Spent $600 on a Snap-On torque wrench and snapped a bolt anyway because I forgot to set it back to zero before putting it away

Took me a full afternoon to extract that broken bolt from an old Cummins block in a hurry, and now I'm wondering if that premium cost was just paying for the vanity of having the shiny truck come to my driveway - has anyone else had a cheap torque wrench actually outlast the expensive ones?

2 comments

2 Comments

lane.drew21d ago

Hate to be that guy but the torque wrench not being zeroed out didn't cause the bolt to snap. The overtorque from using it without resetting it is what did the damage. The wrench itself was probably fine. Snap On tools are overpriced for what they are but they usually work right. I bet if you set it back to zero every time it would have clicked off at the right spec and the bolt would have been fine.

martin.jamie21d ago

Yeah, I feel for @lane.drew on this one... it's easy to forget how little things like not zeroing out can snowball. Hope the bolt wasn't too critical or expensive to replace, man.