If I have a torque wrench that works for a 5/16" hex head, but now I have a hex head that is 3/8" in size, is it possible to use the same torque wrench with some sort of an adapter?
I went to the big box store looking for an adapter but I could not find one. I have a set of sockets that includes a 3/8" head but that would not help me in using that T handle torque wrench that would release at 60#-in.
I seems I need a piece that on one end it is a 5/16" hex head and the other side is a square head to insert into my 3/8" socket. Is there such a thing?
I'm not sure what you mean by 5/16" hex head... all my torque wrenches are either 1/4, 3/8 or 1/2" square drive... but if I had a clear idea of what the drive of your torque wrench looked like I could probably kludge an adapter
JCWhitney.com has a set of three adapters that do everything you could need. They don't include 3/8" drive to 1/4" socket because every 3/8' set has one, but they include the opposite of that and both directions beween 3/8 and 1/2
Maybe the set was on sale when I bought it but it was about 2 dollars. It's obviously worth a lot more than that if you don't have the adpater you need.
I would think Sears and even HD , and certainly Snap-on, if you can find one of their trucks would all have these also, but at a higher price.
To be explicit, it's likely your torque wrench is 1/2 inch drive, and you can get a 5/16" socket in 1/2, 3/8, or 1/4 inch drive, and probably 3/4" drive too, so you can buy a 5/16" socket that will fit your torque wrench, but maybe you'll also need a 1/2" extension between the wrench and the socket. The simplest thing to do is buy a set of 1/2" drive, with ratchet, crossover, speeddrive, universal, and a set of 15 or 20 sockets. Short of that, just buy an adapter instead of one socket. Unless you think 3/8" is too weak for whatever you have to turn, but I dont' think that is the issue here.
If HD didn't have a 1/2" drive 5/16" socket... well it probably did and sears certainly woudl, so I think you're looking for something else no one makes. Because people use adapters that work with any size socket.
It will fit right over a 5/16" hex head exactly and it is designed exclusively to tighten plumbing no hub coupling clamps and will release at
60 #-in torque.
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However I have some couplings now that has A 3/8" hex head and it will not fit. I already have a full set of socket 1/4" drive and 1/2" drive. I can tighen these with a ratchet. However, I feel better if I can tighten them with the standard torque wrench to the preset specification. So unless I can find a "bit" that one side of it is a 5/16" hex that will go into the torque wrench and the other side is a 1/4" square or 1/2" square which will allow me to attach the 3/8" socket, I am not sure how else I would be able tot do it.
Ah, well just take a 5/16" socket and a 3/8" socket of the same drive size, and a piece of square steel stock the same size to couple the sockets together. You'll have to hold the whole assembly together with your hand, as you won't have the little spring loaded balls, but your only cost will be a short length of square steel.
If you wanted to get real fancy, you could make one - drill a hole in the end of your square steel stock, but not quite all the way through (drill bit tip penetrates other side of stock, but doesn't go all the way through) tap the hole for a set screw with a bottoming tap, drop in a ball bearing and small spring and loctite in a shallow setscrew. repeat at other end. But that is likely more trouble than it's worth for a tool that you will presumably use only a couple times.
Now a proper purpose made adapter for the other way (square drive, female to female) is included in the middle of a common distributor wrench, but I'm trying to think of an application for a male to male adapter and can't think of where I might have ever seen one.
A clicker torque wrench in that price class will be wildly inaccurate. Go to any auto parts store and buy a beam type in that torque range for a few $$ more and have something you can rely on. Some years ago I had some dealings with a quality control engineer responsible for certification and calibration of torque wrenches for his company. At that time he stated flatly that only SnapOn was approved for click type wrenches. For the beam types there was almost open approval and no recalibration was needed as they couldn't change without someone grinding away part of the bending beam. That was nice to know as the 'Torque to Yield' con rod bolts and head bolts became common in the auto repair field.
Or you could knock the chrome plate off the ends and just solder them together with plumbers solder, maybe throw a piece of scrap steel inside to add a little extra strength and solder it too.
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