Stanley actually manufactures alot of Snap On's tools. My father has set up and manufactured several of the furnaces,washers, and tempers in Stanley's production facilities.

 

I love these cars, (Fbodies, Corvettes), this board, and anybody involved in said persuit. Being spoiled, working in a government calibration laboratory, traceable to the national standards and technology....I can't help but overemphasize the simple but much often overlooked part when selecting a precision tool to do a precise job. UNCERTAINTY-don't get sucked into the classic "CHic Jeans-Brand Name B.S.." If you are about to perform maintenance on a LS1/(5k++) motor- don't and, I repeat don't take any chances- Yes, the Pin Head engineers do put in some very tight wigggle room but, not slop. Don't let a brand name fool you. Get your wrenches cal'd by a reputatable co. once a year.

 

Reading this thread caused me to doubt my Craftsman clicker but I notice that Snap-On makes clickers too.

 

Proto torque wrenchs are good cause they use shims for calibration. I recently just picked up Snap on's new digital torque wrenchs in 3/8 and 1/2 work flawlessly and you can also tell how far you went past the torque you specified.

I don't think stanley makes many snap on tools, stanley make a ton of craftsman, Matco, and Mac hand tools not snap on though.

 

WOW! it sounds like some people need to do some research on the tools they use or plan to purchase. First off Proto is a product of Stanley. And no they are not the plain stanley tools made in china like they sell at wal-mart. To me Proto is as good as it gets. They are put through more testing b/c they are industrial tools used by NASA, the military, and other industries. I am a mech in the coal and oil industry. If you have ever been to either i build the dryers & shakers and stuff. You will hardly ever go to the tool room of a wash plant and find a Snap-On or Craftsman tool. <- JUNK. Ok stay with me here. There are three key players in the tool industry. Stanley Danahar & Snap-on all about the same in revenue. Blackhawk is a tool by Proto. Mac is owned by Stanley. Kobalt is a Snap-On tool. Craftsman tools was made by Stanley up until 1994 now they are made by Danahar which hires companies from thailand & china to make some of their tools. Craftsmans power tools like cordless drills are made by Ryobi (not sure about spelling) which is why they are such junk. Facom owns S&K (a.k.a Slip & Kill). When it comes down to it if you do your research most of these tools are junk except Proto and williams and maybe snap-on. I'm not saying that a proto tool is not going to fail. Nor am i saying that all Snap-on tools will fail. No tool is perfect. As far as Torque wrenches we have 1 craftsman torque wrench we only use it for1/2" 20 (which is fine thread) bolts which torques at about 135lbs. And the last time i used it it didn't want to click. when it comes to torque 1" bolts to 850 lbs the only tool we trust is a proto torque wrench. We have one machine we have to torque several bolts to 1900 lbs and i don't think a cheap pos is going to last after the first bolt. Now i don't know what you guys are torque n but one hing to keep in mind is lubrication. In some cases if you don't lubricate your bolts with anti-seize your bolt can lock up and yea break your torque wrench. Trust me you don't want this to happen when you are torqueing at 600+ lbs b/c your wrench will break and slip and it hurts. Just remember that if you use anti-seize you have to subtract 20% off your torque. Also using good bolts like L-9's or E8's instead of cheap grade 4's will help also. Well anyways i just happened to come to the page on a search hope i helped someone out. Got any good tool questions look me up.

 

Hey Mech1 - in your view does it make any difference where a tool is manufactured - say Asia vs. USA?

******
I have:
1. Craftsmutt clicker
2. Pittsburg clicker
3. Two Harbor Frieght clickers
4. Craftsmutt bar needle with scale (super cheapie)

I was wondering how accurate the Craftsmutt bar type wrench is so I torked a few bolts down and tested various readings from the different wrenches I own. Surprisingly, the bar-type wrench is quite accruate. Hey - the test was not really scientific but I know it is in the ball park...

As far as clicker type wrenches go, it seems the Craftsmutt breaks often - from what I here on the board. It may just be that more of them are sold but who knows for sure...

If I ever buy another wrench, I may try a Kobalt. Snap-on is great but they too high-priced for me.

 

This is worth a read: http://www.team.net/www/morgan/tech/whotools.html

 

I have the Husky 250 ft/lb torque wrench. Nice unit. Has done quite a few crank pullys!

 

Mech 1 is correct on those tool companies.

In addition to what he said, Williams Tools was bought up by Snap-On.

Danaher owns/makes tools for: Armstrong, Matco, Craftsman, AllenTM, KD-Tools, Holo-Krome, NAPA, and SATA.

Stanley owns/makes Husky, Mac, and Proto Tools (a very expensive industrial brand), Proto is unique because it goes through addtional testing and certification because it is used by NASA, the military, and industrial customers (including General Motors).

As Mentioned SK is owned by Facom....which is a French Company.

 

Quoting directly from that page I linked, eh SubVet?

You guys should really take a look. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the information there, but it's quite interesting, and contradicts some of what Mech is saying.

Example:

 

Actually, yes & no. I some was quoted from the web site for Danaher and Stanley.

http://www.danaher.com/business/stra...ail.asp?key=12
http://www.stanleyworks.com/bu_handtools.asp

I just when to that link....and I have WP file of that from a forum I had come a cross a thread that had that listed a while back. I think it was either in Altimas.net or Tractorsbynet.

 

Here where I originally ran into the Article.

http://bricklin.org/TechCentral/TCAr...me.htm#GEN-TOC

 

Ah. Interesting stuff.

 

The Big tool companies how they market and make big $$$$
is amazing.

 

I've been a Calibration Technician for almost 8 year now. During that time I've verified the accuracy of and repaired/adjusted hundreds of torque wrenches in both the military and civilian sectors. Here are my comments based on what I've experienced:

Snap-On makes a very durable torque wrench that can be accurate and remain so after it is adjusted correctly. They tend to be reliable over time, but I would not trust the accuracy of the wrench when it is first purchased. Most of the wrenches that we cal'd for the Air Force were spec'd at +/-4% CW and +/-6% CCW, and I would say that only about 50% of them met this spec out of the box. After we adjusted them initially to our CDI standard, they held the adjustment great and performed accurately. Almost all of these were the click-type.

Craftsman wrenches, especially the type with the setting window were absolute junk. Not only did most of them not meet their specs out of the box, but they would not adjust within specs on the high and low end of the scale. They were typically non-linear (low on the low setting, and high on the high setting) which resulted in having to send them back to Sears for replacement.

I don't remember having too many problems with Proto wrenches... nothing that stands out in my mind anyways.

I have only dealt with two Husky wrenches, both were 250# click-types. I bought one and my brother-in-law bought one from Home Depot at the same time. I checked the accuracy of both of them before use, and they were both within 2% CW, I didn't check either of them CCW since we weren't going to use them in that direction. I pulled my wrench out of the shed where it had been sitting for 2 years without being used, and took it in to work to make sure it was still accurate and found that the handle retaining nuts had come loose so the handle was spinning freely instead of adjusting the torque setting. The fix was as simple as jamming a flat-headed screwdriver inside the back of the handle to hold the nut in place, then back the Allen head adjustment screw out against it. This tightened it back up so I could set the torque, so I checked the accuracy and it is still within +/-2%!. I think we paid $40 each for these wrenches, and they're one of the best values I have found yet.

The beam style wrenches are usually very accurate throughout their useable lives, but are not always the easiest to use. No wrench can be expected to be more accurate than its manufacturer's specifications though, even though some of them are.

For storage purposes with all torque wrenches, you should return the wrench to its lowest setting before putting it away. There is a spring inside that can get damaged if you don't.

Never use your torque wrench to loosen a bolt, that's not what it was designed for. Even if the wrench is designed to be used in the CCW direction, it will cause excess wear on the internals. Why not use a cheap breaker bar that has no accuracy requirements instead?

Out of curiosity, how did you verify the accuracy of your Husky torque wrenches? Based on their constuction and the readings that I've taken with mine and my brother-in-law's torque wrench, they should be pretty reliable and accurate.

There are several factors related to the way it is used that can influence the accuracy of a torque wrench. If you aren't holding the handle level while trying to tighten the fastener, I've seen it throw off readings by 10-15%. Also if you hold the wrench by a part other than the center of the handle (like the metal body, or if you are for some reason using a pipe to extend the handle) it can throw off the accuracy greatly. Any kind of extension will reduce the applied torque value due to flex, and also extreme cold and hot temperatures will throw off their accuracy.

Torque wrenches should definitely have their accuracy verified on a regular interval though. Most of our customers use a 12 month interval, people who use them very often might use a 6 month interval, and most of the Air Force departments sent theirs in every 3 months! Verifying accuracy is important for all measuring tools though, torque wrenches, DMMs, oscilloscopes, etc.

Let me know if you have any other questions! I covered everything that came to the top of my mind.