riderlife

im in the market for a decent torque wrench. perticularly one with a 1/4" drive. ive looked at pedros,park,topeak, and sunlight but im willing to look at other brands. does anyone have any recomendations?

bikeman715

park is good, you'll need two for the different sizes in hardware and torque values . craftsman is another one at sears.

mechBgon

I recommend Park Tool's beam-style model.

wrk101

I have everything from HF special (on sale you can get it for $9.99) to a Snapon 3/8 inch (sells for $275, pretty hard to justify). .

For light duty use, the Harbor Freight is fine.

dsbrantjr

rider: There was a recent thread regarding the merits of various wrench types (beam, dial, clicker) which you might find useful: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...=torque+wrench

jchabalk 

I have a Craftsman 3/8-inch beam torque wrench and it works great. I like 3/8 for my needs. (i use it for building bikes etc). I got a reducer for 1/4 for the couple of things i needed that were 1/4 socket size.

I also got a set of Allen and torx 3/8 craftsman bits at the same time and they cover all my needs for bike building and maintenance, YMMV

joejack951

A bit of advice, base your torque wrench purchase on the range of torques offered not by the drive size. I have two 3/8" drive wrenches, both by SK. One goes from 25 in.*lbs to 250 in.*lbs. The other from 10 ft.*lbs. to 100 ft.*lbs. I also have a 1/2" drive Craftsman for automotive work (25 ft.*lbs. to 250 ft.*lbs.) or when it's easier to use a 1/2" drive wrench for a bottom bracket. For bikes, if you want to do full builds you'll need two torque wrenches to cover from stems to bottom brackets. If you are only doing stems and seatposts, you can get away with just the lower range.

sknhgy 

I've had a 1/2" drive Craftsman beam-type torque wrench for years and years. One guy I worked with had a clicker-style and I swore if I ever bought another torque wrench it would be one of those. I recently bought the 1/4" Nashbar clicker-style wrench with bits and I love it. Sometime you have to be quite the contortionist to take readings off a beam-style torque wrench.

kenji666

+1 on Harbor Freight

fotoflojoe

+1 To clicker style torque wrenches.
They're so much more convenient to use vs. beam style. as long as the wrench is correctly oriented against the fastener, there's no need to turn yourself into a pretzel in order to get a visual on the scale.

I've got Snap-On, Craftsman, and Harbor Fright torque wrenches. I'd recommend Craftsman, but HF will do the job too.

mechBgon

If you do get a clicker, I can't recommend Park Tool since the painted-on torque markings wear off. Also, clickers stop being fun when you have to torque 15 different things and are constantly reeling the settings up and down. For the home user, maybe that's not the end of the world, but when you work all day long with them... yeah. My elbow likes my Precision Instruments dial torque wrench and frankly I don't find it that hard to take readings from it; the most inconvenient two items that come to mind are rear-derailleur cable pinch bolts and flat-bar brake-lever clamping bolts. Not that hard.

I do have a PI/Snap-On split-beam clicker for high-torque stuff, the Snap-On-badged TQFR50. Split-beam are very fast to set, unlike a conventional clicker, and they don't have to be "relaxed" after use, they can be left at any setting without losing calibration. If those are of interest, be aware they do only torque clockwise (from their viewpoint), so if you want to torque something CCW you need to be able to hit it from the back side using a crowfoot, or passing an extension through and engaging the socket from the back (such as a driveside BB cup, where you can put an extension through the BB shell in most cases).



Sears sells PI nowdays if anyone wants to go deluxe. This is the split-beam clicker: https://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...&blockType=G11 And this is the dial-type lower-torque model I use at work: https://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...1&blockType=G1

BlueRaleigh

Is it bad to just not use a torque wrench?

Bat56

I never used a torque wrench in 20 years of working on my bikes. I have never had a part fail. But I use crap parts that I find in a dumpster or bum off of passers by on the street.

If I am putting a $100 bottom bracket and mounting a $100 crank I will use a torque wrench.

But even at that, I am Harbor Freight all the way.

All my frames are steel. Carbon fiber? Get the most expensive one you can. You asked for it.

EDIT - if you are installing one of those $3000 power taps in a $5000 frame, use two or three torque wrenches.

Al1943

+1
I find far more uses for the 1/4 inch drive beam wrench than any other torque wrench. Especially for stems and on any carbon fiber parts. I use a 1/2 inch drive Sears beam wrench for Italian bottom brackets but a 3/8 inch drive would also work for bottom brackets, crank bolts, lockrings, etc.

m_bisson

Mastercraft is good too.... Spend anywhere from $80 to $150 and you'll be fine....

PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION to the way it measures force. Foot pounds vs Inch pounds makes a HUGE difference. Most 1/4" drives are foot pound tools, whereas 3/8" drive is inch pounds.

Here's how it really works: At 1 foot away from the nut/bolt you're tightening you'll be applying 1 foot pound of torque, or 12 inch pounds of torque. 10 foot pounds = 120 inch pounds.... get it?

dsbrantjr

m_bisson: I think you've got it backwards: 1/4" drive = inch-pounds, 3/8" drive = foot-pounds, usually.

tj90

check out Lowes. I bought my 3/8 and 1/2 Kobalt clicker torque wrenches from there. They are basically relabelled SK wrenches that are a fraction of the cost of SK. Built in the USA. They also work for reverse threads - something the cheapy HF clicker torque wrenches dont do.. If you have limited funds, buy the 3/8 wrench for bikes. It will work for most applications and on cars too. Like someone posted, buy socket adapters if you have 1/4 or 1/2 sockets. The 1/2 torque wrench is good for lugnuts on cars and larger bolts. I just used my 1/2 this weekend to torque an axle to 180 ftlbs on my wifes car (blown CV) but thats beside the point...

BTW, I got rid of all my beam torque wrenches. I started out with a sears on years ago and it was always getting slightly bent banging around in my tool box. Frankly, Id take a HF dial wrench over a name brand beam wrench. The readout scale of a beam is cumbersome, gets dirty and scratched and at least on mine was too hard to read accurately.

Ive seen an article where someone tested experienced mechanics "feel" to actual torque on a fastener. They found that time and time again, "feel" is not a good gage for torque. Be afraid of anyone who says they dont need a torque wrench. Of course, you can get by without one, but ever since Ive been using one, I never strip bolts or crack carbon. I rarely have to retighten anything out on the road and minimize the creaking and popping guys get from bolts that are too loose. For critical applications on automobiles (think drain plugs, half axles, cast aluminum threaded parts, an investment in a wrench pays for itelf quickly when stripping threads or breaking bolts...

m_bisson

Oops. It was late I mean 1/2" is foot pounds hehe.