Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #3,331  
Question regarding the plastic laminator since i picked up a brand new one at a local thrift store. And for a couple dollars.
Can I just buy the 8' x 12" sleeves and cut them to the size I want or do I need to buy the various sizes such as 8 x 12 and 4 x 6, etc?
 
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #3,332  
I have about a half dozen of those cheap HF LED lights pen light that are better than a candle but not much brighter. I finally bit the bullet and spent $25 on a good Coleman LED and man is it bright and spots for a hundred feet or more. I do like the little oval shaped magnetic one with about 20 LED lights, it is handy to stick up when working under the lawnmower deck or in a dark crevice so you can have some light.
The thing I like best is the grade 70 chains. I have a couple that I think I paid $19 each for in 3/8" x 20 foot. I looked at one in a F&R store today and they wanted $80 for a 20 footer. Got to get me some more of those HF chains if they ever go on sale again. I haven't seen them listed I quite a while though.
 
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #3,333  
I just bought the Harbor Freight "Trailer Dolly" item #37510. I don't know if this item has been discussed previously in this thread. The assembly instructions are a joke--pretty much non-existent--but once I got it put together by following the picture in the catalog, it works great. They call it "heavy duty"--I don't know about that--but it moves my boat (17 foot) around my garage effortlessly. We'll see if it holds up...Regards, Mike
 
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #3,334  
Gary, speaking of chains. My local harbor freight (SW Chicago area) carries 1/4,5/16 and 3/8 chain but, only 1/4, and 3/8 hooks. I've checked 3 local stores, same thing at all 3. I bought 5/16 chain because I read it will latch on a3/8 hook. I wanted to cut it and make 2 10' chains with hooks. Has anyone else experienced this?
 
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #3,335  
I have about a half dozen of those cheap HF LED lights pen light that are better than a candle but not much brighter. I finally bit the bullet and spent $25 on a good Coleman LED and man is it bright and spots for a hundred feet or more. I do like the little oval shaped magnetic one with about 20 LED lights, it is handy to stick up when working under the lawnmower deck or in a dark crevice so you can have some light.
The thing I like best is the grade 70 chains. I have a couple that I think I paid $19 each for in 3/8" x 20 foot. I looked at one in a F&R store today and they wanted $80 for a 20 footer. Got to get me some more of those HF chains if they ever go on sale again. I haven't seen them listed I quite a while though.

Gary, here's a case where who do you trust...would you crawl under your ten foot mower held up by the $19 grade 70's, or the $80 ones? Are they both really grade 70?
Now you may be using these as dragging chains, so the example is poor, but I'm sure you could adjust to fit. No one wants a chain to fail. It can get really exciting and really dangerous amazingly fast.

Now if you are going to start your own chain lab, perhaps you could find a big tree and get your neighbor's dozer and have a pull off. not sure how to do that safely though,
other than in lab equipment purpose built. Bottom line is how strong is HF chain? I wonder if anyone has broken any of their chain.
For pulling stuff out of the woods, I think the cheaper chain might be fine, particularly if sized for the job. But for auto extrication or lifting, I'd be nervous as can be trusting
any Chinese product for reliably meeting international spec. Maybe that's unfair, and maligns many top quality companies, but after the sheetrock debacle and then the contaminated food, it was pretty clear to me that too many Chinese companies had a copy it, make it, throw it against the wall, and see what sticks operational plan. And grossly inadequate government oversight in areas we take for granted here.

And when the chain link severs and the next link embeds itself in the dozer's rear cab window, well, I was never here...
 
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #3,336  
Now if you are going to start your own chain lab, perhaps you could find a big tree and get your neighbor's dozer and have a pull off. not sure how to do that safely though, other than in lab equipment purpose built. Bottom line is how strong is HF chain? I wonder if anyone has broken any of their chain.
For pulling stuff out of the woods, I think the cheaper chain might be fine, particularly if sized for the job. But for auto extrication or lifting, I'd be nervous as can be trusting
any Chinese product for reliably meeting international spec. Maybe that's unfair, and maligns many top quality companies, but after the sheetrock debacle and then the contaminated food, it was pretty clear to me that too many Chinese companies had a copy it, make it, throw it against the wall, and see what sticks operational plan. And grossly inadequate government oversight in areas we take for granted here.
For $37 Lowes has a 20' section of Grade 70 5/16 chain with hooks on it: Shop Campbell Commercial 20-ft Welded Yellow Chromate Steel Chain at Lowes.com. Its made by Campbell and IIRC, its made in the US.
I have a piece of that that I cut in half and put 2 Grade 70 hooks onto it to give me two 10' pieces.

Aaron Z
 
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #3,337  
I have about a half dozen of those cheap HF LED lights pen light that are better than a candle but not much brighter. I finally bit the bullet and spent $25 on a good Coleman LED and man is it bright and spots for a hundred feet or more. I do like the little oval shaped magnetic one with about 20 LED lights, it is handy to stick up when working under the lawnmower deck or in a dark crevice so you can have some light.
The thing I like best is the grade 70 chains. I have a couple that I think I paid $19 each for in 3/8" x 20 foot. I looked at one in a F&R store today and they wanted $80 for a 20 footer. Got to get me some more of those HF chains if they ever go on sale again. I haven't seen them listed I quite a while though.

I'm not sure if you'll ever see a grade 70 3/8" 20' chain for sale for $19 again. The last time I was at HF they had 5/16" gr70 20' chains but they were no cheaper than the US made identical version you can buy at Lowes.
 
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #3,338  
Agreed on the HF chains, a value but haven't seen the 3/8" under $20 for awhile. However, I was at Lowes last year and happened to notice they had a bucket of 3/8" grade 70 and a sign that said 98cents/ft. above it ( reg. $3.98 ft.) I got an associate and asked if the sign was right and he said they were discounting it. I bought the 40' that was left in the bucket for $39.20. Got my 3/8 hooks at Rural King for about $2 each. I was tempted to cut the 40' into 2-10' and 1-20' but couldn't do it. I have enough short chains and it has been nice not needing to piece lengths together for long pulls. I can tell you, it's no fun dragging that thing around though!
 
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #3,340  
Anyone used either of the two HF 20T air/hydraulic bottle jacks for 20T press?

And what is the difference between the two anyway? Looking at both manuals I don't see one and they both use the same manual to boot which makes it even more puzzling as to why to different model numbers if the jacks are the same? However they are apparently not 100% the same because on the back of the manual they have different parts break down pages and a different number of parts.

I'm looking at models 69593 and 95553.

Does one work better in the 20T press in place of the manual jack?

One looks to have a better quality air cylinder than the other.
 
 
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