Digital Torque Adapter

Comments about Pittsburgh Professional Digital Torque Adapter:

Coolness ! I have had this digital torque gauge for about 2 years. This is a very unique item and can't be found at any hardware store or auto store. It is worth the money. Item is made solid and works as should. The actual load cell is all metal and will not break. Good for torqing engine head bolts or wheel lugs. The range is above 30 lbs so don't expect to use this for small screws.

Some others have complaints regarding the included box. Yes it will turn on the power button when closing. Simply add a piece of cardboard over the button so this doesn't happen. People complain about silly things. Use common sense and you can solve it.

I gave a perfect score of 5 points.

Comments about Pittsburgh Professional Digital Torque Adapter:

I had it checked with very expensive equipment and the man who did it couldn't believe it tracked his machine within a few 10's of a ft/lb. There is a similar unit on the web from another brand that was tested as well. The trick is strain gauges, which are extremely simple and accurate. They are bonded to a rod that flexes torsionally and electrical resistance changes as they expand. I don't know if extreme temperature can affect readings, however.

It is definitely worth it just to use to calibrate your wrenches. One of my older ones are off by 10-15ft/lbs(it had a hard life). All my wrenches were verified with a torque machine so I know its very accurate and repeatable. Wish it went up to 250ft lbs for the axle nuts.

Comments about Pittsburgh Professional Digital Torque Adapter:

After having the beam-bar and clicker torque wrenches, this one is nice to have. Not having a calibration lab handy, I can't say for sure if it is as accurate as the calibration certificate says it is. It agrees with my other wrenches.

I took the other reviewers advice and trimmed the foam in the case to prevent the unit from turning one when placed in the case. No issues so far with a dead battery.

My eyes aren't what they used to be and trying to see whether the unit is set in Ft-lbs, or N/M or Kg/M requires that I have my glasses on.

I do like the fact that it has the peak reading hold feature. Often the display rotates out of the way and you cannot see it. So you remove it, check your reading and see if you were close enough or not.

I reach for this one more often than my clickers.

Comments about Pittsburgh Professional Digital Torque Adapter:

i strongly suspect that the guy in the first comment misread the torque specification for the bolts on his truck's intake manifold.

every intake manifold bolt i ever torqued was specified in INCH-pounds. not FOOT-pounds.

this product measures foot-pounds. if u try to torque a small 40 inch-pounds bolt to 40 foot-pounds, it will surely break well before u get halfway there.

(foot and inch pounds can be converted to eachother same as feet ad inches by dividing or multiplying by 12)

Comments about Pittsburgh Professional Digital Torque Adapter:

Works great. Foam can/does push buttons so that's probably why the first guy had dead batteries. Checked it against my wrenches and it was dead on. Great little case for keeping in the truck. Time will tell if it stays calibrated.

Comments about Pittsburgh Professional Digital Torque Adapter:

As soon as I saw the case/foam I saw a small issue. There's a very good chance that the guy with the dead battery issue was having the buttons constantly pushed by the case foam. Either trim the foam a bit or carry a spare battery just in case. Recessed buttons would have been a bit better but that's being picky.

Checked unit against my torque wrench and it's right on. Calibration cert was a nice touch. Time will tell if it holds up to being jostled around in my tool bag (even in the protective case, but with a lifetime warranty I'm pretty happy.

Comments about Pittsburgh Professional Digital Torque Adapter:

Y'know who needs one of these- the person who uses clicker torque wrenches a lot and has amassed a collection of high quality name brand wrenches but is too cheap or broke to send them all out to be calibrated- now you can do it yourself on your schedule. Seems deadnuts accurate according to a recently calibrated clicker and two "known good" beam wrenches. Mine had a clear plastic battery isolator strip sticking out from under the battery hatch cover- don't try to pull this out without removing the cover- this will also give a look at the battery (mine was stone dead and growing whiskers but had not leaked into any important places). The instructions are NG- skim them and then clamp the male end in the vise and plug in a ratchet and in five minutes of button pushing and ratchet yanking you will understand how it works. You can "convert any ratchet into a torque wrench" but I worry that this gadget is too fragile to stand much banging around- you will need to be careful. Throw away the foam in the case lid and face the device with the buttons facing the front of the case- this prevents battery killing button pushes and puts just the right gentle pressure on the device to keep it from rattling around. The instructions talk about a "yellow LED" which does not exist, at least on mine- not to worry as it seems to work in a very easy to understand manner with just green and red lights. The instructions and the "certificated of inspection"(sic) both refer to the same "serial number" which is NOT the same as the number on the device. I asked "tech support" about this and got"uhhhh, I dunno". What does this mean in terms of calibration or warranty coverage? I dunno either.

Comments about Pittsburgh Professional Digital Torque Adapter:

This would be awesome if it were a torque angle adapter to be used with a standard torque wrench. Many mechanical specs are now calling for torque angle, and the wrenches that do that are expensive. That said, this is a VERY clever idea on HF's part.

Comments about Pittsburgh Professional Digital Torque Adapter:

Of all the torque wrenches sold at Harbor Freight, this is the only one that actually comes with a certification that it was tested in a lab. It has a little paper with lab data on it. Really makes you feel better about using it.

Would be nice if it were spec'ed to smaller ratings as well, and if it included an inch pound setting. But other than that, its a real nice tool.

Comments about Pittsburgh Professional Digital Torque Adapter:

I have just bought it and started to play with the adapter. At the beginning I thought that it didn't work properly, although the torque value was displayed and it would go up and down depending on the force applied. The LED was always solid green. Then I realized that the minimum torque than you can set for proper operation is 29.5 ft.lbs. which was rather disappointing for me as in general I deal with small bolts. So, the adapter works as specified, but I don't understand why the lower range can't be smaller, down to 2 or 3 Ft. lbs. as the adapter shows these values OK and in a reliable way. I would like an adapter for small bolts.