Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[timster2]

Mounted a new engine on my tiller one note. Seems the low oil switch on the engine did not like the angles that the tiller encountered when being used and had to be disabled.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I was in Harbor Freight yesterday, killing time while the spouse was at the craft/ fabric store down the street.
There was 41/2" angle grinder on sale for 9.99$. :shocked: :drool:

Looked to be of good quality...so I figured I would regret leaving the store without it even though I already have 2.
I can justify 3 grinders, as it's quicker than having to switch from a cutoff wheel to a grinding wheel to a wire brush... Anyway... it's mine and it seems to be OK even though it's only 4.5 amps, enough for a cup brush.
For 10$ I figured I would give it a go ...90 day warranty.

One can never have enough grinders. I had 4 and BIL gave me one of his, so now I have 5 of the 4.5" and one 9" all but one of them is from HF. All of them have different wheels on them. One Dewalt is needing some new brushes and works some of the time, but all the HF ones have been good. I think the one BIL gave me is the$10 one but the rest are the more powerful models that run about $20, still much cheaper than any of the brands at Lowes.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Agreed on the grease. Whatever it is for grease in China must not really be grease. Be it roller wheels or whatever , I grease it and it helps. Learned that when I bought a bunch of 3" wheels on sale and couldn't figure out why they wouldn't roll. No grease. Try that some time.

I do the same thing with the HF grinders, remove the head and put in some real grease. That quietens them right down also. That stuff that is in them looks like beeswax.

 

[Gary Fowler]

My two most expensive Harbor Freight acquisitions have been a 30 ton log splitter and a Plasma Cutter..
Both have worked great except the OEM return oil filter on the log splitter clogged pretty early, I suppose from manufacturing crud left in the system, found a Purolator car oil filter that fit and all has been well since.
I own a lot of their hand tools and although the appearance can be poor on some of them they work great especially considering the money spent....I've had to return almost none of the stuff I've bought there.

I'm constantly amazed how inexpensive some of the stuff is, I don't see how the material costs are covered let alone labor to make it, even at 25 cents a day and then ship it all the way from China to my local store in SC

THAT has been my experience also, I have never burned up any electric motors on any HF tools. Maybe some folks are just too hard on them. You have to have the right voltage (no long power cords) and you cant stall the motors or they will overheat. Even though my BIL was heavily using one of the HF 4" grinders with a wire wheel and stalling it till it was so hot I couldn't hold it bare handed, it kept on running and I still use it today.
Maybe some folks are just unlucky enough to always get the factory rejects. I really like their combination wrench sets by Pittsburg, they seem well made, can take more force than I can give out and are CHEAP. I have full sets of both from 1/4"-2" in both SAE and Metric equivalent

 

[Gary Fowler]

The press is handy, you'll wonder how you got along without it before. Fold up cranes show up on craigslist here all the time, I got mine for $120 with a load leveler included. Looked brand new and was already put together.

What I use all the time for straightening bent T post is my back hoe. I have the hydraulic thumb on it and it is just perfect to place the post between the bucket and the thumb then close the bucket. I can usually straighten up the most bend up post around with that. Best thing is I don't take up any more of my shop floor space with another tool that I only need very infrequently. OF course most people don't have a back hoe to use as a press, so I just put this in for info to those that might have such equipment.

 

[Gary Fowler]

sounds like you need to excercise a little more if you can't run a saw more than a couple times a day ,
last week I bought one of these Dewalt saws at a local pawn shop for $100.00 easily replaceable brushes and like new condition , never ceases to amaze me why people won;t use pawn shops to buy equipment View attachment 301113

All the pawn shops I have ever been in want new prices for their junk. Very rarely do I find a bargain, like the 60# ?or so anvil I got for $50 several years ago. I do shop the pawn shops just looking for a bargain but I haven't found one lately. Many years ago, one could get good deals on guns from a PS but now it seems they as selling old very worn guns at higher than new prices. I am not talking collector stuff, just 30 year old Marlins, Remington, Winchester with no bluing, lots of rust and who knows how many rounds put thru them type guns.

 

[Gary Fowler]

HF sometimes often has more than one number for an item. Other times they change the number even though they didn't change the item. I'm sure it makes sense for them but doesn't help customers.

Once they had a digital caliper on sale for I think it was $9.99 and all I could find was a plastic model for $12.99. Finally found a clerk who located it for me and it was a solid stainless steel one for almost half the cost of the cheap plastic one that they had prominently displayed.

 

[sixdogs]

Regarding the grease thing, their small wheels for tool chests or rolling cabinets all need grease added. They appear to have something like the beeswax someone mentioned earlier. No grease = tough rolling.

 

[sixdogs]

Once they had a digital caliper on sale for I think it was $9.99 and all I could find was a plastic model for $12.99. Finally found a clerk who located it for me and it was a solid stainless steel one for almost half the cost of the cheap plastic one that they had prominently displayed.

Yes, this stainless digital caliper for $9.99 is a great buy on a great product. It is priced all over the place from $9.99 to almost $20 so watch for it on "sale". It's not space program reliable, I don't think----- but it exactly matches the accuracy of my much more expensive set.


6" Digital Caliper with Metric and SAE Fractional Readings

 

[lostcreekranch]

Yes, this stainless digital caliper for $9.99 is a great buy on a great product. It is priced all over the place from $9.99 to almost $20 so watch for it on "sale". It's not space program reliable, I don't think----- but it exactly matches the accuracy of my much more expensive set. 6" Digital Caliper with Metric and SAE Fractional Readings

Six Dogs;

I caught this DC on $9.99 sale a year or two ago and find it works well. Compared it to really expensive one belonging to one of our machinist. It was dead on end to end of scale.

My only complaint is that it seems to eat batteries. First battery lasted only two weeks so, I just remove the battery between uses.