Thread: Which Warren & Brown deflecting Torque Wrench

Originally Posted by Cannon

It's a thing of beauty

Happy birthday to ME

Congrats on your fine Birthday present!
It should last you a lifetime, and your children/heirs for generations to come.

Interesting to note they have hardly changed in 50+ years.
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Around xmas 2 yrs ago my father passed his 322000 on to me - claiming he no longer had a use for it.
I was elated. I had put up with several really 'average' tension wrenches over the last 20 years, always too tight to lash out on an expensive one, because mine were always going out of cal. (=toss out)
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So I get the big W&B tested and bloody hell -It's still in callibration. I now get it regularly callibrated and an adjustment if req'd (done on the sliding foot) along with my others since it's been added to my workshop.
What's interesting to note is on mine, the sliding scale is accurate dead in the middle and not on either side of the stamped callibration. I note your new style one has a nice riveted in printed scale.
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It's also amazing that after the years of use in my less-than-careful adolescence that it was still within spec when I first had it tested...
Now, I've dropped this thing more than a few times, and even used it as a bit of a breaker bar in years gone by, I am now ashamed to say.
I wasn't as 'understanding' back then, like most kids - we just used whatever was close. But it rebuilt my kart engines, my bikes, my 308, 355, 383's, 12A & 13B's many times, along with countless geabox rebuilds, flywheels and clutches....

Nowadays I have a Snap-Off Techangle digital thingy which does the final tq figure plus the angle measurement. It's been absolutely hands-down the best time saving tool I've bought in the last 20 years. ( it's used every other day) It gets tested every month, and it's never been out by more than 0.1% which is way more accurate than your hands can feel @250ftlb. Insofar as specs go, the callibration sheets are pretty telling if you want to pay extra for the printout, but it's not necessary.
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I still use the W&B for the "less accurate" stuff - i.e. things that just need "doing up in ftlbs". It's usually set to 75, because that's what I do the Mercedes wheel bolts up to. It's always at hand in the "go-to drawer".
But that Warren & Brown unit is a sentimental favourite. It's just been so reliable, and so comfortable and easy to use - and considering my father never had it callibrated other than when it was done at the time of purchase (it used to be a free service!!! ha!) and all these years, with me hanging off the end of it like a monkey, it's never budged out of cal- I'm really surprised.

With regards to looking after it, just keep the beam well blued or spray it with lanotec / wipe it over with woolgrease. It will never rust then, unlike mine, which has a small amount of surface rust (after 50 years you would too) and you will learn to appreciate the odour, as I have. clean with kero, wipe with an old linen teatowel (yes, that special oily rag you nicked from the missus linen-press which you still keep hidden from her, lest you feel her wrath if she finds out) and reapply the woolgrease / lanotec.

All the abuse you can see on mine is from my early teens to early 20's. I wish I was a little more careful with tools back then, and also bought 'better quality' ones right off the bat, as it has probably cost me 3-4x over what it would have originally.

I notice they now come in a fancy blow-moulded case....
good idea actually, keeps it protected well from shock damage while in transit.

Pity about the sticker instead of the riveted plate. Signs of modern times..... Still, theyre a great tool, accurate and repeatable and best of all really robust, like all good australian made tools.

That image of the WB wrench brings back memories.
Back in the mid 80's when I was doing Engineering at RMIT, one of the classes was practical, and we had to make our own torque wrenches.
Calibrated and working perfectly too .. although I lost many marks for rushing my job and not doing it by their book.
But idiot me!! I had a mate that was working as an electroplater, and he convinced me to 'chrome it' to stop it rusting.



Of course it lost it's calibration and the chromed spring steel stem was not longer deflecting!

He was right tho .. it never rusted ... useless as a torque wrench tho.