Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[California]

I've been using these cheap HF dollies for years:

https://go.harborfreight.com/coupons/2020/01/63098-76710290/

...$8 apiece ...

Yes those dollies are one of the HF treasures. My HF Mig-180 welder lives on one. Others are for incidental use, moving furniture etc.

I was surprised to see professional piano movers use a better pro-quality equivalent, equally small, to take out an upright piano that they estimated weighed 650 lbs, "heaviest piano we've ever seen!" when I settled Mom's estate.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Yeah. at $8@.
The coupon you linked to expired Feb 29, 2020. Now they are $13@

That was my anniversary

I've got about 30 or so of them and have managed to break about 2.
/edit - 30 or so moving dollies, not anniversaries

Sorry about that. Those HF dollies go on sale every 4 months or so. I think they use them as a "loss leader" to get people in the stores.

 

[Boss 302]

Our Harbor Freight store is usually fairly busy every time I go in there; I was looking at their large tool chests and they do look impressive for the money. I currently use Vidmar cabinets for my tool boxes and they also work great, high quality rollers on the drawers help with the heavy tools.

 

[John_Mc]

I picked up a solid deck 24"x16" dolly for use in places where the 18"x12" open deck dollies mentioned above broke. Full price on the larger solid deck dolly is $29.99, but I was able to get a discount during a recent sale. Not as much of a bargain as the 18"x12" (I can;t even buy four casters for the sale price on that dolly), but they are solidly built.

 

[newbury]

I picked up a solid deck 24"x16" dolly for use in places where the 18"x12" open deck dollies mentioned above broke. Full price on the larger solid deck dolly is $29.99, but I was able to get a discount during a recent sale. Not as much of a bargain as the 18"x12" (I can;t even buy four casters for the sale price on that dolly), but they are solidly built.

I just always seem to have a scrap piece of 3/4 plywood kicking around to screw on top of the regular dolly.

 

[Boss 302]

My son-in-law bought one of their compound miter saws and it's the cats meow. I believe it's the 12" one, it has a light the lines up the blade with your cut mark and it appears to be well made.

 

[marhar]

I bought the Harbor Freight creeper for $19. I read a review and someone said the filled it with spray insulation. I did the same and have been using mine for years. The insulation strengthens the creeper and one cannot go wrong at that price. BTW I weight 200 lbs.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Our Harbor Freight store is usually fairly busy every time I go in there; I was looking at their large tool chests and they do look impressive for the money. I currently use Vidmar cabinets for my tool boxes and they also work great, high quality rollers on the drawers help with the heavy tools.

I just bought the 56" base and top cabinet. Got a credit card and along with the discount that they had at the time, I got it a good break on the base. The store did not have the top in stock in the color black that I wanted so I had to run to another for that. I only got the discount on the top since I had already used the card. Still a good price. The second store did not have the base, lol! HF just opened yet another store close by so now I have three within 20-30 miles.

The boxes are okay. I am still organizing but the drawers that have heavy items in seem to roll okay. Not nearly as heavy as Vidmar.

I used to work at a place that had literally thousands of Vidmar units in all kinds of configurations. They were bought by someone whom then resold them by the piece. Still went high.

A few weeks back I was looking over the returns. There was a Bauer battery powered grinder for 23 bucks. The grinder blade was hardly used. Not sure just why it was returned but I figured for that price what the heck! Took it home, slipped on a 5amp/hr battery and have used it for several quick jobs rather than to drag out one of my corded grinders.

 

[Boss 302]

I too like the battery convenience; I used the Earthquake 1/2" drive impact gun tonight and it worked great

 

[Dragonpharm]

I have a HF low profile racing jack 2T that had served me well for a decade. Took the wheels off and mounted it on a skid plate for better off road usability. It survived thousands of miles and many uses on off road trips. Recently had some issues. Will repair it if/when I get the time. Went to buy a replacement and discovered that what HF labels as a 2T Jack is what they formerly called the 1.5T. Bought what is now labeled 2.5T and it is exactly the same size as the old 2T. Won't complain if it holds up like the first one. It saw a lot of abuse. Would highly recommend skid plate for off road use. Jack works in sand or mud almost as well as on pavement. Very handy around the property as well as on trails/tracks.