Without Fluff

I’m a firm believer in having the right tools to do the right job.  Picked up a set of these digital torque wrenches from Topeak.  They’re supposed to be professionally calibrated and more precise than the traditional twist-mechanical torque wrenches, aren’t they?

One really important difference between these digital torque wrenches and the mechanical adjusting wrenches (like the Park wrenches) is that these wrenches do not “stop” the applied torque if you reach your maximum torque setting input.  I.e., if I set the torque wrench to 8.5 Nm, it will produce an audible alert but the wrench head will not “click” or “break” to prevent over-torquing.  This means that I can be gradually applying additional torque and the meter on the wrench will indicate that I’m applying 9 Nm and even increase further (if I’m not paying attention to the sounding alert) even though my limit set is 8.5 Nm.  It’s basically a setting to alert you when to stop applying pressure, and not prevent you in over-applying it.

So essentially, if you lack finesse and have a tendency to He-Man when wrenching away, the mechanical torque wrenches might work better for you.  It took some time for me to get used to this, but I actually prefer the digital ones over mechanical.  I’ve tried using both the Park mechanical wrenches as well as the professional Snap On torque wrenches which are also nice.