Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[lostcreekranch]

I think I love you! You are now my new best friend ever for coming up with such a simple idea that it makes me feel stupid.

Can't tell you how many fine steel slivers I've had to remove from fingertips before coming up with that trick.

 

[dragoneggs]

Can't tell you how many fine steel slivers I've had to remove from fingertips before coming up with that trick.

This is an old shop trick that works for lots of things. Picking up a spilled jar of screws, a ripped box of nails in the back of your truck, etc. Works great... been doing it for years. I think I first heard about it, reading a Woodworking magazine years ago.

 

[newbury]

Take a small garbage bag, take some string, tie the string around

put the tool holder in the bag, drag the floor. Can easily reach under toolboxes etc. where what you drop rolls. Then take the bag off when done. Put the tool holder back on the toolbox.

You can get fancy and tape the magnetic tool holder on the end of a stick and use it like a flat duster.

Good to sweep under the tool chests every once and a while.

/edit I keep one hanging on the wall of one of my shops all the time.

 

[Threepoint]

Another trick with the craft magnets that most of us probably remember doing as kids: temporarily magnetize a screwdriver. I was trying to reinstall the upper section of the steering wheel console on a CK3510HST SE last week. The recessed screws require a thin #1 Phillips screwdriver and you must work blind. A couple of strokes with the magnet, and I was able to guide the screws into place with the screwdriver. :thumbsup:

 

[Rock Crawler]

Guys...

I just had a feeling hand me $400 and leave with one of my stacks. Now I'm far past the point of no return.... The HF 72 with 56 upper and both sides added is going to be ordered tomorrow.

It's getting real up in here!

 

[Threepoint]

Guys...

I just had a feeling hand me $400 and leave with one of my stacks. Now I'm far past the point of no return.... The HF 72 with 56 upper and both sides added is going to be ordered tomorrow.

It's getting real up in here!View attachment 577123View attachment 577124View attachment 577125

Uh oh. O.k., one last effort to save you from doing something rash.

If you get all those nice new U.S. General cabinets, you are going to have new empty drawer and cabinet space. It is well known that for as long as you have empty space in a tool cabinet, you will be unhappy and unfulfilled. You will be consigned to that unhappiness until you buy new tools to fill it up. Then, once filled, your relief will be fleeting. You will become even more unhappy, for now you have completely filled up your shop with tool cabinets, and will no longer have the possibility of adding more tools unless you expand your shop space by adding more square footage.

Reality will set in, and this in turn will give way to utter despair.

It is therefore much better that you forego this proposed purchase, regardless of how much sense it makes. That way you can preserve at least a faint hope of someday having a place for every tool you want, and every tool in its place.

 

[John_Mc]

This maybe should be a separate thread BUT
For those of you that have both the Lynxx chainsaw AND polesaw does it look like you could put the 14" chainsaw blade on the polesaw?
I've a few limbs that I could REALLY use the extra 4".

If you try this, remember it's not just the attach points that matter. The hole in the bar for the oil needs to match up with the oil outlet on the saw, and the tail of the bar needs to line up appropriately with the sprocket (both a reasonable distance from the sprocket, and make sure the chain takes a good line coming off the sprocket and onto the bar: If the tail on the original bar is 2" wide, and the new one is 3", you are likely to have a problem getting the chain to feed onto the bar)

Also: the oiler on your saw might not put out enough to properly lubricate a longer bar

 

[Rock Crawler]

Uh oh. O.k., one last effort to save you from doing something rash.

If you get all those nice new U.S. General cabinets, you are going to have new empty drawer and cabinet space. It is well known that for as long as you have empty space in a tool cabinet, you will be unhappy and unfulfilled. You will be consigned to that unhappiness until you buy new tools to fill it up. Then, once filled, your relief will be fleeting. You will become even more unhappy, for now you have completely filled up your shop with tool cabinets, and will no longer have the possibility of adding more tools unless you expand your shop space by adding more square footage.

Reality will set in, and this in turn will give way to utter despair.

It is therefore much better that you forego this proposed purchase, regardless of how much sense it makes. That way you can preserve at least a faint hope of someday having a place for every tool you want, and every tool in its place.

Really what I need to do is add on a 40x80 or so unattached shop. No. That's not big enough. My downstairs storage garages are 26' deep x 38' wide for the 3 bays and they are shoved totally full. So I need that much area just to move this stuff out and turn those back in to garages. I have 7 garages and have 4 vehicles that sit outside.

What I really need is a winning lottery ticket or a rich sugar momma! Maybe 60'x120' would solve all of my problems?

 

[Rock Crawler]

Can't tell you how many fine steel slivers I've had to remove from fingertips before coming up with that trick.

I've had splinters in my foot from going for beer with nothing on feet and getting steel slivers stuck in me that took many weeks and a lot of pain and swelling to get out. Do not like.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Oh. My. Goodness!

I just called the manager of my local HF, I wanted to ask what I needed to do to have them bring in the 72" base I want....

Discontinued! The company has not approved clearance of floor displays as of yet.

She knows that new tool box floor plan is scheduled to arrive November 12, but she can't see if a 72" box is a part of that new display plan or not.

She ran a search for a 100 mile radius, there is not a single 72” chest in any stores (aside from floor displays that are not approved to clearance out yet) and none left in any Eastern US warehouse.

She knows that Nov 12 is that new floor plan but has no way to know if the 72" chest is going to flat out be discontinued or if they are updating the freshly updated (she says that it's very unlikely) Version 2 72" chest.

She went in to say that in the 9 months that this store has been open, they have only ever ordered in 1 72" to sell, so she's being that HF isn't selling the 72" and so it very well may be stopped and that the 56" is going to be the new biggest chest in the line up after the November 12 floor plan update.

So essentially, my dreams and plans of this super awesome red white and blue tool box with custom airbrushed blowing US flags and eagles.... all just went to the pooper.

She took my number, name and email and is going to talk to the district manager and see if there is any way to get approval to sell that floor display, or if they can put my name on it and guarantee me that as soon as they can sell the floor display, I can come buy it.

I'm crushed. I'm hurting inside. I'm frustrated. I need a 6 pack.