Torque Wrench vs. portable bike lift/jack

I think ya done good with the ladder and the lift. In my opinion Lowe's ain't the best place to buy a torque wrench. I got mine at Sears when they were on sale. You cant go wrong with a Craftsman for price, workmanship and guarantee. You can get the beam type pretty cheap and an engineer once told me they are superior to a click type, reason being you can come up to torque and hold it a few seconds to make sure it stays put. I have one beam, two clickers and an electronic torque wrench from Sears and have never had a problem with any of them. The only down side to a torque wrench is having room to use it. I don't know if an extension significantly affects accuracy. For many things like spark plugs for example I've learned to develop a feel for how much to tighten them. AL

Yeah..I got my torque wrench at Sears eons ago and love it. While Craftsman ain't top-of-the-line compared to tools like Snap On..you can't beat it for the money and warranty.

Don't Mac's have a lifetime replacement warantee ? AL

I imagine you've got quite a collection of Mac tools there Marc. I know their overall quality for the majority of their stuff is pretty good. They're not cheap, but you got em at cost. Do you still have connections if you need any tools? I know that job got to be a PITA as collecting from some of those mechanics who are kinda nomads must've been a bitch.

>>>Its funny as my favorite screw drivers are the old wooden handle ones, the steel used in them was excellent.<<<

Lol…when was the last time you have seen a wooden handle screwdriver?
I still have two or three in one of my tool box’s. I think I bought them back in the 70’s. Wow… how time fly’s.:cheers:

Lot of 17 Antique Vintage Wood Handled Screwdrivers!!! - (eBay item 220119959654 end time Dec-10-07 09:27:29 PST)

GRACE SCREWDRIVER SET at Brownells

They can still be found. I just settle for the Craftsman with plastic handles when they are on sale they are less than a buck apiece. I took one back to sears once that I had used to take off a muffler and bent. The handle actually had hammer marks on it and they replaced it without any hassles. Al

I was a mechanic for 11 years and most of my tools are Snap-on... Also have MAC... The Snap on dealer tried ripping me off. I purchased a lot of tools and when I tried to get my air chisel off of him he said he'd get one in a few weeks. I needed one sooner so I purchased one from MAC. When He came in with the air chisel I told him i couldn't wait and so on... An arguement ensued and he left. I quit mechanics shortly afterwards and went on to school/ Snap-on called me and we argued a while about the air chisel that I di not purchase and finally they let me off the hook. Some of these dealers have to be looked out after too... I hope this was an isolated incident...

I have otc snap-on mac proto etc, I keep the snappys, macs, protos, for the dependable don't need a busted knuckle situations, the bigger wrenches are what ever was cheaper at the time (figured if I'm man enough to bend a 2" wrench, then I will get it in snapon) when it comes to the tq wrenches quality is of course priority because you need to maintain consistancy and remember to have the calibration checked yearly or bi yearly, or if you drop it, stress it. don't use a cheater on it, and don't use it for breaking loose. think of quality tools as a drug you can become addicted to them and the dealer is the pusher. you can get pretty deep pretty fast.

I think most bikers are also tool junkies. Hey Ironhorse, where does one take a torque wrench to check the calibration and how much does it cost? I don't use mine that much just for critical things but I have one torque wrench, a Craftsman, that I bought over 30 years ago, I'd be interested to see if it is still within calibration limits. Thanks AL