Harbor freight stuff

captin_insano · Feb 21, 2010

I'm not associated with them and honestly never paid much attention to harbor freight stuff until one of their stores came to town. I've learned to love that place. I've spent a small fortune there and have made both good and bad purchases. This is some of the stuff I've bought or seen there that I think is worth passing on to others. I mostly buy when its on sale, you can make out if you watch for the deals. Anyone else find good buys there? I put this in the build thread because its tool stuff.

pintle hitch for 15 dollars and some change regular price. Hard to beat. I also bought the pintle rings there for about the same price. I've put them on 3 trailers.

cat I 3 point quick hitch. Bought on sale for $79.

7x12 band saw. This thing is so handy and much better quality than I expected. Bought it on sale for about $600. The 93" blades can be bought on sale for about $7 and actually seem to be decent quality. Not lennox quality but not bad at all.

They have real good prices on hydraulic line. I've used a ton of it on everything from log splitters to my case loader and backhoe. I was buying 1/2x60" standard pipe thread lines for about $6. They have an assortment of fittings as well to adapt it to jic etc. They dont list this on their website however. Another tool that turned out to be better than I expected was a 1/2" professional series impact wrench, purchased on sale for under $50. It replaced a worn out snap on and works every bit as well as the snap on ever did. I buy chain and hooks there too, the chain I bought was 1/4" x 35' and I paid about $20 on sale.

I also bought a roofing coil nailer that works great. I paid $49 on sale. I buy all my nails there for it and for my porter cable framing gun. best price i've found and again, seems like quality products.

I didnt buy this mower because I already had one when I seen it but it seems like a good deal. I have a farm pro finish mower that looks exactly the same but was a little more costly. Anyone own one of these HF jobbers? The regular price is $599. If you get one of their 25% off coupons you could get this finish mower real cheap.

coreshot · Feb 21, 2010

I buy all my consumables there. Grinding disks, cut off wheels, welding tips and wire. It's far cheaper than the steel store. Some of their tools are well worth the money, others aren't. I really want to buy a steel band saw from there, maybe not as big as yours, I think they have one for around $279 that I'm looking into.

Their tools with simple or no moving parts such as sockets (not ratchets), c clamps, and such are great.

Stampeder · Feb 21, 2010

I too buy quite a bunch of stuff from HF. My Chicago Mig 150 comes from there and I have pushed a lot of wire through it. It's made in Italy and works really well. I have one of their overhead crane that I bought on sale. It has been a god send for a ton of jobs (pun intended).
I bought a cement mixer (which I use to mix horse feed) which works great, a demolishion hammer which also works great on breaking up concrete on steel fence pipes when they come out of the ground.
My auto darkening welding helmet is the best thing that ever happened to my welding.
Just recently I bought two 50 foot automatice air hose reels. I tried to get the roof swivel mounts but they were out of stock.
Got a few good load binders as well. They sure come in handy for securing the tractor to the trailer.
I too buy a lot of consumables there.
The one thing that is wrong for me about HF is I have to drive 50 miles one way when I want things, so I usually save up for a while for the trip.

coreshot · Feb 21, 2010

Stampeder said:
The one thing that is wrong for me about HF is I have to drive 50 miles one way when I want things, so I usually save up for a while for the trip.

I was in the same boat until last year when a new store opened a couple blocks from me.

Travelover · Feb 21, 2010

You might find this thread of interest:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/parts-repairs/114176-harbor-freight-tools-dont-suck.html

Scotty370 · Feb 21, 2010

I have also purchased items from them, and it can be like a candy store with the low prices. But, I'm reluctant to buy items, that if they fail, might have catastophic results! If my grinder burns up, so be it. If my Pintle hitch fails..........

Well you get the idea. ~Scotty

czechsonofagun · Feb 22, 2010

Chain saw sharpener. It sucks too - but for the price I can deal with it. Work gloves, some sockets and such - I used to be much more excited about them. Now we have a store 30 miles from us and I don't go there nearly so often. From what I have used, the framing air gun was a good deal and it worked swell too.

eazyduzzit · Feb 22, 2010

I'm a hobby woodworker, and have bought a jointer, drill press, lathe, 2 different belt sanders and 2 different dust collectors. All these tools were less than half the price of name brands, and I'm satisfied with all of them.

captin_insano · Feb 22, 2010

I've had good luck with most my purchases there. I did buy an electric impact wrench for wheeling trips that wasnt very good. It had good power but the brushes went quick and then the shank twisted off. I replaced it with a cheap HF air impact for wheelin trips but it was junk, didnt work well from day one. The professional series though is a fine impact.

You might find this thread of interest:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/p...dont-suck.html

holy big thread batman.

have_blue · Feb 22, 2010

captin_insano said:
Anyone own one of these HF jobbers? The regular price is $599. If you get one of their 25% off coupons you could get this finish mower real cheap.

I have the 6 footer (but not from HF). It appears 100% identical except the width. If anyone has questions, I would be glad to help.

The good: It's simple and reliable to maintain, has huge spindles and bearings that should last. All the pulleys look heavy duty. Nice chain guard. Real expensive units usually don't even come with a chain guard.

The bad: The wheels and wheel forks are weak. Had to weld the 1" swivel pins back on to 2 of the forks when my wife ran it into some washed out clay banks.

I've bought great, good, fair, and poor tools from HF. My latest tool is great.

- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

It's a 1/4" electric die grinder. Man, this thing is big, smooth, and powerful. You can cut a 2x2 angle iron in half in 20-30 seconds. Got it for $29, and it's worth 3x the price.

I use their $49 auto-darkening welding helmet, and it's just fine. So are their welding rods.