I have been very impressed with the quality and performance of my HF Hercules grease gun.
Not something I have or want anyway. I have an ARO air greaser with a 100 foot grease hose and it rests on a 150 pound open head grease drum. I do carry lever guns in all my pto driven implements but when I service and grease them, it's in front of the shop so I use the air greaser and no lock-n-lube coupler either, just an adjustable jaw genuine Alemite coupler. All my lever gins have clear polycarbonate barrels and I bulk fill them from the air greaser. I like the clear barrels because I can see how much grease is in there and refill them before it is depleted. Just not a fan of battery powered grease guns and I did buy one of the Bauer ones, but returned it not used. Just didn't impress me. They are bulky, only take grease tubes and are messy to fill. My ARO air greaser has none of those detractions. I've only taken back 2 HF tools in my entire lifetime of buying HF merchandise. The 12 volt Bauer grease gun and the HF dual analog battery tester and the only reason I returned it was it's 12 volt only and I required a 6 volt one. My mistake and as always, HF refunded my money, cheerfully and no questions asked. Next buy on the agenda is the HF 2 stage vacuum pump. I keep borrowing a buddy's pump when I do ac evacuations. Time I get my own. I own everything else (all HF btw). Their ac gages and manifold works very well and so does their can tap fitting.... and I'm going to extend my warranty on the 3 welders I bought earlier this year to 4 years. I'm really impressed with the Vulcan Pro-Tig 205, especially after I added the CK Worldwide water cooled Series 17 TIG torch with flex head and the Everlast water cooler. Compared to the Lincoln Square Wave TIG welder I sold with it's Lincoln water cooler and Lincoln torch, the Pro-Tig not only produces a better weld but it's easier to control and the foot pedal on the Vulcan is light years better than the Lincoln as well and amazingly, the Vulcan was 1/3rd the original price I paid for the Lincoln. I did keep my Lincoln Ranger 8, engine drive and HF setup for field work however.
Even my good friend and mentor who is nuclear certified TIG (he taught me the in's and out's of alloy TIG welding) told me the Vulcan Pro TIG is heads above his Miller Dynasty. I also bought 2 Titanium plasma cutters. I use the 65 amp (that comes with the hard interface plug (and I kept the interface cable from the Hyper Therm I sold, to interface with my Shop Saber plasma table and I also bought the 50 amp Titanium plasma for use in handheld operation and it sits on the HF Vulcan welding cart along with the Pro-Tig and the water cooler. Very nice powder coated roll around cabinet with plenty of storage space and lockable doors plus the bottle capacity is 2 bottles. I run 2 125 cubic foot bottles, one straight inert shielding gas for the TIG and one O2 bottle for the plasma. I made out like a bandit on the whole deal. I sold the Hyper Therm plus the Square Wave Lincoln and threw in a full 125 cubic foot bottle of inert gas for the TIG, bought everything at HF, 2 plasma cutters, the TIG machine, the CK water cooled torch and the Everlast water cooler and the Vulcan roll around cabinet plus extra consumables for the plasma and a complete set of Pyrex and porcelain cups, collets and diffusers for the CK torch and 3 gallons of anti freeze solution for the TIG cooler and still put over 1500 in the bank. Glad Lincoln rests on it's trade name but the Vulcan is a much better and easier machine to use, plus it's 100% digital and actually remembers the previous settings. It's easy to use and has a real nice HF start as well with no points to wear out, all 100% solid state IGBT driven. Same with the plasma cutters. I really liked the Hyper Therm but the consumables just got too expensive and I go through a lot of consumables, especially with the plasma table even with the THC control.
I really looked hard at plasma tables as well and settled on the Shop Saber. it wasn't a cheap date but it came with everything required but the plasma cutter and it came completely assembled. It even has a wireless Blue Tooth remote so I can run it from anywhere in the shop. Not really for the hobbyist as the price was pretty steep, but it's a well built industrial grade table.
So, I'm a Harbor Freight junkie but only the high end HF tools, not the one use throw away stuff.
I have a HF credit card and when I buy big ticket stuff (I bought the welder and the plasma cutters and the cabinet in one shot), The HF card not only gave me purchase points but a deferred no interest payment over 36 months which I paid off early anyway. That and my ITC membership has saved me a ton of money. The 65 amp plasma I paid retail HF price for but the 50 amp was on the ITC flyer at 250 bucks off and I have an exemption certificate on file with HF so I don't pay sales tax either. HF has come a long way from cheap throw away one use tools and stinky tarp straps. Now, they are competing with tool truck quality tools at a much better price point and I have a pretty good selection of Snap-On and MAC tools as well and I'll put the HF tolls up against them any time.
I will say their impact rated sockets are indestructible. I've put them to the test many times removing wear steel scrapers on snow plows with my Thor 1/2" impact wrench that makes over 1350 foot pounds of breakaway torque and I've never had one fail. I've broken Snap-On and Mac sockets, split them right down the sides but not the HF impact rated sockets. Even used them on my IR 1" drive air impact that makes over 2000 foot pounds (with an HF 1/2 square to 1" adapter) and neither the sockets nor the adapter have failed. I rarely use the IR impact because it's so heavy. Really made for mounting and dismounting 10 hole Budd style wheels.
