Found out my torque wrench was 40 pound-feet off after a year of use

Brought my old Craftsman torque wrench into the shop to get it calibrated and the guy told me it was reading 40 pound-feet low on a 100 pound-feet setting. I've been doing head gaskets and suspension work with that thing for like a year and a half now. Just wondering how many lug nuts I've left loose or bolts I've overstressed without knowing it. Anyone else ever get a calibration check and find something scary?

2 comments

2 Comments

val_williams14h ago

Actually that number sounds WAY too high for a Craftsman beam or even click type. I've got three of them, the oldest is from 1998 and it's never been off more than 5 percent when I took it in. 40 pound-feet low on a 100 pound setting means it's basically broken, not just out of calibration. You probably dropped it or used it as a hammer at some point, that's what kills them. I'm not saying you didn't get bad results or something messed up, but that kind of drift just doesn't happen from normal use on those.

kellys786h ago

Wait so you're saying 40 pounds off is basically a broken tool? I've seen some chatter on other forums about Craftsman quality going downhill after the 2000s, could that explain it? Or do you think the older ones just hold up better because they were made different back then? Just trying to figure out if there's a cutoff year where they started getting less reliable.