When do you calibrate your torque wrench?

I've had my click style torque wrench awhile. Seems that it should be checked for accuracy. Does anyone do that? If so, where do you send it?

 

Its easy to check and adjust a old school clicker T wrench. Just do it yourself.

 

U-tube must have a billion flicks on how to do it..

 

This is a great question. And to those who DO check, How far out have you found yours to be?? and what brand of torque wrench is it?

 

I never could get up the nerve to trust the clicky ones. Got a brand new Harbor Freight one a few years ago and never took it out of the box. I still use my old deflecting beam wrench that I have had for 40 years.

 

What brand name?

 

I have a beam wrench too. The clickers just don't seem right.

 

You can test your clicker by welding 2-- 1/2'' or 3/8 short sockets together and compare with your beam wrench..

Also if your clicker is off a bit it dont mater.... I dont believe your working on a nuke...What ever your your touring will be equal on all bolts..

Now as far as your smaller inch LB wrench then you will want that more spot on..

 

I had my Snap On click type calibrated a few years ago, gave it to the tool guy, IIRC it was like 75 bucks or so

 

I have had my Sears Craftsman "clicker" for 30+ years. Never had it calibrated. Never really thought about it. I take care of it, don't drop it or use it for a breaker bar so I figure it must still be good. Or close enough...

 

If it's a clicker style that is adjusted by spinning the handle it should be calibrated somewhat regularly. There is a spring in the handle that fatigues overtime. As you turn the handle the spring is tightened and that is what sets the torque. Obviously it's important to turn the wrench back to zero when not in use. It's not a question of how well you care for it. That spring ages and fatigues no matter what you do.

The split beam wrenches are the way to go. They aren't loaded until they are pulled on and will stay in calibration almost indefinitely. They are expensive though. Precision Instruments makes them. Mac and Snap on both sell them branded as their own.

 

I have both the beam and the clicker - both Sears from years ago. Yes, I take care of them but have forgotten to reset the clicker to zero a few times. The beam is nice but you can't always see the scale, depending on the position, so I tend to use the clicker more. The utube methods look ok, I'll try those and see how far off it is. I did work on nukes back in the day and yeah buddy, everything was calibrated and triple checked!

 

Yeah, I drew marks on the back side of my beam so I could read the torque from any angle. I got tired of contorting into painful positions to read the dial.

 

http://www.torqwrench.com/tools/C.php

These are the split beams. I wasn't talking about the old bend-a-bars.

 

Very interesting Joe. Not too expensive either!

 

I had a click type that sometimes wouldn't click. Avoided disaster a few times by thinking...."this ain't right" ....retired it to breaker bar duty only.