Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[Tractor Seabee]

Like your hose reel, I may do the same with my hoses. Is that an HF reel per chance?

There are hose reels and then their are hose reels. For O/A service they are very specific as to the rotating seals that get considerable wear and are specifically made for the service. Some even have auto retrieve. Used a lot on field welding trucks. Same thing with quick connect hose fittings. Be careful, spend the money and get stuff made for the O/A service. Routinely check the devices for leaks. As HF upgrades their line of tools/equipment the quality has improved exponentially but the price has not increased at the same rate so still a bargain. Seems they are moving away from communist china to other Asian country manufacturers. We still need to bring more things back from off-shore.

Ron

 

[Tractor Seabee]

On the subject of acetylene withdrawal rates: Using large welding/brazing/heating nozzles of any configuration is dangerous with the smaller acetylene cylinders. Any cylinder smaller than 100 CF is vulnerable to releasing acetone from the internal absorbent material. The regulators made for the smaller size O/A sets like the Victor 100 and J series will not pass enough volume to exceed the cylinder dangerous safe withdrawal rate. Using larger regulators compounds the safety margin. Standard recommended acetylene torch side pressure of 5 psi will also keep within safe boundaries. For large heating projects it is safer to use propane of natural gas instead of acetylene. If you do though remember to use only type T hose. Those gases will breakdown the regular type R hoses. Yes, type T costs more per FT.

Ron

 

[Cougsfan]

My acetylene tank is probably on the too small side. It is a hobby tank, probably 3 foot tall and 8 or so inches in diameter. So what exactly happens if you draw it down too fast?

 

[Tractor Seabee]

My acetylene tank is probably on the too small side. It is a hobby tank, probably 3 foot tall and 8 or so inches in diameter. So what exactly happens if you draw it down too fast?

Keep your acetylene delivery pressure to torch no higher than 5 PSI and you should be OK except for large tips (#6) and rosebud heating tips. If yo use a tip larger than a #2 you are probably larger than you need to be anyway. I used to weld EX heavy pipe with a #2 tip. You are safe with a #4.

Ron

 

[Grumpycat]

My acetylene tank is probably on the too small side. It is a hobby tank, probably 3 foot tall and 8 or so inches in diameter. So what exactly happens if you draw it down too fast?

Acetylene in the tank is dissolved in acetone for safety. 15 PSI is the safety limit for pure acetylene. Can only boil out so fast before you start getting acetone, purple, in your flame. Rule of thumb is 1/7 per hour. So an 8" diameter by 36" long cylinder might be 12 cu ft, you should not use more than 1.7 cu ft/hour.

 

[Cougsfan]

This is all good to know and is all news to me. I have never had any formal training on using my torch even though I have been using it on infrequent occasions for 30+ years. Mostly for brazing, light welding and cutting. I empty out a tank maybe every two years or maybe longer. I use my arc welder a lot more. Please be patience with my ignorance. What is the worst that might happen if I develop one of these purple acetone flames? Also what might happen if I exceed 15 psi?

 

[Frankenkubota]

I Keep forgetting! I bought a $20 DA, dual action buffer. It's great! My $6 HF screw gun gets more use than any other tool but it might be on its last legs, starting to make funny sounds! And my $20 chicago angle grinder just keeps on keeping on.

 

[Oaktree]

I recently had a local mechanic rebuild the engine on my wifes gas powered utility cart and he uses mostly H.F. tools. When we talked about it he said he couldn't afford to have Snap-On as a dependent along with his 4 kids. The guy was surprisingly good and reasonably priced, I'll use him again.

When I asked him how well the tools hold up for him he said "fine and if there's a problem, they take care of it.'

For a small engine mechanic, I don't see that it makes much sense to spend 3x the price for Snap-On, Mac, etc. tools when decent quality box store tools will stand up just fine, especially if he doesn't need to finance the purchase. Keep in mind though that HF has only been a practical option for most of us only for the last 5-10 years when they expanded. I don't know how widespread their stores were on the west coast in the past, but here in the northeast they've only had much of a presence for the last decade or so.

As HF upgrades their line of tools/equipment the quality has improved exponentially but the price has not increased at the same rate so still a bargain. Seems they are moving away from communist china to other Asian country manufacturers. We still need to bring more things back from off-shore.

I think the jury is still out on that, or at least with power tools. Yeah the newer "brands" don't feel quite as cheap as the old Chicago Electric crap, but time will tell on how they stand up. Agree their hand tools seem to be as good as anyone else's. Can't comment on air tools since I have no need for them.

As far as bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., sorry but that ship sailed a long time ago. Our workforce has long since priced themselves out of that market, at least for reasonably priced consumer goods.

 

[TMGT]

For a small engine mechanic, I don't see that it makes much sense to spend 3x the price for Snap-On, Mac, etc. tools when decent quality box store tools will stand up just fine, especially if he doesn't need to finance the purchase. Keep in mind though that HF has only been a practical option for most of us only for the last 5-10 years when they expanded. I don't know how widespread their stores were on the west coast in the past, but here in the northeast they've only had much of a presence for the last decade or so.



I think the jury is still out on that, or at least with power tools. Yeah the newer "brands" don't feel quite as cheap as the old Chicago Electric crap, but time will tell on how they stand up. Agree their hand tools seem to be as good as anyone else's. Can't comment on air tools since I have no need for them.

As far as bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., sorry but that ship sailed a long time ago. Our workforce has long since priced themselves out of that market, at least for reasonably priced consumer goods.

There have been a few good videos on teardowns of some of the newer battery tools and they are actually pretty decent and comparable to a lot of the bigger name brand tools out there. The Earthquake line is especially impressive.

As for air tools, they still have cheaper lines but their newer stuff is pretty good. I recently bought some if the Chief tools, a 3in cutoff and an extended die grinder, made in Taiwan not China, and seem to be well built (time will tell).

I really like the Baxter line, have one of their band filer and it works well, even comes with ceramic bands that are made in Germany!

 

[Fallon]

This is all good to know and is all news to me. I have never had any formal training on using my torch even though I have been using it on infrequent occasions for 30+ years. Mostly for brazing, light welding and cutting. I empty out a tank maybe every two years or maybe longer. I use my arc welder a lot more. Please be patience with my ignorance. What is the worst that might happen if I develop one of these purple acetone flames? Also what might happen if I exceed 15 psi?

Acetylene gets unstable above 15psi. A.k.a kaboom.

Acetone is a solvent & can melt plastics or rubbers, which make up your hoses & regulators. Also, if you need X amount of Acetylene in the tank to properly dissolve Y amount of Acetylene into things into, it works fine. If you have less than X, you can't fill it as full, or if you try to, you go over 15psi.