Beam v.s. Click type torque wrench

[steppinthrax]

Just bought a craftsman beam type on ebay. I believe it was 0 to 600 inch lbs. I"m using it for small engines. I was told the beam types are more accurate than the click type???? The only disadvatnage I see of the beam type is they can't be seen upside down?

 

[JCH13]

The beam type is only as accurate as your eye-ball, parallax errors and everything, and is prone to user error. A nice click-type torque wrench will be quite accurate, providing you zero it out during storage (and the previous owner did). A click-type is also less prone to user error.

From an engineering perspective: bolts and threads are not terribly consistent. Assuming a torque wrench is perfectly accurate the variation in clamping force (tension in the bolt) is something like +/-20% from what 'ideal calculations' suggest. My point being that an inaccurate torque wrench isn't such a big deal given the inaccuracies already present in torquing down a bolt.

 

[Eli]

I also prefer click type.

 

[crackerjacks]

pretty much what JCH13 said. If you can swing the money for a good clicker go for it as there will be some time where some weird angle will come up and you'll have trouble reading the beam. And when it comes to something like a torque wrench, buy quality(no harbor freight).

 

[5150MyU]

Beams are good for checkiing constant rotational torque-like rebiulding a rear end.

 

[Doppel]

Crap, I never zero out my click in storage. I'll go do that now

 

[michal1980]

what about split beam?

 

[twinrider1]

Real mean measure the stretch.