I have a Sears Craftsman torque wrench purchased in the late seventies when the guarantee was lifetime. The instructions in the original box say it has to be calbrated periodically. After loaning it to my brother I decided it was time to recalibrate. Sears just looked at me funny and the offered to replace it with a new torque wrench with a 90 day guarantee. Not going there. Who can re calibrate the older torque wrenches, all chrome steel, no plastic, never abused?

........Did a search for the Houston area(based on your posting info)......found these listings. Some might not be applicable, but you might be referred to someone else by someone listed on the search results.

http://houston-tx.yellowusa.com/Machine_Tools_Dealers.html

MIght want to check your local Snap-On Matco or other tool dealer. Also if you know anyone near you that works in aerospace they might be able to help you out since they have Gov requiremnts to calibrate tools.

I would check into having it caled before use on anything. If it was stored with the setting at zero and not turned at between 5% and 10% of the lowest setting the spring can be too relaxed. If it stored with the setting higher that 10% or all the way up the spring can be compressed and give false readings.

I would not trade it in on anything new except one of the vibrating electronic units. They aint cheap though. I have been told that these units do not have any mechanical parts that can fail, that's the Snap-On one, don't know about others. The Snap-On one is about $450.00!! Ouch!!

Any airplane mechanic needs to have calibrated tools,do you know any A&P's ?

MBHD

I have a old Snap On Torque Wrench circa 1972, and I have had it checked probably 8-10 times since then. It has never changed calibration, maybe I have just been lucky. It has allways been turned down to zero. I have built a ton of Engines with that Torque Wrench in the last 36 years.
BTW -The Local Snap On Dealer has tested it for me many Times for Free, as well as the Mac Dealer ( Hoping to sell me his version )
You can do a home test if you have a known calibrated Torque Wrench, just put them back to back with a male / female torx sockets and see which one clicks before the other at a predetermeined torque setting.

Look in the yellow pages for calibration lab, they can do it.

My work wrenches go annually, my garage wrenches get the bench vise/ milk jugs of water/ tape measure/ calculator, and occasionally compared to a fresh certified cal'ed wrench.

My old TorqOmeter even has a measurement line on the body.

If you are bound and determined to have it cal'ed, I wouldn't give up on Sears. A sales clerk may not know what is available. Try their service center(or whatever it's called),,,,you know,,,, where you get washing machine parts and mower parts.

I use Snap On as it is on of theirs. You could probably use Matco too.

Here's a dumb (or brilliant) thought. Get together with a friend that has a known good wrench and work one against the other, comparing readings. Shouldn't be hard to find or fab something simple you could put wrenches one on one side, the other wrench on the other side. Then pull while comparing the readings. Dumb? Brilliant?

You can do a home test if you have a known calibrated Torque Wrench, just put them back to back with a male / female torx sockets and see which one clicks before the other at a predetermeined torque setting.

Greg has the same idea for testing as in my earlier post. It does work IMO.

You're absolutely right!!! I read your post and because I'm OLD, my brain swizzled it around and I thought I had a really great idea?!?!?! Great minds think alike but some of us just steal your good ideas.....

Thanks, guys for the suggestions. It was out of my possesion for a while with my brother so I don't know how it was treated.

Most of my tools are from Craftsman, but I splurged on the Snap-On torque wrenches.