Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[patrick_g]

I am thinking about buying the chain saw sharpener. Does it work well for you. How does it stack up against the 99.00 one that northern tools sells ?

Thomas, there are better sharpeners but the HF unit works well for the price and good enough. You need to be gentle so you can get more chain life (more sharpenings before the blade is toast.) I have a round file holder with a gadget that holds it for you and has marks on it to show you the angle of cut. A few minutes with that when the cutting action slows in the field relieves the need to use the electric sharpener very often. I have a 12 VDC rotary grinder/chain sharpener that I haven't used yet but hope it works out to my expectation.

HF has a circular saw blade sharpener now too. Someone buy one, use it, and report back how well it works.

Pat

 

[Bedlam]

here is a link to it

Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

interesting I have bought some of the carbide cheap blades fro HF and had good luck Even though they are carbide, I was about ot somewhat sharpen them with the angle grinder, enough to cut scrap wood for the wood fire.
It had a diamond blade, so would that sharpen the carbide blades?

 

[Zork]

1) HF Steering wheel puller with tray $9. 1987, Excellent. Tray has disintegrated.
2) HF SDS Rotary Hammer Drill $60 +-?, extra bits $9.99. Works great after heavy usage so far 2 yrs.
3) HF axle puller (solid slide and rail), not hollow pipe type, $19? Late 80's. Threads on slide approximately 50+% depth of attaching axle/ bearing accessories and stripped after moderate usage. Recommend rethreading and using graded nut.

 

[gemini5362]

Thomas, there are better sharpeners but the HF unit works well for the price and good enough. You need to be gentle so you can get more chain life (more sharpenings before the blade is toast.) I have a round file holder with a gadget that holds it for you and has marks on it to show you the angle of cut. A few minutes with that when the cutting action slows in the field relieves the need to use the electric sharpener very often. I have a 12 VDC rotary grinder/chain sharpener that I haven't used yet but hope it works out to my expectation.

HF has a circular saw blade sharpener now too. Someone buy one, use it, and report back how well it works.

Pat

Pat I have the 12vdc portable one. It works ok and it is great when you are out and need to sharpen quickly. Mine seems to go through stones pretty quickly that is why I was thinking about the bench mounted unit.

Would you be able to sharpen your saw blades with a regular blade sharpener I thought those were special blades.

 

[patrick_g]

Would you be able to sharpen your saw blades with a regular blade sharpener I thought those were special blades.

Uh, chain saw or table saw? I assume you mean table saw. There is a HF sharpener for circular blades.

Bedlam, diamond tools are what you use to make/sharpen carbide tools.

Pat

 

[CurlyDave]

Diamond is great for sharpening anything that is not iron or steel, which includes carbide.

Do not use diamond on iron or steel. Hot iron dissolves carbon (which is what diamonds are made of). I know you have heard of carbon steel, which is just steel with carbon dissolved in it. You will wear out your diamond tool in no time at all.

About the only practical exception is diamond knife sharpeners, which never get hot enough for the knife blade to attack the diamond.

 

[Bedlam]

Uh, chain saw or table saw? I assume you mean table saw. There is a HF sharpener for circular blades.

Bedlam, diamond tools are what you use to make/sharpen carbide tools.

Pat

Thats what i've told my wife for years diamonds were for, yet she still insists they be worn on the finger. LOL LOL"

 

[gemini5362]

Uh, chain saw or table saw? I assume you mean table saw. There is a HF sharpener for circular blades.

Bedlam, diamond tools are what you use to make/sharpen carbide tools.

Pat

Table saw.
You have the blade that stops before cutting flesh can you sharpen that with a regular circular blade sharpener

 

[patrick_g]

Table saw.
You have the blade that stops before cutting flesh can you sharpen that with a regular circular blade sharpener

Thomas, The Saw Stop brand table saw (they now make a contractor saw too) will function with any standard blade. There is NOTHING at all special about the blade. All the safety stuff is in the design and execution of the saw's mechanical design and the electro-mechanical actuator that stops the rotating blade within a millisecond. You can use any blade that you would use on any other 10 inch table saw.

This includes the typical 8 inch dado sets. You have to change the brake cartridge back and forth between the 10 inch and 8 inch when you change back and forth between a 10 inch blade and the dado set. Changing the brake cartridge adds a minute or three to the blade change but is pretty simple and straight forward. It is really easy to change the blade and also easy to change the brake cartridge.

So far I have not touched the blade but did have an "incident" where a taper jig (aluminum) touched the side of the blade. Suddenly there just wasn't a blade to be seen. Faster than your eye can follow the blade is stopped and retracted below the table. The blade is toast and embedded in the aluminum brake mechanism after an emergency stop. Luckily it was the blade that came with the saw and I had used it a lot so no big deal as they don't give you the worlds best blade for free with the saw anyway.

So as far as I know, sharpening a blade for this saw is the same as for any other standard table saw.

Pat

 

[gemini5362]

I am going to post this for Pats benefit but it occured to me there might be others who are interested so I will post it here. The guy I work with has a harbor freight bender. Pat asked me if he had any tips on using it and this is what my friend told me he does. Do not let the metal move once you start bending it. If the bender pulls it into the bend it will mess up your results. If he is bending solid stock he just uses a vicegrip or something like that and clamps it to the stock next to the die. If he is using tubing he drills a hole in the tubing next to where he is going to make the bend. He puts something into the hole so that the tubing cannot be pulled into the die and then makes his bend. I have seen the BMW replicate sidecar he made for his bmw with tubing and this bender and the sidecar looks like the original complete with all the various bends at the nose among other places.