Harbor Freight smells

[Gary Fowler]

They may coat the tools but they sure spare the gear lube. I bought a 4" and a 7" grinder from them a few months ago and the 4" made a loud bearing noise when I turned it on. I took the head apart and there was just a small dollop of grease in the gear case and none of it was touching the gear. I put a large blob of grease in it and re-assembled it-noise was gone. Then I did the same for the 7" prior to running it which also had very little lube grease in the gears. Probably why they dont last very long.
I cant say that I have noticed the smell being any worse than any tire store I have been in.

 

[chopped]

Thats true with the oil 'finish'.Ie found that I have to repaint the HF stuff, or in some cases keep the whole motor etc. well lightly oiled to keep rust at bay..

 

[chopped]

Gary Ive found that also,I Had a kitchen aide mixer(not from HF) and after three months it broke I oiled it apart and was surprised that the drive gear was plastic.(stripped) and the lube was non existent.I replaced the gear and lubed it up..Its all set now but i was disappointed in the change from a metal gear..

 

[Soundguy]

They may coat the tools but they sure spare the gear lube. I bought a 4" and a 7" grinder from them a few months ago and the 4" made a loud bearing noise when I turned it on. I took the head apart and there was just a small dollop of grease in the gear case and none of it was touching the gear. I put a large blob of grease in it and re-assembled it-noise was gone. Then I did the same for the 7" prior to running it which also had very little lube grease in the gears. Probably why they dont last very long.
I cant say that I have noticed the smell being any worse than any tire store I have been in.

i'll bet you it is factory specific. I know in any given month or two, HF may have 2-3 different 4" angle grinders for sale.. probably meaning different factories.

I use angle grinders alot and will usually wear out, or put a ton of hours and near wear out a 9$ special unit each year on a tractor project. when they die I toss them in a bucket, and then every couple years take em apart and see if I can make 1 from 3, etc. so far I've run into at least 3 different armature types.. thought have had good luck mixing and matching most parts that fit.

so far I've yet to have a front end gearbox failure *.. gear failure anyway. did hav eone that had a retaining nut come loose, and just about all of them have aplastic lock tang for changing the blades... those ALWAYS die. so far all the front ends i've taken apart hav a healthy dose of sticky brown grease in them.. say #1 consistency.. maybee 1.5#.

I actually have the original 'head' from my first hf grinder it's got to be near 20ys old now.

motor died in it / plastic body melted at brush holder. it had a long armature. maybee 10ys passed till i had another tool with similar body die.. it's parts matched up except for the on / off switch which used a divot cutout of the head on the new tool, but the cutout was not present on the old castoing nor could it be added.

thus when assembled the swith was off. I wired it internally hot across the switch, epoxied it in place, and added a switch on the power cord. I use that grinder as my wire wheel and cup model as it had a bigger arbor head.

soundguy

 

[Short Game]

Cheap Chinese tires and many plastic parts smell strongly with an odor like creosote. I've even bought tubes and tires from a major tire dealer and gotten the stink. I don't like that smell at all.

 

[sweep]

When you walk into one of those type of stores you can just smell the rubber.

The Chinese want you to think it's rubber....

...and I am not being entirely sarcastic....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YRA1L1OjzQ&feature=player_embedded#!

 

[troutsqueezer]

That's the smell of saving money if you ask me. There is no other store with a selection like H.F., even if a lot of it is not the highest quality most of the tools do the job they were designed to do, maybe not on a professional level but good enough for the homeowner.

This is one of the few stores that sell tools that my wife enjoys going to and looking around.

 

[Soundguy]

here's a testament to hf tools.

i just had to pull the cast iron front pully off the cranksahft of my farmall C.. it is a press fit hub to shaft nose.

standard convention is to use a large bearing seperator and a bottle jack and a backing plate.

one would think the 7.99 8" HF bearing puller is what gave up on me right?

nope.. the good high quality cast iron hub flange ripped off.. leaving me STILL with a hub i need to remove from the snout in order to get the timing cover off...

so.. say what people will about the tools.

this one didn't break.. the part yeilded first..

 

[Pilot]

Never noticed a smell at HF.

I am careful about what I buy there and am not surprised if a few now and then something is a disappointment. Actually I think if I lost a finger or two, I could still count on one hand the number of items that didn't work well. The rest perform just fine and most of the money stays in my bank account. The closer an HF item is to a chunk of iron, the less likely there will be a problem, although I did get a HF hammer that seemed to miss the nail too often .

When I was building an airplane, HF was well known among thousands of builders as the alternative aircraft tool supply source.

I wouldn't say you can't go wrong with HF tools, just be selective and carefully inspect what you buy.

 

[deepNdirt]

Well this explains the smell I have smelled before at the Local Flea-Market,
it always smells like some sort of burnt rubber or a sulfur smell, There are these people (Chinese)that are setup all over the Flea Market selling their Dolla items, most things are 2-dolla 3-dolla 5-dolla etc, they have nothing displayed on shelfs it is all on the floor in boxes, I've never been to a Harbor freight store although I do remember when they sold from out of the rear of Simi trailers in parking lots and yes the trailers smelled of this, I wonder if this smell gets on this stuff from being sitting in the freight yard or where ever awaiting to be shipped....