Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[Tractor Seabee]

HF has a 25% off sale and I need a table saw so.

They have the Chicago for about $150 and their hercules about $325.

I'm leaning toward the hercules.

Anybody have input?

thx

that HF table saw is a piece of junk. They vibrate terrible, won't keep settings, and shaft is too short for a dado. I had one, fought it through one project and junked it. Ron

 

[stuckmotor]

I'd want a saw that I could use to cut dados. There are some reviews of contractor table saws on youtube. Some will take a dado stack.

 

[crazyal]

My opinion is anything that you may need to buy parts for shouldn't be a HF brand. I have two table saws, a contractors saw that the legs fold up and has wheels and a cabinet saw. The cabinet saw lives a charmed life while the contractors saw sees some abuse. I had to replace parts on the fence because a piece of wood fell on it. Not an issue for DeWalt brand and had them in days. Has anyone had luck getting parts for HF brands? I know with their predator engines there's a lot of other companies (including Briggs) that sell identical engines so you can find parts.

 

[AWSubie]

Before u pull the trigger check out Home Depot’s Rigid brand jobsite saw.

If u do decide on the Hercules call harbor freight and make sure they honor the coupon for it. Sometimes they exclude certain brands.

 

[Oaktree]

I've found that HF flashlights are good but the batteries are junk. Something about the low quality battery's ends stop making good contact. I have had several that I was about to throw away (since they are cheaper than quality replacement batteries) that I had a change of heart and bought brand name batteries for and they worked just fine. The last time I had to replace some of the Thunderbolt batteries from a Quantum flashlight that had plenty of energy but it seamed like the slightest touch and they stopped working. I put in some of the Eveready ultimate batteries and it's worked great since.

Yeah, those Thunderbold batteries are pretty low quality. Actually, the flashlights are where they seem to work the best. Even in a clock they don't seem to last very long.
Anyone tried their new line of batteries?

My experience with HF flashlights (at least the free ones) is that the switches go bad rather quickly.

To be fair, the black ones that haven't been freebies for a couple years seem to stand up as well if not better than equivalent ones from other stores. I've had the battery sleeves disintegrate in a couple of them though.
Still beats the cheap old school D-cell flashlights that always seemed to have an intermittent connection somewhere and you had to shake it to get it to come (or stay) on.

My opinion is anything that you may need to buy parts for shouldn't be a HF brand. I have two table saws, a contractors saw that the legs fold up and has wheels and a cabinet saw. The cabinet saw lives a charmed life while the contractors saw sees some abuse. I had to replace parts on the fence because a piece of wood fell on it. Not an issue for DeWalt brand and had them in days. Has anyone had luck getting parts for HF brands? I know with their predator engines there's a lot of other companies (including Briggs) that sell identical engines so you can find parts.

Of course, the same could be said for anyone's store brand tools. With very few exceptions I consider the lot to be disposable when they break.
As far as the Predator engines go, aren't they just Chinese clones of Honda or B&S engines? I'd imagine the biggest challenge would be figuring out whose engine it was a copy of.

 

[Travelover]

...........As far as the Predator engines go, aren't they just Chinese clones of Honda or B&S engines? I'd imagine the biggest challenge would be figuring out whose engine it was a copy of.

There is a whole cult built around these engines as they are used for go-karts. A little Googling will turn up more than you want to know.

 

[5030]

I'm a Pred guy. I've replaced to Honda's with Preds so far and no issues at all.

 

[5030]

Just bought a 1,000 puond hydraulic cart. I dont know why I did, but I own it now. Man is that sucker heavy, pretty near tore my fingers off unloading it from the Jeep. Now what in the world am I going to use it for?

I could one of those to move my wife around...................

 

[dragoneggs]

I could one of those to move my wife around...................

That's blackmail material right there!

 

[Pixguy]

I could one of those to move my wife around...................

Oh ya, I may use that on ya if you're not a good boy!