Calibrating torque wrench
 

where can I take my no name Torque wrench to see if its in spec, and have it recalibrated?

compare it against a good known torque wrench?

Hmmmm, I could give that a try. I was hoping somwhere like princess or canadian tire would have something to test it on, and the ability to recalibrate if it was off for a fee.

That’s a good question. At work, all our torque wrenches, calipers, micrometers, multimeters, tire pressure gauge or anything that measures is calibrated annually. Even if we buy a new torque wrench, it gets sent out for calibration, and logged into a tool management system.

Our company hires another company, who brings a truck in and do it inside their truck. I am not sure about the name of the company. But they are local. If not talk to a snapon dealer. All aviation shops where they perfom maintenace would have to have calibarated tools. They would know where to send it out. I'll try to find out from work. But i am guessing the mobile guy that we go to is based out of abbotsford.

But for automotive purposes is it really necessary for calibration?

i use a craftsman digital torque meter

http://wescancal.com/about.htm

this is where we send our stuff to....

I think a digital one needs to be calibrated still.

Wescan sounds familar. I think thats where ours get done at too.

I wanted to get it done becous I am in the middle of putting a motor back together. I went to tighted the posts for the rocker arms, and snapped one off. My tourqe settings according to the tourqe wrench were correct.

It could have been an old bolt, or somthing along those lines, but I would like to be sure before I put the rest of the motor together and find out my specs are WAY off.......

omg... this happened to me when i was rebuilding my ka-t. putting on the new clutch and snapped the head off one bolt because .. well obviously the tq wrench is facked. i have one of those old fashioned ones with the long needle and compare the two.

yeah but good info.

were the threads chased i think its good practice to do it to especially on an engine also remember not to bounce as you torque

Vancouver Calibration is were we send all out tools for calibration. I work at a machine shop.

people sends their tools to canada west torque.. but it is 40 bucks a calibration

http://www.yelp.ca/biz/canada-west-torque-tools-surrey

the company i work for gets their torque meters calibrated at wescan every year

since my torque wrench isn't used for much more than tightening wheel lugs, I usually just calibrate it against a calibrated torque meter...note that if you want to try this too, the calibrated source has to have a meter...you won't get accurate results if you try to calibrate a wrench against a calibrated clicky torque wrench

BTW, cheapo $20 princess auto torque wrenches come with counterfeit calibration records...The wrenches aren't bad for $20, but they need to be calibrated...Mine came with a cal sheet that told me that the wrench was accurate within roughly +/- 1% of rated. When I checked my brand new wrench against a calibrated source, I found it to be off by more than 20% in some areas. After recalibrating the wrench, the best i was able to do was around +/-5%. Not bad considering it cost me $20.

One more thing, not all torque wrenches have calibration adjustments. If I remember correctly, the crappy tire ones don't have a calibration screw.

are you sure it was in in/lbs and not ft/lbs?

Ive seen ppl mistaken the torque spec and used the ft/lbs and end up snapping things, since its 12 times the spec

When I bought my maximum series from C tire they said they send them out to ge calibrated if needed.

Just spend the money & get a Snap-on Techwrench,it never needs calibrating cause it does it automatically everytime you turn the wrench on.

what size of bolts?
be sure that you use the right torque wrench to torque.
3/8 or 1/2" torque wrench? let said that you are torquing a 8mm bolts but you are using a 1/2" torque wrench is your torque range within 20% torque fractor?? if not then you are using wrong torque wrench

Just to bring this back from the dead, called Vancouver Calibration and Ill be taking it there to have it checked out. Seem like a good bunch on the phone, 40 bucks to have it checked and calibrated. If its really far off and no good, they said they will charge a small fee for checking, but not the full 40.00.
Just a heads up for anyone searching for the same info as me.

Thanks for the heads up godwin and nate6!