Would you trust a Harbor Freight torque wrench for building an engine?

[WhiskeyD]

Just like the title says, would you trust a Harbor Freight clicker torque wrench for building an engine? My buddy has a 657x he's trying to put a top end on and I told him I wouldn't trust the HF wrench. Afterwards I looked at reviews on the net and people seemed to say they are pretty accurate. What do you guys think?

 

[LouDoo]

That's what I use, haven't had a problem.

Lou

 

[Spimothy Leary]

i'm on their mailing list, (half of us probably are right?)
and saw their recent ad for torque wrenches,, pretty dam good prices !
and i wondered myself... hmmmm, would I trust a HF torque wrench .....

 

[LouDoo]

This is a little off the subject, but somehow it doesn't seem to be important enough for a separate thread.

I got an EMail to join the HF insiders club, it's 30.00 for a year membership and you can quit during the first 90 days and get a full refund. Actually it's 20.00 because you get a 10.00 gift card. The benefits are prior notice to sales, exclusive coupons, deal of the day, etc, etc.

My question is has anyone done this? I already have in my garage one of everything they have in the store and now I'm working on two of everything.

Lou

 

[Jeffspx]

Have used them at work before torquing engine parts and compared with a buddy's high price snap on wrench, seemed pretty accurate to me.

 

[Strizzo]

i think the real question at hand is: "do you trust a torque wrench for any job, or not?" they're not like pants, where you have nice ones and not-nice ones. you should have one quality tool that you trust to do the job.

so, while you might not trust a HF torque wrench, your buddy might. you pays your money and you takes your choice.

 

[ryan2121]

At work we have to keep our torque wrenches calibrated, so we have a cal lab. Being curious one day i sent a harbor freight wrench in with several of our snap on ones and the harbor freight held just as close tolerances as the snap on ones, in some cases even closer than snap on. So I would say save the money and go for harbor freight, just store it in a safe place and dont drop them.

 

[Axkiker]

Another question is can you really trust the torque wrench you are using... no matter what brand.

Any measuring instrument needs to be calibrated on an annual basis... if not more often. That old wrench that you have been using for years is most likely not as accurate as you may think. Im not saying its a pos etc... but nothing holds spec forever.

Most likely if there are problems with a harbor freight wrench its due to either not coming set up correctly... or not holding spec very long.

 

[Ronsse610]

its a torque wrench like any other.. i wouldn't see a problem

 

[LittleAl]

No comment, well ok, WOW !

 

[Thumper3322]

Since this is about torque wrenches... How important do you guys think the torque of the high torque screws/ nuts are? I mean anything over 80 ft lbs is freakin tight, so why not turn it as tight as you can go and another 1/4 turn?

I completely understand for lower torqued screws so they are even and won't strip then or screw up plastic threading.

I only have a smaller in/lbs max 250 and really don't want to spend even more money on another tool that is only good for a few very tight bolts.

 

[CASPX]

HF torque wrench will eventually break and you'll have to replace, HF is decent tools but they are throw away tools.

If you can wait, wait until sears has a sale and buy the crafts man, their fairly cheap and you'll have it for ever.

IMHO, Some tools you just gotta buy the good stuff.