Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[Gary Fowler]

I just ordered a air die grinder and drill bit sharpener. i hope they dont suck.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I bought one of the General 6 drawer rolling tool boxes with the open bottom shelf box for $179 and am very pleased with it. It is very heavy and has good ball bearing roller tray supports. Much more durable than my $400 Craftsman. I decided that I needed a strong one to hold all my grinders, hammers and other welding tools that were just too much weight for the craftsman to support.

 

[Dargo]

Warning! This is NOT a quality box. The 2 boxes I saw right inside the door were NOT display units, but RETURNS SINCE THANKSGIVING. You can buy one of those for $99. One was missing a drawer handle and the drawer was bent out. Apparently someone bought it, loaded their tools in it and didn't pull up on the drawer as they pulled out. Before you say it, the runners were covered in grease. The elcheapo sliding drawers require[\b] you to pull up on a drawer if you have much weight in it.

Needless to say, I passed on that box. I don't do toolboxes that have tricks to them when new. All of my boxes I own have ball bearing drawers. I won't be moving to the 'glide' drawer boxes. At least they were honest about them. So, I bought one of those drain camera things. I can't count the number of times I have needed to see behind something, inside something or in a drain. Hopefully it works. The box was a no-go!

 

[Travelover]

Warning! This is NOT a quality box. .........

Thanks for the review. It helps to put an item or stock number in your post so that anyone doing a search in the future can find your comments. It seems like HF is moving into second and third generations of some of their tools, so sometimes it is unclear if a post is about the old or new version.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I dont know which one Dargo is speaking of, but my General is not an inferior tool box. You dont have to pull up on the box drawer to open it, but it does have locks on each drawer on the ends that you have to depress to open the drawer. This keeps them secure when rolling it around which is easy to do on the large caster wheels. I have mine loaded with heavy tools and they open easily on the BALLBEARING rollers. It also has a large top box at least 4" deep with lockable lid that is handy for larger objects like my box of Nitrile gloves that wouldnt fit in the Craftsman top due to inadequate depth.

Maybe the reason the floor sample was bent was some gorilla didnt read the instructions and just kept pulling on the handle till he bent it rather than release the lock mechanism. There was a sticker on the drawer denoting the lock mechanism when I assembled it.
I havent seen a tool box made that you couldnt bend the drawer if you pulled like H$!! on it when it is locked. You can bend a dozer blade if you put enough pressure on it.

Edit: I am speaking of the $179 one that is/was on sale. I am sure that they have some cheapo really light duty ones also just like every other store. When I looked at this one, I was surprised at the weight and the ball bearing slide rollers. It does take a while to assemble the legs, very heavy caster wheels and bottom shelf and then instructions tell you to set the top shelves on. I couldnt lift the top part so I had to lay it on its side and slide it in and then it was plenty hard to stand it up after it was all assembled. This is not a light weight by any means.

 

[Dargo]

Thanks for the review. It helps to put an item or stock number in your post so that anyone doing a search in the future can find your comments. It seems like HF is moving into second and third generations of some of their tools, so sometimes it is unclear if a post is about the old or new version.

Good idea. Sorry, I pitched the ad. It was the one listed in their 3 day Thanksgiving sale if anyone still has that ad. I'm positive HF had a box like that that was a darn good box, especially for the money. Even if you don't mind the paper thin gage steel and "glide" drawers, the "glide" drawers will wear out in short order. Part of the reason they wouldn't "glide" out even after someone greased them was because the plastic they are made of is way too soft. I could easily sink my thumbnail into that wear part of the "glide" drawer. I expect most all handles to be pulled off those drawers in short order. I should have taken a picture of the broken boxes on 'clearance' right inside the door that didn't make it the weekend.

 

[Dargo]

I have mine loaded with heavy tools and they open easily on the BALLBEARING rollers.

Clearly, HF has done a switch-a-roo on those boxes. As I said in the first post, I recall seeing one brand of box that was a decent box. The one in the ad is NOT that box as I thought it would be. Positively NO ball bearings anywhere in the build of this box unless there are some in the castor wheels. Definitely none in the drawers.

Even worse, I put two different sets of batteries in my 'camera on a flexible stick' and it won't come on. It looks like it's a bad one. I suppose I'll try one more and see if it works. I it doesn't, I'll have to call yesterday's run a complete waste of time. Hopefully the replacement will work. Still it's aggravating to have to take new stuff back because it's defective. It doesn't give you a good feeling, if you know what I mean.

 

[John_in_TN]

I think you will find their red tool boxes and carts are very good values. The black ones: not so much. I have the 13 drawer rolling cabinet and the 5 drawer cart (both red) and I am very satisfied with the quality/price of both. The cabinet is over two years old and the cart about a year old. Both are heavily loaded: they are both solid, roll easily and the drawers operate well. No complaints at all.

 

[sixdogs]

I compared them all recently and agree the General toolbox is excellent quality. Forget all the others at HF.
One negative that I read earlier in this thread was that somone said the General box was "tippy" because the wheelbase was too short or something. I did not find this when I looked at them but it's worth noting.
FYI.

 

[skspurling]

Clearly, HF has done a switch-a-roo on those boxes. As I said in the first post, I recall seeing one brand of box that was a decent box. The one in the ad is NOT that box as I thought it would be. Positively NO ball bearings anywhere in the build of this box unless there are some in the castor wheels. Definitely none in the drawers.

Even worse, I put two different sets of batteries in my 'camera on a flexible stick' and it won't come on. It looks like it's a bad one. I suppose I'll try one more and see if it works. I it doesn't, I'll have to call yesterday's run a complete waste of time. Hopefully the replacement will work. Still it's aggravating to have to take new stuff back because it's defective. It doesn't give you a good feeling, if you know what I mean.

Bought one of those a few months back. Works great. I've used it to look in and around all kinds of places. I want to get the smaller end cable, but that will have to be after the new year probably.

One thing you need to be aware of is that it takes a second to come on. Don't just sit there pushing the button a bunch of times and expect it to come on. Push the button once and wait for the green light on top of the display. I had some trouble getting it to come on the first time. Once I figured it out it was really easy so I've not had the issue since.