this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023

37 points (84.9% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35719 readers

3154 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)

Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.

Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.

Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.

Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.

Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.

Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.

Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.

Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.

Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.

Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.

Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

What's a good torque wrench to get? (lemmy.one)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/nostupidquestions

20 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://jorts.horse/users/fathermcgruder/statuses/110789232582943740

What's a good torque wrench to get?

I want to replace the spark plugs in my car and I'm apparently going to have to torque them to 30Nm. #diy #tools

@tools

top 19 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] Entheogen 11 points 1 year ago

Honestly, if you are just getting a torque wrench for spark plugs (and any other BASIC projects at home) any brand will do. Just make sure it has the torque range you need.

I recommend "click type" because they are easy to operate correctly, and easy to take care of. Seriously, read the manual that comes with it, and follow the steps everytime. If you do this, it will last you a long time.

I bought my two torque wrenches from Harbor Freight for about $10 each. Torquing frame bolts or spark plugs? No problem. Would I use them for valve train or engine internals? Absolutely not.

If you don't want to go the cheap route, go to any big box store like Home Depot or Lowe's (US) and anything name brand will do, as long as it has the torque range you need.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I just use my regular wrench and say "click" out loud when it feels nice and tight

[–] over_clox 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'll suggest to not get any Harbor Freight torque wrench. I got one from there, and not only did it not work, it felt like it was packed with sand.

No joke.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm usually in the camp that suggests buying a cheap version of a tool from harbor freight and then using it until you break it before buying a good one, but torque wrenches are an exception to that. Just get a decent one at any hardware store unless you have snap-on money.

[–] over_clox 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, this! ☝️

Don't cheap out on torque wrenches, or any other measuring tool for that matter.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I learned not to buy harbor freight calipers the hard way lol.

[–] RightHandOfIkaros 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can use a Pittsburgh torque wrench as long as you calibrate it and check it often. I have tried a few different torque wrenches, and so long as you don't drop them and keep them calibrated they'll pretty much all accomplish the same task. The Pittsburgh performed the same as my Matco, only difference was the click wasn't so harsh on the Matco and the handle knurling was higher quality on the Matco.

Personally I am partial to the bar style torque wrenches, but they're really specific about how you need to use them, which the click-ratchet style are more forgiving about.

[–] over_clox 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yeah, that's a hard NO from me captain. The brand I got was a Pittsburgh, and when I say it felt like it was packed with sand, I wasn't exaggerating.

Think like what a torque wrench would feel like after you let a toddler play with it on a sandy beach for a week. Yeah, it was that bad, just to try turning the adjustment on the handle was super crunchy, to say the least.

At least I made damn sure to keep the receipt and got a refund the next day. Never again, not from Harbor Freight anyways.

[–] RightHandOfIkaros 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yours must have been damaged from the factory, or a mislabelled return I guess. It can happen. Mine work fine, still do 4 years after I got them. They're mostly accurate, within a pretty good tolerance like +/- 5% or so like most other torque wrenches. Nothing compared to Precision Instruments, but Pittsburgh won't kill the bank like PI will. PI is the best for torque and other precision related tools, but they're rather expensive.

Again, the most important thing is to calibrate it and check its calibration before use. This goes for all torque wrenches. Also, always store the torque wrench set to zero, never at any number other than zero. As soon as you are finished torquing the fasteners you need to, set it back to zero. Basically try to keep your torque wrench set to the torque you need for the least amount of time possible. Doing so keeps it calibrated longer and in the best shape it can be. Do not use the torque wrench to break fasteners loose or to tighten fasteners snug. If you have to ratchet the torque wrench more than about 2 turns (unless you like the bar-type like I do), just switch to a regular ratchet, unless the required torque is approached. Also keep in mind wet and dry torque values are different.

I have never over or under torqued a fastener with a Pittsburgh torque wrench, or any torque wrench for that matter.

[–] over_clox 2 points 1 year ago

I do have to admit, I caught the thing on one of their sale deals, like $10+tax. I was hoping I got me a good deal, but unfortunately I got a dud.

Who knows, maybe they accidentally dropped the entire palette in a pile of sand

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn't work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: [email protected]

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

As usual, Project Farm to the rescue

[–] HUMAN_TRASH 4 points 1 year ago

I'm a fiscally conservative (read: cheap-ass) diesel technician. Most people I work with have snap-on, matco, mac, or cornwell, but someone I work with said he has a Quinn at home that worked great so I got one and have had no issues with it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Want to go really cheap and tighten a broad range of newton meters? Use a wrench, a luggage scale, a calculator and science lol

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/torque-wrench-luggage-scale-d_1909.html

People use this trick to calibrate torque wrenches... I use it to tighten my motorcycle brake caliper bolts

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Gedore TORCOFIX wrenches are excellent, but a bit spendy.

[–] Codandchips 3 points 1 year ago

Any of those suggested here are good just pick one to suit your budget. The most important thing is to make sure it comes with a calibration certificate to say that 30Nm is in fact 30Nm. If you're in the trade then get it calibrated yearly.

[–] NiteAngyl 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can't give you advice on the topic, but how related is your username to your question?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's a good question, Rotting Cum. The only crimes I'm planning on right now are saving some money doing diy maintenance on the family car while finding an interesting little project for myself.

[–] RightHandOfIkaros 1 points 1 year ago

The only crimes I'm planning on right now are saving some money doing diy maintenance on the family car while finding an interesting little project for myself.

The worst crime of all. Saving money.

load more comments