout, guess that's my $20 lesson in knowing when to spend real money.
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Troy's right that "knowing where the savings end" is the whole game, I read a tool blog that said cheap wrenches can drift 30% after a few uses.
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