Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[grsthegreat]

I'm looking forward to that.

i have a manual i downloaded that talks about reversing polarity and changing voltage to recharge dead ni cad batteries...never did try to do it. i wonder if it would work. supposedly works with lead batteries also.

 

[California]

As for me, I want to see the pictures.

 

[leveled]

I bought taps a dies yesterday 40 piece sets 1 metric and 1 sae 11.00 bucks a set. I fixed my sons skateboard, seem to be OK for that price. I also bought 50 lynch pins for 6 bucks. I topped all that with a 20% off coupon and i felt like i got a pretty good deal.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I bought taps a dies yesterday 40 piece sets 1 metric and 1 sae 11.00 bucks a set. I fixed my sons skateboard, seem to be OK for that price. I also bought 50 lynch pins for 6 bucks. I topped all that with a 20% off coupon and i felt like i got a pretty good deal.

Glad you had good luck with the taps. One of the few regrets I have purchased from HF was a tap and die set. The tap handles are pure junk.

 

[sixdogs]

I bought taps a dies yesterday 40 piece sets 1 metric and 1 sae 11.00 bucks a set. I fixed my sons skateboard, seem to be OK for that price. I also bought 50 lynch pins for 6 bucks. I topped all that with a 20% off coupon and i felt like i got a pretty good deal.

Use only to chase holes with minimum torque or they will snap off in the hole.
Don't ask how I know that or how long it took to fix.

 

[California]

I have the cheap HF metric tap set. I haven't broken any, but I only use them to chase existing threads.

Yes the handles in that set are worthless but I already had handles that fit.

Are their more expensive tap sets better?

 

[California]

I just bought the 5.5hp shredder #95964. $336 after 20% coupon.

I need shredded mulch for landscaping and this seems like a good way to make it.
Does anyone have experience with this?

If anyone is considering buying this, here's a review:

The shredder works fine, plenty of power. The 5.5hp motor started easier than any B&S I've owned. Half throttle was all it needed for everything I fed it.

Quality looks pretty decent. I would say as good as one from Home Depot.

Production was slower than I expected. There's a lot of busywork making feedstock that will fit in the opening. Brush needs to be trimmed down to go though a slot about 3 inches high by 16 inches wide. It isn't usually pulled in. You need to push each gulp with the next limb. I used a rotten 1x4 for a push stick. That made feeding much faster. This stick was soft enough it didn't slow the motor if pushed down into the cutters. (But noisy!)

It never bogs down unless you feed a big gulp of wood that is dry, hard, and much larger than the specified 3/8". I think 3/8" is a safety spec rather than anything that will gag it. Branches in the feed hopper occasionally thrash hard and could ding you. Practical capacity is at least an inch diameter IF the material is soft enough that you could bend it.

The side opening takes 1.25" sticks, about the size of a shovel handle. Hard wood going in there can have nasty vibration. When a stick I was feeding slapped my hand, it hit so hard I thought for an instant it had torn a fingernail off. But since I was wearing heavy gloves there was no injury after that initial shock. Gloves mandatory!

Tip: I put a grain (snow) shovel under the bottom discharge. Then it was simple to toss mulch where I needed it.

Typical HF, Some Assembly Required. I poured gas in the tank and it dribbled out the bottom of the carb. A little troubleshooting and I discovered the carb float hangs into a removable cup. Took the cup off, put its O-ring in the groove where it belonged, problem solved.

Overall: good value for $350. This is on the scale of home landscaping, not commercial orchard work, with the input size limitation. Most of my landscaping pruning can be pushed through that 3x16" input but not the orchard prunings which are often 3 dimensional (or crooked), too big and stiff to fit.

Recommended.

 

[PapaPerk]

IMHO the only tool that doesn't suck is the door handle to leave the store.

Buy American made tools whenever possible. Your fellow American's will thank you.

 

[chopped]

:laughing::laughing: And thats becasue thats the law..lol

IMHO the only tool that doesn't suck is the door handle to leave the store.

Buy American made tools whenever possible. Your fellow American's will thank you.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

Pipe bender project pics. It works well with small pipe. If the pipe has a seam, position the seam on the inside of the bend. I had a seam split open on the outside of the bend. My boom pole was my first pipe bender project. With larger pipe, some short pipe halves placed over the outer rollers will prevent them from denting the workpiece. If you look closely at the boom pole bend, you can see some wrinkling on the inside of the bend and a dent from the outer roller. That was Sch 10 pipe. Schedule 40 unfinished pipe works really well. That's what the rear rack is made of.