Harbor Freight Tools

[zahc]

So I just moved 1 block away from a Harbor Freight store. I'm biased against Harbor Freight because I'm wary of cheap Chinese tools. It's a constant battle with me between "buy a quality tool that will last forever, possibly not even buying it because I don't want to spend the money" versus "buy 3 cheap tools with the same money, throw them away when they break, and have multiple ones available in the mean time".

So what happens is I go into the store "just to see what they have" and then "OMG $5 tow strap!!". Then again, nothing is worse than a tow strap that is actually junk, so you drive around thinking you have a tow strap available and then when you actually need it you find out it's a troll. So I'm still skeptical. Has anyone had particularly good or bad luck with Harbor Freight stuff?

[Bogie]

Their low-tech stuff is decent...
 
Their lathes/mills, etc., are typical Chinese quality - you'll have to work on 'em to make 'em work okay.

[Harold Tuttle]

my favorite place for wagon wheels, axle grinders and anvils

[Grandpa Shooter]

So I just moved 1 block away from a Harbor Freight store. I'm biased against Harbor Freight because I'm wary of cheap Chinese tools. It's a constant battle with me between "buy a quality tool that will last forever, possibly not even buying it because I don't want to spend the money" versus "buy 3 cheap tools with the same money, throw them away when they break, and have multiple ones available in the mean time".

So what happens is I go into the store "just to see what they have" and then "OMG $5 tow strap!!". Then again, nothing is worse than a tow strap that is actually junk, so you drive around thinking you have a tow strap available and then when you actually need it you find out it's a troll. So I'm still skeptical. Has anyone had particularly good or bad luck with Harbor Freight stuff?

I can only tell you that the stuff I buy both for when I ran a maintenance and remodeling business, and for use in my 4 x 4's, or at home have almost exclusively come from Harbor Freight in the last ten years.  Something breaks, just walk in and say, "Hey this broke!" and they will hand you a new one to replace it.  I have even had my wife go in and tell them that and they just hand you one without question.  I dropped a battery operated drill off the top of an 8' step ladder and it broke open.  I told them that is what happened and the answer was the same.  "Hang on and I will go get you one."

I don't buy anywhere else if I can avoid it.

[eyebrows]

I can only tell you that the stuff I buy both for when I ran a maintenance and remodeling business, and for use in my 4 x 4's, or at home have almost exclusively come from Harbor Freight in the last ten years.  Something breaks, just walk in and say, "Hey this broke!" and they will hand you a new one to replace it.  I have even had my wife go in and tell them that and they just hand you one without question.  I dropped a battery operated drill off the top of an 8' step ladder and it broke open.  I told them that is what happened and the answer was the same.  "Hang on and I will go get you one."

I don't buy anywhere else if I can avoid it.

+1
Harbor Freight is like a big candy store. The stuff they sell will generally get the job done.
Locally they are having a sidewalk sale, I'm planning to pick up another gx200 clone and the small gasless MIG welder as long as they let me use the 20% off coupon in conjunction with the sale prices. They always have before but internet rumor is they changed their policy and now it's coupon OR sale price. Not both 

[41magsnub]

What is a gasless MIG welder?  Something special or does it just require flux cored wire?

[Bogie]

A few years ago, I bought a little generator from 'em... Power's gotta be dirty as hell, but it worked just fine for space heater duty...
 
Place is the shiznit for disposable air tools too.... They'll probably last okay, but if they die, they're cheap enough that you won't slit your wrists...

[eyebrows]

What is a gasless MIG welder?  Something special or does it just require flux cored wire?

Yep just needs flux core wire. Here it is
Unit has some good recommendations from the DIY minibike crowd. Gonna try my hand on making some frame alterations.. after lots of practice and making sure to get good penetration.

Just checked and the 20% off coupon expires tomorrow! Better get shoppping!
Coupon for you to print out at home

[Doggy Daddy]

Wish I had a Harbor Freight a block away from me.

I've bought quite a few things from HF, and been generally very pleased.  Got my ultrasonic gun cleaner there.  Love that thing!

DD

[French G.]

Yeah, it's Chinese crap, but so what. I like buy once, cry once, sometimes I will pick up my nice tools just to pick them up. I was working with my hammer yesterday, little ball peen, my first tool given to me when I was six, the same being the first tool my dad procured for himself when he was a child. Tools are important.

However, I'd rather have a crappy chinese tool in every truck than a nice one at home. When you can afford the nice ones, get them.

[Brad Johnson]

My brother gets them a lot, but usually for one-off or really oddball needs that's he'll probably never see again and that don't stress the tool all that much.  He tried a set of their sockets and an impact wrench as his primary set once.  Once.  When really pushed, both the sockets and impact proved, um... less than durable.

Brad

[HankB]

Some things are OK - I bought a couple of magnetic bases (to hold a dial indicator) for $8, a 6' level for $16, and have a number of their little LED flashlights which I got with "FREE" coupons; all are OK, and worth what I paid.

I tried a 2.5 quart ultrasonic cleaner from them and ended up returning it - it simply didn't work as advertised. Now I see seemingly identical units being sold to the firearms community under different labels - bet THOSE don't work very well, either. (And I've used good ultrasonic cleaners enough to know what to expect.)

Their small mini-lathes are made by Sieg in China - fundamentally sound, but they need a fair bit of handfitting to realize their potential. (LOTS of info on the web about this.)

Bottom line: Harbor Freight is a good source of low-tech, non-highly-stressed tools and machinery. I wouldn't use them as a source for highly-stressed, high tech, or daily use tools.

[Bogie]

The minilathes are -interesting- but for real shop use?
 
Even for small parts?
 
1) I want a drawbar and collet system for workholding. Don't power down, just pull it, pull the part, stuff a new one in, and commence. Add in weirdness with dialing in measurements... Argh...
 
2) They need just a tad bit more swing and distance - and by the time you go to the hassle of buying one of the larger 10x19 or similar ones, well, you still need to true it up...
 

[Boomhauer]

Some of their stuff is pretty good, some of it ain't. Depends a lot on the item in question.

Have their electric jackhammer. Works well, but you do have to apply some heat treat to the bits if you want them to stay sharp for a usable time...heat 'em up with the torch and quench them.

Their standard sockets have always worked very well for me (yes, I do a LOT of work with them and push them very hard...they have held up where Craftsman has broken). They are especially great for if you want to say, keep your good sets at home and throw the HF brand ones in your truck toolbox or lend them to your brother in law. I have not used their impact sockets. Their air tools generally work pretty well.

HF is a great place to buy consumables like ear plugs, gloves, wire brushes, acid brushes, dust masks, tarps, air lines and fittings, bungee cords, and so on.

I like their cheap digital multimeters. Great for homeowner use (now, if I was using them everyday or needed something really, really precise, might be a different story). When they start failing or you drop them and break them or damage them otherwise, you don't feel guilty at all.

[AJ Dual]

Yep just needs flux core wire. Here it is
Unit has some good recommendations from the DIY minibike crowd. Gonna try my hand on making some frame alterations.. after lots of practice and making sure to get good penetration.

Just checked and the 20% off coupon expires tomorrow! Better get shoppping!
Coupon for you to print out at home

If it's gasless, then isn't it just an MIG Welder?

[Boomhauer]

If it's gasless, then isn't it just an MIG Welder?

HF sometimes mixes up terminology. Also the welder, while it doesn't say so in the description, might be usable as a MIG welder with the addition of a gas bottle and setup (we use our MIG welder set up as a flux core welder, although if we wanted we could set it up with a gas bottle and use it as intended)

[eyebrows]

hmm bear with me but I thought that a welder using fed wire was a MIG welder. And that the shielding gas was basically the flux.
And that the gasless welder was basically the same thing only limited to flux core wire so you didn't have to screw with gas 

edit:
ahh google has shown me that I know little.

[Doggy Daddy]

I tried a 2.5 quart ultrasonic cleaner from them and ended up returning it - it simply didn't work as advertised. Now I see seemingly identical units being sold to the firearms community under different labels - bet THOSE don't work very well, either. (And I've used good ultrasonic cleaners enough to know what to expect.)

Ah, I see.  I'm obviously too much of an idiot to tell a clean barrel from a dirty one.  I'll be putting that out on the curb Monday night for the trash man if you want to swing by first and kick it a couple of times.

DD

[brimic]

The minilathes are -interesting- but for real shop use?

I talked to a guy I know who is a hobby machinist, he has one a long with a quite a few indrustrial machines. He told me they work pretty good, but tey need to be taken apart, cleaned up and tightened up. I've been pretty interested in getting one myself.

I like HF for stuff like impact sockets sanding equipment and like someone else said- low tech stuff.

[French G.]

I like their cheap digital multimeters. Great for homeowner use (now, if I was using them everyday or needed something really, really precise, might be a different story). When they start failing or you drop them and break them or damage them otherwise, you don't feel guilty at all.

I know enough about electricity both to need a multimeter and be dangerous. One thing I don't know is to turn the damn meter off. I've gotten 2 now leaving them set to ohm scale and then checking a battery. Leads get hot fast.


I don't have a bit of problem buying HF crap, you know what you're getting into. Now when you see a name like Ingersoll Rand, Stanley, Wiss, Cooper, Chicago Pneumatic or the like you might get silly and expect American Quality. Oops, they all have chinese made lines. Pretty pissed that good old Lowes, last bastion of the great American redneck pimps that stuff. Most of those brands have US lines but you have to read the package. The Kobalt crap that Lowes pushes is the same. Really pissed when I found out about Wiss recently. Sad, sad, sad.
Craftsman has an off-shore line too, but much like Leupold off-shore scopes they are visibly different and marketed as a separate line. I bought a bunch of Nicholson files recently, said made in the US on the front. Made in USA from components of US and Brazilian origin. How many components are there to a file? I know that the important component was probably forged in Brazil. I knocked the tits off a brand new file in less than an hour on something that is nowhere near too hard to file.  

Edit: My wife and I both like to peruse antique stores. I'm just looking for cheap US made tools that are usable. Screaming deals to be had. Yard sales too. My two recent favorites are a nice cast handle hacksaw with 3 new spare blades for 50 cents or a US made, metal head Craftsman saber saw for $1. The old Wiss tin snips in like new condition with the crucible steel blade inserts forged in were quite a grab for $10 considering new chinese is $25. I love junk.

[Jamisjockey]

I love me some harbor freight.  A block away would end in fiscal disaster.

[HankB]

Ah, I see.  I'm obviously too much of an idiot to tell a clean barrel from a dirty one.  I'll be putting that out on the curb Monday night for the trash man if you want to swing by first and kick it a couple of times.

DD

Well, I didn't call you an idiot.

Maybe some examples work better than others. Tell you what - try the aluminum foil test at a couple of places in the tank - center, sides, edges, corners - and let us know if the machine "passes."

The minilathes are -interesting- but for real shop use?

A mini-lathe shouldn't be compared to a REAL lathe from South Bend, Clausing, or Hardinge (!). The HF minilathes are made by Sieg in China, as are MOST of those sold in the USA. They're functional out of the box, but really need some TLC to make them work correctly. I bought a 7x14 version from MicroMark - I needed something "man portable" (which I understand isn't the ideal situation) and that was the largest I could find that fit the bill. I found that I had to do some fitting of the carriage to take out the slop - I also fabricated tapered gibs and lapped in the cross slide and compound. Did it improve things? Carriage slop initially went from 0.005" down to 0.0004", and I've now gotten it down to something under 0.0002" . . . as good as I can measure, and certainly good enough for anything this little tool will be called on to do.

Some examples of of mini-lathe capabilities can be found at:    http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/Capabilities/Capabilities.htm

[Boomhauer]

One thing I don't know is to turn the damn meter off. I've gotten 2 now leaving them set to ohm scale and then checking a battery. Leads get hot fast.

?? All of the HF meters I've brought have a sliding switch on the front for on/off or an off position on the selector...last one I brought also has a backlight, which I thought was a nice touch.

[230RN]

"Harbor Freight is like a big candy store."

Twue, twue, vewy twue.

Every time I go in there for something I need for one-shot use I come out with an armload of candy.  Went in once and found their metric/US dial calipers for cheap, bought one for "living room" use (yes, it's on my coffee table right now) and a couple of aisles over found their cheap digital multimeters for something close to $3.00 each, bought three of them.  One's in the car, one's for day-to-day, one's a spare, still unopened.  Accuracy is fine, compared to my bigger meters.  After all, what's 5 millivolts between friends?  One thing I liked about them is their prominent on-off switch, separate from the ranging switch. 

And when I turn it off, I always set it to the highest AC Range. < Hint, there.

I got one of their little Chicago 900W 2-cycle generators just to run lights for both illumination and heat if the power and heat dies in my apartment for any real length of time.  Haven't had a chance to thoroughly check it out, but it seems like it will do the job and it's one-hand portable as all get-out.  Bought a couple of 1-oz bottles of 2-cycle oil, a siphon pump and a 1-gallon plastic gas can if I have to siphon gas out of the car for it.

I also got a couple of those shop magnets for various things. Cheap enough that I stuck two on the back top of my fridge to keep stuff from falling down back there onto the condensor coil array. 

Ugly as hell, being (A) big and (B) red and (C) triangular, but (D) cheap and (E) functional.  Reminds me of one of my dates between marriages. 'Cept for the triangular part.  And the ugly part.

I hate to admit it, but Chinese or not, they've got a lot of handy stuff if you don't expect it to last for any significant portion of eternity, and there's almost no way you can buy anything any more without it being from the orient.

Terry, 230RN

[Hawkmoon]

?? All of the HF meters I've brought have a sliding switch on the front for on/off or an off position on the selector...

The sliding ON/OFF switch is a recent innovation. The most recent one I bought has that, the ones I bought a few years ago to toss in the tool kits in the back of my Jeeps didn't. The old ones do have an OFF position on thr otary dial, but it's easy to forget to reset that if you're in a hurry and distracted.