Harbor Freight came to my house

[jlaird]

Jack stands, Creaper, and Engine stand. It's getting close to being serious.

Nice professional quality equipment. Thanks for putting me on the them.

Jack

 

[dklawson]

I don't want to detract from your good fortune, however....

I also buy some stuff from HF. Be careful what items you choose. I've seen problems with a number of their electrical tools (planers, drills, angle grinders). These were not items I bought, they were bought by co-workers. The worst incident I know of was a co-worker who was using one of their long, screwdriver-like pry bars on his truck. Suddenly the steel shattered into tens of pieces. He commented he was lucky that none of the bits hit him because the debris dented the inside of his truck's wheel well and he was finding pieces of the shaft in his shop for days after.

That said, they do have some deals. Just exercise caution when making your decisions.

 

[jlaird]

Think for tools, real tools I will stick with craftsman, still useing stuff I bought when I was 16.

For electrical tools I have found that Home Depot has a great selection of stuff in every price range and major brands.

 

[tony barnhill]

I use HF for those weird things - hole saws, car skates, etc that aren't electrical (though their air saw is great!)...just be careful on items that could need vrepair down the road - its all Chinese made

 

[Bugeye58]

One thing I did with both my HF cherry pickers was to replace all of the fine Chinese fasteners with Grade 8 bolts, and the chain and lift hook with quality material.
You can't beat their prices on Vise Grips and Channellock pliers.
Jeff

 

[spritenut]

Great stuff from HF as long as you don't have to plug it in or it has any moving parts /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Buy it and replace any chinese steel and it's not bad.

 

[lesingepsycho]

Yes. Avoid anything with moving parts! Besides all of the electrical stuff, I've had a number of their pneumatic tools bite the dust. I LOVE their dark blue textured latex gloves which are nearly indestructable. Leaves all other latex gloves far behind and I also get my bar clamps their. Those things are great but you have to use caution. I'm a general contractor and some of my work buddies will by the same tool ten times whereas I get one real one somewhere else and it lasts for ever. I would rather avoid the hassle.

JACK

 

[AngliaGT]

I bought 2 sets of tie downs for my round trip to Denver.
One broke.
I also bought a come-along.It's twisted & I consider it a
throw-away.Also had a nut come off of it.
I think I'd buy quality stuff next time.

- Doug

 

[dklawson]

My personal favorites (for my HF purchases) were a pneumatic panel flanger/punch that took three months to deliver, ate its internal screws left and right, and required rebuilding each time you used it. I also bought a roll-around, siphon feed sandblaster. The gun for the blaster failed the first time I used it and was not repairable.

On the other hand, I bought one of their cheap, table-top 5-speed drill presses for $40 on sale. That has been a great investment in spite of being electrical.

Another HF electrical/moving item I've actually heard (and read) fair reviews for is the 7x10 table top lathe. This is the one that routinely sells for just under $400. I'm still considering buying one to give me a little more capability than my Unimat-3 and Sherline hobby lathes.

 

[Matthew E. Herd]

I'm interested in getting a lathe and a mill, but I'm cautious to buy 1) anything not made in a first world country (I was going to say "American," but in all fairness, any first-world country would be fine, I'm just not familiar with too many non-American manufacturers that aren't Chinese). 2) Anything too used.

These two criteria make it a bit difficult to find suitable tools at reasonable prices.

 

[dklawson]

Regarding the lathes... you often get what you pay for. At $400 your choices will be new Chinese or something used. There is a wealth of info out there on the 7x10 and 7x12 Chinese lathes and you may want to read some of the comments (pro and con) at:
https://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/Versions/Versions_harbor_freight.htm

There are other pages you can access from there that discuss other versions of these lathes.

I got lucky and was given a WWII era small vertical milling machine. There is a fair amount of wear in the leadscrews and I'd like some digital readouts for it, but I couldn't argue about its price !