Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[Travelover]

I recently bought the 6" digital caliper 47257 and was really impressed. It is easy to use and seems reasonably accurate - enough for my hobby stuff. There are coupons in the DIY and car magazines to get it for $10 - a steal IMO. I have read that it goes through batteries, though it comes with one extra. I found a source on eBay for 10 batteries for $1 with free shipping.


Digital Calipers - Save on these 6 Inch Digital Calipers

 

[sixdogs]

I recently bought the 6" digital caliper 47257 and was really impressed. It is easy to use and seems reasonably accurate - enough for my hobby stuff. There are coupons in the DIY and car magazines to get it for $10 - a steal IMO. I have read that it goes through batteries, though it comes with one extra. I found a source on eBay for 10 batteries for $1 with free shipping.


Digital Calipers - Save on these 6 Inch Digital Calipers

I have one of these amd am equally impressed too. I have used mine for six months now and am on original battery but turn off immediately after use.
A number of guys I know have these and never heard a complaint. Spot-on accurate and you are right--- a steal at $10.

 

[California]

Today I bought the HF Dual Direction Diesel Barrel Pump. Does anyone have this?

I have been using one for about 4 years.
Rigged to a 25ish gal plastic barrel that I rigged to a cart that I wheel up to tractor for fuel ups.
No complaints so far.
About 30-40 turns of the crank to refuel up my CUT.
No spills, no hefting 5 gal tanks at arms length

Thanks!

Putting the barrel on a cart or hand-truck is a great idea.

It's good to hear that your pump doesn't dribble. The HF reviews were not all complimentary.

 

[skspurling]

I was thinking of the plastic barrel solution, but isn't it against the law to leave the plastic container in the vehicle while fueling? They say it is a static discharge hazard. I have the pump, and bought a section of clear vinyl hose to connect to run to the fuel tank. Problem is, then every one started talking about filters and dirt, and water, and algae, and every other issue with long term storage of diesel. I figure I'll use the 5 gal containers to fill my plastic barrel when prices get down under $3.50 a gal. Until then, I just can't bring myself to buy much fuel at a time.

 

[California]

I was thinking of the plastic barrel solution, but isn't it against the law to leave the plastic container in the vehicle while fueling? They say it is a static discharge hazard. ... then every one started talking about filters and dirt, and water, and algae

Since the service station hose is grounded I'm not convinced there is high risk here. Plus we have high humidity (near the ocean) so less static electricity. And diesel doesn't have the volatile vapors of gasoline, which was the subject of the original concern. Snopes says static spark hazard ranges from unlikely to unproven, and that's for gasoline.

I got semi-transparent (milk jug plastic) barrels to make it easier to see if crud accumulates in the bottom. I've never had a problem in my (similar) tractor fuel tank. I do use the fill-hole mesh filter that came original on my Yanmar, plus I have been using a mesh-filter funnel that catches a surprising amount of rust particles which must come from the fuel suppliers - my fuel jugs are plastic.

I was amazed at the fuel quality tolerance spec in my Yanmar manual - something like 'more than a tablespoon of debris or water average per fill-up will necessitate more frequent full filter changes'. In 8 years I've cleaned a trivial amount of fines out of the fuel bowl a couple of times and replaced the filter a couple of times although it looked clean. I guess if I ever find contamination in the barrel then I'll add filtration at the pump outlet. Until then I'll just add a little fuel storage stabilizer and continue to refuel through the filter funnel.

Long ago there was a thread here about the specialized filter funnels sold to bush pilots. Anyone remember the name of that funnel?

 

[patrick_g]

Not to worry about diesel fuel storage. It lasts a long time. Add Biobor or equivalent to it as directed on the container and forget about algae.

I buy diesel 300 gal at a time and have a 40 HP Kubota tractor that is pretty frugal on consumption. It takes a long time to use it up and I never had a biologic problem as I use Biobor. I even had an overhanging branch knock the hinged weighted filler lid open and let it rain in. I have a water separating filter with drain petcock so when I finally noticed that got drained and still the Biobor prevented any biologic growth.

Holding a fuel nozzle is way more convenient than messing with jerry cans, spilling fuel, getting a hernia, or whatever.

Pat

 

[flusher]

I used an HF $80 portable band saw with a Milwaukee blade (24T) recently to modify a 13-ft wheel disc down to 7-ft. Worked fine sawing 3"x3"x1/4" steel tubing and 1" dia steel axles. Took several minutes to cut the one of the tubes and about a minute for an axle. It's best to let the weight of the saw provide the down force during the cut.



The saw has a variable speed trigger with locking mechanism to set the blade speed. It's loud so wear your Mickey Mouse ear protection.

 

[sixdogs]

Flusher--that cut surprisingly well. After using it, are you glad you paid the $80 or would you buy a brand name saw?

 

[flusher]

Flusher--that cut surprisingly well. After using it, are you glad you paid the $80 or would you buy a brand name saw?

It's all due to that Milwaukee blade--put it in a $500 portable band saw and I don't think that blade will cut any better than it does in my HF cheapie saw.

 

[California]

... are you glad you paid the $80 or would you buy a brand name saw?

I bought one. It works fine for my infrequent use. Like Flusher's disc modification, my first project pretty much paid for it compared to going to town and paying someone else to make the same cuts.

Here's a picture of the first-pass cuts I made in some weights to modify them for my wheels. I went back and cut deeper but I don't have a picture for that.
The second picture is after grinding a concave cavity to make clearance for the valve stem.
Here's the thread where I described and posted pictures of this wheel weight project.

I used a nearly new Milwaukee blade for these cuts and this dulled the blade down to where it was barely cutting at the end. The cast iron was tougher than I expected. This didn't hurt the saw, it wasn't working as hard after the blade dulled.

Here's a review of a smaller band saw project I posted over on Welding Web.

In summary - it's great for occasional projects. But for a full time tradesman who can't afford downtime, the real Milwaukee that this is a copy of would be a better choice in my opinion.