LOL.  Taking a tool back and try to get compensated for consequential
damages?  We are clearly in different bicycle worlds.  My newest bike
is 11 years old and cost $300.  Most of my bikes I got from friends
or out of the trash for free.  Fortunately, I work at a college with
an automotive tech curriculum where I can calibrate my torque
wrenches.  In % error, the HF cheapy does about as well as my 1980's Craftsman.

About the really stuck ball joints.  My '86 has lived in the SE US
all it's life and I have found very few fasteners or parts that are
really stuck bad, so YMMV.

Edward

At 10:34 AM 6/1/2012, Don Hanson wrote:
>   I wouldn't even think of using a Harbor Freight torque wrench on any of
>my bikes.  At the very fine (and critical) settings that are required and
>the fragile nature of bike frames and components,  a low-cost, possibly
>wrongly calibrated, torque wrench can cost you big!.   It doesn't take much
>of an error to ruin a bike frame that might be worth $5000.   Can you
>imagine the laugh you'd get if you went back to HF and said..."Hey, you
>sold me a faulty torque wrench for $12 and I used it on my carbon bike
>frame.  It didn't 'click' and it broke the bottom bracket (or the brake
>bridge) -the frame is now garbage.......You owe me a new frame.....That'll
>be $4800 you owe me for my down-scale carbon frame"
>    I could buy two of my very adequate inline VW 5sp vans for what I paid
>for my race bike, not counting the carbon wheels. And mine is not
>expensive, compared to some... There are bicycle torque requirements in the
>5 nm range and 8 nm will cause catastrophic failure.   Descending a
>mountain pass at 50mph on a bicycle with carbon handlebars that have been
>torqued with a HF wrench?   When they may be over-torqued and ready to snap
>off, causing a high speed face-plant(at the very least)?
>
>  Not worth saving a few bucks on the wrench...
>
>    I do have one that I use on my Vanagon for wheel lugs and non-critical
>precision torque jobs.   The locking function, the extra knurled knob on
>the handle that is supposed to keep the setting locked in...that broke the
>first week I got the thing, and the little retainer ball fell out of the
>socket square drive so the sockets just drop off...pretty much junk, in my
>experience....Good price though..
>   Don Hanson
>
>On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 5:30 AM, Edward Maglott <emaglott3@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Update:  I just got an email coupon for your choice 1/4, 1/2, 3/8
> > wrench for $12.99.
> >
> >
> >
> > Seems like if you wait long enough the torque wrenches are sometimes
> > $9.99.  I got the in/lb 1/4" drive one for the odd time I might need
> > that for bicycle work.
> >
> > I did the upper and lower ball joints on my '86 using the press type
> > thing I borrowed from my flaps for free.  no problems.
> >
> > Edward
> >
> >
> >