Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[Travelover]

8 years using HF tools and he's still alive!!!

Like I've said before, I love HF, but I wouldn't buy a parachute there.

 

[TomSeller]

I'm drowning in an excess of junk tools that Dad accumulated cheap from yard sales, every one needs some repair. First I was going to build more storage but then I figured out owning and storing less stuff, buying when needed, improves my life.
.

It is also quicker to find the tool you need in the store than under heaps of old tools

 

[dragoneggs]

It is also quicker to find the tool you need in the store than under heaps of old tools

Well then you have bigger problems! :laughing:

 

[California]

quicker to find the tool you need in the store than under heaps of old tools

You have no idea. . I joke that Dad would go to yard sales at closing time and offer $1 to $5 for 'everything remaining'. To bring back and store at the ranch. For 40 years. I don't think that's much of an exaggeration. He was ready for the next Depression.

After I inherited the place (well bought it out of the estate) I started moving unusable stuff out. Ivy had grown into these stored rolls of fiberglass insulation plus I didn't have any application for them, for example. Basement, attic, barns, sheds, all had 'treasures' like this.

I posted the photo below, on here in 2004 (illustrating what I use for a 'truck'). In a year of hauling I narrowed things down to what I thought I might use.

Now today anything I haven't used in my 16 years here goes the way of those broken belt sanders whenever I trip over them. There are some nice things like the 75 lb vises, and most of the old tools were tradesman-quality back when they worked properly, but I no longer have patience to start projects where the first two-thirds is reconditioning the old tools I need. I get more accomplished by replacing the old tool with a HF purchase and finishing the project in a reasonable time.

 

[MossRoad]

You have no idea. . I joke that Dad would go to yard sales at closing time and offer $1 to $5 for 'everything remaining'. To bring back and store at the ranch. For 40 years. I don't think that's much of an exaggeration. He was ready for the next Depression.

After I inherited the place (well bought it out of the estate) I started moving unusable stuff out. Ivy had grown into these stored rolls of fiberglass insulation plus I didn't have any application for them, for example. Basement, attic, barns, sheds, all had 'treasures' like this.

I posted the photo below, on here in 2004 (illustrating what I use for a 'truck'). In a year of hauling I narrowed things down to what I thought I might use.

Now today anything I haven't used in my 16 years here goes the way of those broken belt sanders whenever I trip over them. There are some nice things like the 75 lb vises, and most of the old tools were tradesman-quality back when they worked properly, but I no longer have patience to start projects where the first two-thirds is reconditioning the old tools I need. I get more accomplished by replacing the old tool with a HF purchase and finishing the project in a reasonable time.

 

[dragoneggs]

You have no idea. . I joke that Dad would go to yard sales at closing time and offer $1 to $5 for 'everything remaining'. To bring back and store at the ranch. For 40 years. I don't think that's much of an exaggeration. He was ready for the next Depression.

After I inherited the place (well bought it out of the estate) I started moving unusable stuff out. Ivy had grown into these stored rolls of fiberglass insulation plus I didn't have any application for them, for example. Basement, attic, barns, sheds, all had 'treasures' like this.

I posted the photo below, on here in 2004 (illustrating what I use for a 'truck'). In a year of hauling I narrowed things down to what I thought I might use.

Now today anything I haven't used in my 16 years here goes the way of those broken belt sanders whenever I trip over them. There are some nice things like the 75 lb vises, and most of the old tools were tradesman-quality back when they worked properly, but I no longer have patience to start projects where the first two-thirds is reconditioning the old tools I need. I get more accomplished by replacing the old tool with a HF purchase and finishing the project in a reasonable time.

Went back to the old thread you referenced... love your post on the topic! My rationale on HF or other vs. 'top Brand' quality is based on my expected frequency of use. My empirical data on my tool purchases and use has led me to this conclusion.

 

[California]

View attachment 483560

You nailed it. In his last years Dad had this Dorothea Lange - WPA photo on the wall in his breakfast nook.



He hadn't lived badly. As a youth during the Depression he could do heavy labor for his father up at the mine (his dad was mine engineer/superintendent) when he needed to earn money. He retired as a schoolteacher. But the Depression must have scarred everyone.

I took down that photo, it was too much to look at daily. It's right up there with the little Vietnamese girl with her back on fire, for representing more misery than words could describe.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah. My dad was born in 1919, so he lived through it pretty hard. His mom told me stories about bribing a tax collector that was about to foreclose on her house with home canned food. It saved her house. My mom was born in '27. So she grew up through it as well. She told me they raised chickens for eggs (never ate them), rabbits for meat, and rutabagas to eat and feed the rabbits. And that's pretty much how they survived. As a kid growing up, I never ate a rabbit or rutabagas.... my mom refused to cook them ever again. We did eat a lot of chicken, though.

And my mom and dad saved everything! And, unfortunately, so do I. It drives my wife nuts.

 

[California]

Went back to the old thread you referenced... love your post on the topic! My rationale on HF or other vs. 'top Brand' quality is based on my expected frequency of use. My empirical data on my tool purchases and use has led me to this conclusion.

We think alike, thanks.

 

[California]

mom and dad saved everything! And, unfortunately, so do I. It drives my wife nuts.

I learned something a while back that is fundamental psychology: hoarding or clutter are the evidence of decisions deferred.

As I get older and still have some of the clutter inherited from parents and inlaws I recognize a strong need to cut through this mess and discard vigorously. I don't want to reach elderly buried in mountains of useless, pointless 'stuff' that others couldn't make up their minds about. It's a real job to go through and make the decisions that I and my predecessors put off for when we had more time; this item by item decision-making is a waste of my retirement years when I'd rather be out on the tractor or building something that I always meant to do.