[Closed] Which torque wrench?

A mate of mine swears by Norbar, but have also heard good things about Sealy.

What torque range?

I have wee Tengtools one for the bike and for torquing the cam shells on the car <25nm.

Cost £40 and the build quality is top.

My Teng Tools torque wrench seems pretty well made.

The old sykes pickavant norbar ones were always good quality at resonable price.
(waits for anoraks to start arguing).

As said Norbar are a good compromise between quality & price

Well the wheel bearings are 45 lb-ft, i.e. somewhere between arm tight and b*** tight.

Idealy I want something that'll do any car job I'd ever need to do, I'm guessing 45 lb-ft is pretty high (any more and I'd needing a biger spanner and to put my weight behind it).

Mid sized 1/2" drive model should do the trick

For car stuff halfords etc will be good - they have a good range with overlapping torques.

For bike stuff I bought the Ice toolz (5 - 25Nm) one from Evans, using Price matching.

£30 - price matched to these guys:

[url= http://www.petracycles.co.uk/product_info.php?language=en&currency=GBP&products_id=15782&source=googlepbs ]http://www.petracycles.co.uk/product_info.php?language=en&currency=GBP&products_id=15782&source=googlepbs[/url]

Used it to strip and rebuild the pivots on my 5-Spot and its fine and dandy.

It accepts 1/2" and 1/4" sockets and if you've got a socket small enough you can use hex bits in it too!

For bike... Norbar SLO. End of.

The Halfords ones are very good. Not for professional use as they do lose their calibration over long use but for DIY use, perfect- accurate, tough and not too expensive. I forget who it is that makes them but you can buy the exact same wrench with a different sticker on for £150 😉

<<45 lb-ft is pretty high (any more and I'd needing a biger spanner and to put my weight behind it). >>

45lb/ft is not high! hub (not wheel) nuts on my old car required 175lb/ft..

BUT for most car stuff 15-80 or 20-100lb/ft range is a good move. anything more than 100ib/ft is into thye FT category (i.e. fu*king tight!)

I have a norbar that does 15-80lb/ft in 1/2" drive *about £80 - I also have a britool that does 5 to 40lb/ft in 3/8 drive (about £120) = britool is expensive, but very well made.

Norbar are good and also make others like sykes for them - the skyes are often at a better price as well. depends what sockets you have but either 3/8 or 1/2 drive is good.

if you want one to last a life time than you need to spend more than £25..

if for proper workshop use then britool classic is pretty robust, though they lack a ratchet

I bought a £16 one from Lidl...been doing a sterling job on my car.

chopperT - Member

For bike... Norbar SLO. End of.

Model number 11034 to get the best torque range 1-20Nm, covers all bike parts apart from the bottom bracket

Norbar, Teng tools, or for life Britool which will cost a few bob more.

I'd just say avoid a BBB one mine regularly decides not to click when it reaches the pre-set torque, my Ritchey key is more reliable for 5nm stuff

For bike stuff I've had a Norbar one for about five years and cannot fault it, but came at a fair cost.

For my car I use a torque wrench I bought in Machine Mart though. It's cheap and cheerful but does the job.