OT but only slightly: Craftsman Torque Measurement System - any good?

I think my trusty torque wrench is getting a little too old and lost some of its precision. Actually, I am more worried about its repeatability, as it 'clicks' within plus and minus 15 percent difference from one bolt to the other. If I knew it was just off by a couple of units, you can keep that in mind, but this thing is all over the place.

So in looking around, I stumbled across one sold by Sears that basically is a head that you put between the socket and the wrench.

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The remote readout is a multimeter-looking-box that shows the torque,running through a wire to the head. I'd prefer a readout of sorts over a 'click' indication. One drawback is that, in tough spots, mechanical readouts are hard to read. That would obviously not be a problem with this one. Strain gauge technology is mature, so those things should be fairly precise, so there's shouldn't be a good reason to doubt its precision, right? One drawback I see is that is isn't exactly low profile - that may not be a real problem depending on how large that head is.

Was wondering if this is a viable alternative. Does anyone here have any experience with one of these things?

Remco

Reply to
Remco
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> The remote readout is a multimeter-looking-box that shows the torque,> running through a wire to the head.>

Answering my own query here, but maybe it is useful to someone else:

Walking through the local sears, I found one on sale for $70. This one was out of the box and they are usually $120, so that was a score I couldn't resist. Sears is good about returning things, so it was a no brainer.

It works very well and is quite accurate: within 1% if measuing less than 50 lbs/f and within 2% if less than 150 lbs/f. (using the beep function, described below).That was all within room temperature -- not sure if those numbers are maintained across temp range. The spec say 2% and 3%, across commercial temp range, which sounds achievable.

Its one achilles heel I can see is the wire going to the head. It is grommeted but the head is pretty heavy so one does have to be careful with it (as one would be with a good torque wrench anyway). It does add about 3" to a wrench and socket.

You can obviously have a direct readout of your torque but one particularly useful feature is that you can set the target torque. When tightening, it will beep faster as you approach your target, much like a subs sonar in the movies. When you are on target, it stops beeping and is steady on. Over torquing will cause the beep to go high. Very nice. It also measures peak torque - not sure if that feature is useful to me.

Remco

Reply to
Remco

It looks very nice. I don't have any tool with torque measurement system and I would like to buy one. Does it fit all sizes of ratchet wrench?

Jo=E3o

Reply to
joao_eliseu

The head has a 1/2 " drive so you put your breaker bar/wrench on one side and the socket on the other side. I'd imagine you can slip a drive converter on to go down in size without problems.

I forgot (been here too long, I guess) but do European socket wrenches have the same size drive as SAE? (3/8", 1/2", etc)

Reply to
Remco

The head has a 1/2 " drive so you put your breaker bar/wrench on one side and the socket on the other side. I'd imagine you can slip a drive converter on to go down in size without problems.

I forgot (been here too long, I guess) but do European socket wrenches have the same size drive as SAE? (3/8", 1/2", etc)

Yes they do... why don't come in and find out :) Then you can also find out that fuel prices are sky high, economic system is a joke, health fund is falling appart... need i say more? Come to think of it.. i guess you're better of in the US of A :)

Roger

Reply to
bug '59

Ok, had forgotten about the drive size so that thing would work well there too. Joao (and you too of course, Roger), should you find

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does not ship to Europe and want one of these toys, you could get it sent to my house and I'd be happy to forward it to you. Never had to think about the drive size when I was there as everything was metric and used my dad's tools at that time.

I hear ya - I usually go back home every other year (less now since my father passed away a couple of years ago). When he visited me here, he told me I was better off here than there as well, certainly economically. Things are not ideal here either, though. Over there you have (maybe "had") somewhat of a safety net - that does not really exist here. If something bad happens, you won't die but will lose everything you've worked for and very quickly.

Regardless, I am here to stay -- been here over 20 years (more than 1/2 my life), my kids are born here. My dreams and nightmares are in English :) Not sure if I'd even fit in over there, as most people there assume I am an American when I visit: Last time in a Jamin store in Amsterdam, using my very American accented and semi-halting Dutch, the counter girl merrily replied in English without me even asking. Another time in a bank in Delft, some old idiot was ranting to someone that those flocking foreigners (referring to me, my clearly American wife and kids) should just get the flock out of the country, thinking I did not understand him. When I asked him calmly in Dutch if he happened to be a member of the NSB (Dutch Nazi party) during the war and if he was ever thrown a beating for it, he turned beet red and quickly left - pretty funny to scare the crap out of one of those old MFers (maybe my guess was too close to the truth). That intolerance was sobering, though.. We pride ourselves in being tolerant - wtf happened??

So I guess it is true what they say "you can't go home again" :) (This saying translated does not convey the same thought in Dutch - don't think we have a saying like that there)

Remco

Reply to
Remco

I only use metric sockets but the breaker bars are in inches. I know that I have a 3/4" breaker bar to use on my 36mm socket (I use to remove the rear nut). I have a smaller breaker bar but I don't know the size. I have a box with a set of sockets are from 8mm to 32mm I guess. Will the torque measurement you bought only fit on a 1/2 " breaker bar and on inches sockets? I think I'm explaining myself clear. Sometimes I have to Google the name of the tools looking for an image to know what you are talking about :)

Jo=E3o

Reply to
joao_eliseu

It fits metric sockets and breaker bars with 1/2" drive just fine. Smaller ones would require a drive adapter, for instance 1/2" female to

3/8 male.
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I suspect you could just as well put a 1/2" female to 3/4 male adapter on, but you would not want to exceed the 150 lbs/f rating of the measuring head, obviously. It would not even serve a purpose because you can't measure over 150 ft/lb

If I had to speak your language, we'd be in much worse shape :). You are perfectly clear.

Reply to
Remco

.....

Another time in a bank in Delft, some old idiot was ranting to someone that those flocking foreigners (referring to me, my clearly American wife and kids) should just get the flock out of the country, thinking I did not understand him. When I asked him calmly in Dutch if he happened to be a member of the NSB (Dutch Nazi party) during the war and if he was ever thrown a beating for it, he turned beet red and quickly left - pretty funny to scare the crap out of one of those old MFers (maybe my guess was too close to the truth).

..... LOL

.....

So I guess it is true what they say "you can't go home again" :) (This saying translated does not convey the same thought in Dutch - don't think we have a saying like that there)

.....

Well at least i'm not familiar with it...But that doesn't mean much :)

Roger

PS :

thanks for the offer, but i just bought myself a "brandnew" used tork wrench for the rear axelnut.... haven't used it yet but that is an item you always have to have....

Reply to
bug '59

True - I don't use mine all the time either. Recently, while working on a subaru engine, I found my old one defective so that's what made me look for a new one.

Reply to
Remco

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