Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[3RRL]

Just spelling error on my part,

[AlanB]

Spelling error on my part as well, yes, the Ridge tool company.

Hey, DARGO, your right, that 48" is worthless, I will be by when convienient to save that thing from you

Went to buy one for a project here and about fell over. $600 comes to mind (it was a while back) Made my search to find one to borrow for the ONE time I needed it much more emphasised.

I would go alloy if getting the ones 24" or larger, steel for smaller.

[gemini5362]

Originally Posted by patrick_g

Dan, The problem you report is exactly what I was afraid of after the several A-B comparisons I made of the real deal VICE GRIPS vs the HF copies.

Thomas (Gemini), do you have much experience with a good brand of pipe wrench like Rigid with which to compare to the HF pipe wrenches? I'm all for light weight handle and good steel jaws but not just any steel jaws.

Go ahead with your list making and start without me if my arrival is delayed by some circumstance. If I get there in time I'd be glad to help plumb. I bought the HF pipe threading kit on sale for cheap but haven't used it yet. Hopefully it will not be a big disappointment like my DeWalt (made in China) 14 inch abrasive cut off saw which just died. Lowe's is now offering a combination extended warranty and a ONE TIME exchange privilege at an almost reasonable price. Isn't HF's an unlimited number of exchanges?

Pat

My understanding is if you buy the extended warranty any time it quits working or as many times as it quits working it will be exchanged.

[AlanB]

Originally Posted by gemini5362

My understanding is if you buy the extended warranty any time it quits working or as many times as it quits working it will be exchanged.

That was my understanding on the HF warranty, until I used it,

Then it was a one time replacement, and if I wanted the new one covered, I had to buy the warranty again.

Could have been the store, could have been the store folks not actually knowing the policy, or that could be the policy and I never checked close enough.

[gemini5362]

Originally Posted by AlanB

That was my understanding on the HF warranty, until I used it,

Then it was a one time replacement, and if I wanted the new one covered, I had to buy the warranty again.

Could have been the store, could have been the store folks not actually knowing the policy, or that could be the policy and I never checked close enough.

I have never tried to use it. I will have to ask them next time I am in there

[patrick_g]

Originally Posted by gemini5362

I actually have a ridgid 24 inch pipe wrench I bought but dont use much because of the weight. Most of my bigger pipe wrenches are the HF because i bought the set with the aluminum handles.

Pat are you coming back this way for thanksgiving again. If so plan on a night at our house. We have a working stove so we can actually fix breakfast this time. (although we cant make waffles and bacon etc for everyone at the same time like you can ) I promise you a ride in the porsche this time if you can get a chance to stop and visit.

Thomas, if I buy any more pipe wrenches they will be the lightweight alloy handle type and now that I have been appraised of the HF functionality by user report(s) I will almost guarantee I will get HF. Even the little Rigid wrenches12-18 inch), when used in hard to access locations, seem to get heavy rather quickly, especially when working up over your head.

We just took a first come first served approach to Thanksgiving and accepted the first offer. Turns out we will be having Thanksgiving with a couple who live across the highway and down a bit from us. Their house is across the highway from our newest pond. We used to have a houseful nearly every year but since moving seems than most of our friends either are away for Thanksgiving or have family coming to their house.

Thanks so much for the offer but we wont be on our way through Arkansas this time.

Now to the topic (sort of) I bought a couple of the hamburger patty molds from HF (plastic) and they seem to work really well for Nancy. I also bought one of the French Fry slicers (mostly metal, some plastic) and it worked so so (6-7 on a scale of 10) when new but rapidly deteriorated to a 5 at most. Silly me, I was expecting it to be as robust as the one my parents had when I was a kid but it IS NOT even close. (Pardon me but I am too lazy to make a second post in HF stuff that sucks thread regarding the French Fry slicer.

Pat

[Dargo]

Well, crappy deal. I went by HF and the store was in pretty sad shape. No box set of pipe wrenches was complete nor were there appropriate sizes in any boxes to even make a complete set. Worse yet, that was the same case for everything in their ad I went to purchase. It appears as if they opened the floodgates for the worst scum of the earth to descend upon the HF store and what they had was all opened with pieces missing and the boxes destroyed. The guy who I finally cornered to help me (I think he had all of 3 teeth), told me that he was going on break in 15 minutes and if I didn't see what I wanted on the floor then he couldn't help me.

Needless to say, from a person who really doesn't have a very high regard for Horrible (China) Freight, this was a completely new low. I was so disgusted by the time I left the store that I just went by Home Depot and bought a set of their version of Ridgid pipe wrenches.

Have all the HF stores gone downhill this bad? I'm quite aware that it's 'buyer beware' when it comes to the quality (or lack thereof) of their products, but I've never encountered this experience that completely turned me off from ever visiting their store again. I'd honestly feel better about taking my chances buying the junk tools out of the back of the traveling semi trucks that appear a few times a year in vacant parking lots. I figured that with my limited need for pipe wrenches that it would at least be worth my trouble to go buy the pot metal versions sold by HF, but I was proven wrong. What a disappointment!

[gemini5362]

Originally Posted by Dargo

Well, crappy deal. I went by HF and the store was in pretty sad shape. No box set of pipe wrenches was complete nor were there appropriate sizes in any boxes to even make a complete set. Worse yet, that was the same case for everything in their ad I went to purchase. It appears as if they opened the floodgates for the worst scum of the earth to descend upon the HF store and what they had was all opened with pieces missing and the boxes destroyed. The guy who I finally cornered to help me (I think he had all of 3 teeth), told me that he was going on break in 15 minutes and if I didn't see what I wanted on the floor then he couldn't help me.

Needless to say, from a person who really doesn't have a very high regard for Horrible (China) Freight, this was a completely new low. I was so disgusted by the time I left the store that I just went by Home Depot and bought a set of their version of Ridgid pipe wrenches.

Have all the HF stores gone downhill this bad? I'm quite aware that it's 'buyer beware' when it comes to the quality (or lack thereof) of their products, but I've never encountered this experience that completely turned me off from ever visiting their store again. I'd honestly feel better about taking my chances buying the junk tools out of the back of the traveling semi trucks that appear a few times a year in vacant parking lots. I figured that with my limited need for pipe wrenches that it would at least be worth my trouble to go buy the pot metal versions sold by HF, but I was proven wrong. What a disappointment!

Actually that is not the experience at my store in Fort Smith, Arkansas. the items are on the shelves where you can find them, if they are not you can grab one of the people working on the floor and they will look in the back where there storage is. When I bought my band saw they had been on sale. I had them go get me one in a box from the back and when it rang up it was more money than I expected. The sale price had went off the weekend before I got there on monday. I asked for the manager and he went to look at the one on display (it still had the sale price on it) He went back to the cash register changed the price to match what was on the display and gave it to me at the reduced price. As we all know any store is only as good as its employees and they are a pretty direct reflection on the manaager. I have never had any problems in our store and they have always been very helpful when I needed anything.

[Travelover]

I've had good luck with the stores in Westland and Ypsilanti, Michigan. Most items are in stock and they'll look for you in the back if you can't find it. Most of the employees even seem to have a full set of teeth.

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by gemini5362

As we all know any store is only as good as its employees and they are a pretty direct reflection on the manaager.

True, and this reflection will need to change extremely fast or the reflection will unfortunately be that of a closed store. As I said, it's bad when I've never had such a bad experience when stopping by one of those traveling road shows that sell cheap Chinese junk.