I do kinda laugh at these guys today that think Snappy is the best thing going and anything less is not worthy. In some ways they are, but in other ways they suck two ways. One by sucking money out of your wallet and two by sucking in performance, like those torque wrenches mentioned. Every tool maker has its good/bad items. Just how it is. Are Snappy's worth it? Maybe, but a lot less today than they were "back in the day." Snap-on used to be superior in a lot of ways more often than not, but I've also learned over the years that some of my projects are holding together just fine without using them.
Torque wrenches are such a gamble. This is why I try to buy middle of the road stuff for personal use. I only care about one thing. Accuracy when used. If it needs to be between 40-45 lbs/ft using a 100 lbs/ft tq wrench, then when I get to 42 and let it go, the fastener is still within that spec. That's it. I expect the money I pay gets me the accuracy I need. Do I care if that bracket bolt is 24 or 26 lbs/ft? No. So a smaller, cheaper wrench will do. But a head bolt or wheel nut is certainly important enough to care.
I have an ancient craftsman 250# click style and I periodically have it checked for accuracy. It's still a darn good torque wrench. Made in USA.
I have a 20-100 Craftsman 3/8" I just bought for $55 a few weeks ago from Amazon. A CMMT 99433. The 1/2" version (250#) was $20 more. Oddly, the same wrench is $90-ish at other places. I've used it once, and no issues with it. Time will tell. Made in Taiwan.
Interestingly, Sears sells the same torque wrench at twice the price (luckily it's on sale from the normal 195.00 price!! _ My dad always used to jokingly say, "If you want to buy things today at next year's prices, go to Sears." Yikes! I wonder who's stupid enough to pay 128 for one of these? Strangely, it's from a third party- Tekcom Shop USA, not Sears themselves. Kind of a self-slap in the face there.
