Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Hand Tools). This thread is read-only.
So this one happened to a 1/2″ to 3/8″ inch impact grade Pittsburgh adapter while torqued down some 6.0 liter powerstroke heads at midnight. I was at about 200 ft/lbs when the torque wrench lost all resistance. To be honest I was super relieved when I found out what broke. My mind immediately went to worse case scenario of a broken $300 proto torque wrench or something on the motor. Not going to lose any sleep over a 50¢ adaptor that I really shouldn’t have been using in the first place.
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Second piece of carnage happened in the summer. Sheared the drive off of a breaker bar. I love the Pittsburgh breaker bars because they work well. I can’t fault this one for shearing. It had a 1/2″ to 3/4″ drive adaptor on the end that was put in a socket that was cut up to fit on a seized shit pump impeller and had a 12′ cheater pipe on the end. It held up to a couple hours of abuse like that before finally giving in. I think a skidsteer may have been involved….
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Yikes, quality Chinese eh?
Jimbo
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That’s the good thing about those, it’s not a big deal if they break. Seems like you were pushing the limits to where most tools would have failed…Not to say that there’s not a lot of Pittsburgh stuff that has steel that is softer than cheese. I swear some of their metal is a gouda/iron alloy.
It always seems to happen when your right in the middle of the project, in the middle of the night. Been there a few times.
That’s the trade off with harbor freight tools its nice that they are cheap if you need something quick you want use alot or on a budget but they tend to break right at the worst time to break, at least they have a lifetime warrenty
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Jimbo
That’s why I use craftsman lifetime warranty
Yeah. Breaker bar was definitely my fault and they said they’d replace it no questions asked.Jimbos1ice wrote:
That’s the trade off with harbor freight tools its nice that they are cheap if you need something quick you want use alot or on a budget but they tend to break right at the worst time to break, at least they have a lifetime warrenty
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Jimbo
That no questions asked is sweet. Especially when it’s your fault.
You guys are banging on Harbor Freight, but both cases were clearly misuse bordering on abuse. 200ft/lbs and a 3/8″ drive tool? There’s a reason why you will never see a 3/8″ drive torque wrench with a working range that high. That’s why they make 1/2″ drive sockets. A skidsteer? Yikes!
I understand that ya gotta use what tools you have available, and the kid makes it clear he knew he caused the failures.
We sell a bunch of different types of breaker bars, and it’s one of the things I see the most in the DIF containers. Seems like at least once a day one comes back with the lug busted off, or the sides cracked off. Most of the time it’s probably due to someone using a pipe with the breaker bar and putting too much force on. You have to use the right size for the job, don’t force a breaker bar that’s too small. It’s called a breaker bar, but even they have their limits. Adapters are no exception, you can break a step-down adapter easily, because you’re using a larger wrench with a smaller lug. I’ve seen it happen enough to know not to do it myself.
I agree with you guys completely. Both errors were on my side and I’m fine with that because I lost like $10. I know I abuse HF tools and that’s why I buy 4 HF breaker bars at a time and don’t bother replacing under warranty because they really are a lot higher quality than you give them credit for. I don’t regret having a HF bar over say a sunex. I own many Pittsburgh tools and many I’m really impressed with, a few I’m not, but they make hand tools that are acceptable. The entire, and I mean the entire shop that my company has for servicing equipment uses almost exclusively HF items. All pnuematic are central (about 20+ impact guns) and all the hand tools, with a few exceptions (which are still maybe husky brand quality) are Pittsburgh’s. And this shop runs 2+ workers 12hrs a day 6 days a week. I’ll eventually cover the ones that really blow me away in my tool thread. I’ve only actually broken the one breaker bar and there was easily 2000+ ft/lbs on the socket which was starting to crack itself. The piece we were trying to take off eventually required cutting in 3 places, two custom spanners with 14′ long handles, three pipe wrenches, a sledgehammer, and two skidsteers all used simultaneously.
About the only Pittsburg tools I have left are some punches and cold chisel set, a couple pry bars, torque wrench and a breaker bar, maybe some impact adapters too that’s about it
Jimbo
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The thing I like about Pittsburgh is I can break then and not be that mad about it
Logan p wrote:
4 hours ago, Logan p said:The thing I like about Pittsburgh is I can break then and not be that mad about it
or modify them