stryper

So I picked up a 3/8" click type torque wrench from harbor freight last night so I could actually adjust my compression plug and stem to correct tensions and quit trying to guess. Got home, opened it up, read my FSA compression plug instructions said 53-80 lbs for the expander assembly and 45 lbs for the top cap. I set the wrench to 70lbs and started torque away on the expander. It was getting real tight then snap the 5mm allen head broke on the bolt. So I needed to get to the store and buy a new hopefully stronger bolt, but I live car free. So I grabbed a 12" clamp, slapped it on the bottom of the work crown and the top of the fork and clamped it down tight enough to be comfortable, and started tightening up the stem bolts. I've read general rule on those is 35-45 lbs, so I set it to 30 lbs just to start and before I got any click on the wrench the stem was almost closed shut and was making me feel uncomfortable (I'd hate to crack a steer tube on a brand new $350 fork.)

I took the wrench and adjusted it to 20lbs and put a 15mm socket on there to test it against my back wheel nuts. It tightened them a bit more then clicked over, which suggests it worked but I was a bit surprised by how much pressure it seemed to take since I'm a reasonably strong guy, in shape, work out, yada yada. Rode to the store and got a new allen for the compression plug and tried again. Set the wrench down to 50 lbs this time and started torque. Before it clicked it certainly seemed like the expander was too tight to move any further so I just stopped. Went to put the top cap on, set the wrench to 30 lbs and the headset started to bind before it clicked. So I dropped it down to 15 lbs and it still didn't click. At 10 lbs I got it to click on the stem bolts, but again the stem is almost closed, brand new FSA vision tech stem.

Is my wrench not calibrated correctly? Do I just need to break it in more? Am I just being too worried after a faulty bolt snapped?