Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

sixdogs · Apr 28, 2018

Be careful mail ordering the toolchests. They are not packed well and my store has many that show up on tool sales with dents and dings. When I bought mine I unwrapped in the store just to be sure. Pretty hard sending one back (at your expense) with a dent and I can't imagine a long truck trip and possible marginal packaging as an element.

sodamo · Apr 28, 2018

I’d be awefully tempted to order one or two of those tool chest, but suspect the shipping would be a killer.

PJSprog · Apr 30, 2018

Bought the 5-speed 8" drill press Saturday. Needed to drill a lot of holes through the short side of a bunch of 1x2s, and the Dewalt was clearly not the best choice. Set it up with a guide and drilled about 100 nicely centered holes in short order. The thing went together easily out of the box, and worked great. I'd thought about getting the 12-speed 10" instead, as the coupon database has coupons for both. However, the stroke length is only 2-3/8" on the bigger one, as opposed to 2" on the smaller one, and the only 12-speed they had was an open box. With the coupon, I got the 5-speed for $49+tax.

Threepoint · Apr 30, 2018

Threepoint said:
Just ordered 10 pop-in vent caps off e-bay to try in my 5-gal HF fuel cans. I'll report back once I see how much they improve flow rate.

Thanks, all, for the tips on dealing with swarf when I drill to install them. :thumbsup:

Thought I'd update my experience with adding a yellow "pop-in" vent cap to a HF 5-gal fuel can. Before the vent, the can took about 5-1/2 minutes to empty the 5 gallons of diesel. After the vent, it dropped to less than 3 min. Quite a change. In fact, any faster and it might have outrun the flow rate of the inlet strainer in my Kioti fuel tank. YMMV, but definitely worth the 50-cent addition.

Wasmeneh · Apr 30, 2018

Threepoint said:
Thought I'd update my experience with adding a yellow "pop-in" vent cap to a HF 5-gal fuel can. Before the vent, the can took about 5-1/2 minutes to empty the 5 gallons of diesel. After the vent, it dropped to less than 3 min. Quite a change. In fact, any faster and it might have outrun the flow rate of the inlet strainer in my Kioti fuel tank. YMMV, but definitely worth the 50-cent addition.

Can't recommend those small Harbor Freight drill presses. I've gone through 2 different one both times the spindle failed

California · Apr 30, 2018

Wasmeneh said:
Can't recommend those small Harbor Freight drill presses. I've gone through 2 different one both times the spindle failed

I bought one long ago, from shortly after they opened a store here. It was badly underpowered, just a frustration maker. I hope the later versions are better.

Funny story: Later sold it at a yard sale. I sold it to a man and refused to back down from my $20 price. A minute later, the buyer's wife walked in and handed me a $20 bill to pay for her husband's purchase ... and demanded change since she had told hubby he only had a $15 budget and they needed $5 back to buy lunch.

Sorry lady! I sold it to this guy here, not you!

I had my kids carry the tool to their car while she screamed at me. Hubby looked embarrassed. But apparently he wanted the tool so he didn't take his wife's side. Everyone there watching us grinned.

MMMTreeman · Apr 30, 2018

Three thoughts:
1. Those itty-bitty HF snatch blocks are intended for getting your ATV unstuck, but NOT for situations where life and limb are at risk
2. For about $65 you can buy a real 1 ton rated snatch block that will be safer to use sand last for a lifetime.
3. Running your cable through a block will reduce the breaking strength of your line. About 20% for a 90 degree corner and 35% for a 180 degree fall-block like you describe.

John_Mc · Apr 30, 2018

MMMTreeman said:
Three thoughts:
3. Running your cable through a block will reduce the breaking strength of your line. About 20% for a 90 degree corner and 35% for a 180 degree fall-block like you describe.

I've head the larger the radius of the block, the less it stresses your cable. I've not seen anything "official" on that, however.

PJSprog · Apr 30, 2018

Wasmeneh said:
Can't recommend those small Harbor Freight drill presses. I've gone through 2 different one both times the spindle failed

California said:
I bought one long ago, from shortly after they opened a store here. It was badly underpowered, just a frustration maker. I hope the later versions are better.

Well, it worked fine for me yesterday. For the $50 and change it cost me, I probably saved that much in not having to buy more lumber from goofing up the holes by trying to drill them all by hand. It certainly won't be a heavy use machine for us. I'm not anticipating having to drill through lots of hardened steel or even dense hardwoods. My biggest challenge with it will probably be trying to keep my stepson from thinking it's OK to throw it in the back of his truck and leave it at a friend's house (like he did with my new floor jack not long ago).

fried1765 · Apr 30, 2018

Skyco said:
My two most expensive Harbor Freight acquisitions have been a 30 ton log splitter and a Plasma Cutter..
Both have worked great except the OEM return oil filter on the log splitter clogged pretty early, I suppose from manufacturing crud left in the system, found a Purolator car oil filter that fit and all has been well since.
I own a lot of their hand tools and although the appearance can be poor on some of them they work great especially considering the money spent....I've had to return almost none of the stuff I've bought there.

I'm constantly amazed how inexpensive some of the stuff is, I don't see how the material costs are covered let alone labor to make it, even at 25 cents a day and then ship it all the way from China to my local store in SC