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Small torque wrench or gauge?

slow-poke

slow-poke

Ultra Member
My smallest torque wrench is graduated in 5in-lb increments. For small / sensitive I would like to have something with smaller increments perhaps 1in-lb.

I see they have fancy electronic ones that can record peak torque which is difficult or impossible to do accurately with a beam style.

Suggestions, comments, recommendations?
 
The best I own are Wiha Torque Drivers. Expensive but amazing.


I also have a Wheeler driver, two electronic ones, and a click style wrench.

I have tested all of them and absolutely nothing compares to the Wiha. I did not buy my 3 wiha drivers (with overlapping torque ranges) at Amazon though. It is worth shopping around for a better price.
 
What is your application? Are you diagnosing torque, or tightening a fastener? If you are trying to see what the torque is, then you will need a beam type or it's electronic cousin; if just want to tighten to a specific torque, then a driver style like @Susquatch recommended will do what you need.

I have a beam that resolves to 1 in-lbs, and two drivers – the red one can be set in 1 in-lbs increments and the black one in 2 in-oz increments:

20240404 Small Torque Wrenches.jpeg
 
ChazzC said:
What is your application? Are you diagnosing torque, or tightening a fastener? If you are trying to see what the torque is, then you will need a beam type or it's electronic cousin; if just want to tighten to a specific torque, then a driver style like @Susquatch recommended will do what you need.

I have a beam that resolves to 1 in-lbs, and two drivers – the red one can be set in 1 in-lbs increments and the black one in 2 in-oz increments:

View attachment 46295
Click to expand...
Intended use is:
1) Measuring break-away torque typically < 10in-lbs
2) Torquing really small fasteners.

Of the two styles in your photo, which do you prefer to use?
 
slow-poke said:
Intended use is:
1) Measuring break-away torque typically < 10in-lbs
2) Torquing really small fasteners.

Of the two styles in your photo, which do you prefer to use?
Click to expand...
For measurements, the beam type; for torquing small fasteners, the driver style.

They also make dial torque wrenches which would be great for measuring torque, but the lowest I could find was 0.3 N-M (2.66 in-lbs).
 
 
slow-poke said:
Intended use is:
1) Measuring break-away torque typically < 10in-lbs
2) Torquing really small fasteners.

Of the two styles in your photo, which do you prefer to use?
Click to expand...

@ChazzC makes an excellent point. I very very seldom have to measure breakaway torque.

In my opinion your two goals are contradictory and each goal requires a different tool.

The wiha is a terrible device for measuring breakaway torque. It is intended to be used to properly tighten very small fasteners with precision. It excels at achieving your second goal.

I have several beam wrenches, but I don't like them or trust them because they can't be easily calibrated nor are they reliably accurate.

I think the electronic versions are much better for this task. Almost all of them have memories that will accept set points and/or record peaks. More importantly, they are easily calibrated. That's not to say that they can be adjusted to be accurate but rather that you can easily create a very accurate conversion graph for them using a Calibration fixture.
 
Susquatch said:
@ChazzC makes an excellent point. I very very seldom have to measure breakaway torque.

The wiha is a terrible device for measuring breakaway torque. It is intended to be used to properly tighten very small fasteners with precision. It excels at achieving your second goal.
Click to expand...
OT (but maybe amusing?):

I did use my UTICA driver-style (like the Wiha) for a "Breakaway" test years ago. At the time I was working for the U.S. division of Friction Dynamics, Ltd. (sadly, lately of North Wales, UK) and we were fabricating a composite friction pad which had ~1/8" deep x ~1/8" wide diamond pattern grooves on the face. The material was strong in compression, but since it was made by pressing a resin-based powder blend under heat (like many composite friction materials) it was not as strong in shear. The parts had a 100% test requirement to withstand a specified load between the grooves without "delaminating." We set the torque driver to just above the specified load, placed an appropriately sized blade with a 1/4" hex in the driver, inserted the blade at several locations in the face of each part and twisted - if the driver clicked at each location before the part BROKE AWAY, the part passed.

OK, Dad Story complete.
 
kstrauss said:
Two questions:
I believe that the Wiha driver uses 4mm bits. What is the source?
Click to expand...

Edited for clarity - They can be ordered with a 4mm to 1/4 adapter. I do have 4mm bits of various sizes but that makes sense for me because I use the wiha almost daily. I don't recall where I got them. But I couldn't recommend buying 4mm drivers for everything others need. I think the 1/4 inch drive adapter is sufficient for most.
 
Last edited:
Susquatch said:
They can be ordered with a 4mm to 1/4 adapter........ I couldn't recommend buying 4mm drivers for everything you need.
Click to expand...
My 4mm sets are used on electronics and such, “normal” screws get either fixed blade or 1/4” hex (average quality, Milwaukee & Brownells). The 4mm do have very accurately formed tips.
 
I recently tried an Atech digital torque wrench. It was amazing. In my line of work we sometimes have to measure run on torque. For example I recently had to torque a fastener to 15 inch pounds. So I needed to know the torque of the self locking nut that I was using. The torque wrench automatically measures the last torque applied. You add the measured run on torque to the desired torque. So in my case 16 to 23 inch pounds plus the desired torque of 15 inch pounds. Quick and easy and if I remember right the torque wrench units went to .1 of an inch pound.
 
Today I saw a inch pound beam torque that was only 6” long at Cardon at Perth Ontario. Cute little thing!
Pierre
 
I've had the K-D 2955 beam style for over 20 years, primarily to set up differential gearsets. I very much like it and it has been handy for a number of situations. Gearwrench now owns them, but this is almost exactly like mine, from a Canadian supplier:

Gearwrench 2955 Beam-Type Torque Wrench | kda2955

Gearwrench 2955 Beam-Type Torque Wrench These wrenches directly measure a variety of torque values when tightening fasteners, Pointer moves clockwise or counterclockwise (±4%) to measure torque in English and metric, Satin finish scale reduces glare, Inch-pound models feature ball-type : Shop...
ohcanadasupply.ca ohcanadasupply.ca

I know a lot of techs who "build diffs by feel," and most of the time they work, but I always wanted a turn-torque measurement to record on the RO to armor plate my underwear in an effort to avoid getting bit in the rear down the road, lol.
 
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