Tools & equipment that are fantastic.

[jjeff]

Yeah as an occasional purveyor of more complicated cheap Chinese junk ill usually go out of my way to make it more durable and keep it somewhat functional, including adding a little bit of synthetic two stroke to gas on Chinese knock off 4 strokes during initial break in. Snow drift but had good results using quality lubricants, occasionally welding extra bracing and gussets in, using higher quality fasteners etc.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

One thing I do with EVERY gearbox on EVERY tool I buy before I even use it is, I take it apart and clean out all the Chineseum wannabe grease and replace all of it with real synthetic EP grease. Always. Cheap Chineseum grease looks like thick Soy sauce and stinks too. I don't wait for them to rattle, I do that right away. By the time they start rattling, the damage is already done. Even the one cheapo HF corded 4.5" grinder I have an have beat on forever, is quiet as a mouse and never gets hot either.

No point in waiting until the 'horse is out of the gate' to rectify what will become an issue, no matter what and that applies to even the cheapo throw away grinders.

I had a twenty-year-old Dodge Dart, which had never been out of Vegas, when I was going to college in the late 80s. It rained and the wipers blew the fuse when I turned them on. So, that weekend, I tore into it, and being in the starving student mode, couldn't afford a rebuilt wiper motor. So, I tore the old one apart to see what was wrong. The brushes weren't even worn in, little alone worn out. Turned out the grease was so dry it was hard and jammed the gears. Cleaned out the old grease and put in some new. It worked for the next decade, when I finally paid off my college debt, and saved up enough to buy a new car.

 

[Oaktree]

Turned out the grease was so dry it was hard and jammed the gears. Cleaned out the old grease and put in some new. It worked for the next decade, when I finally paid off my college debt, and saved up enough to buy a new car.

Did something similar with the rear hatch wiper motor on a 90s-vintage Grand Cherokee I had. The lube in the shaft bushing would turn to glue and bind up. Half hour job to remove, disassemble, clean and re-lube and it was good as new.

 

[Oaktree]

Buying any tool is entirely my choice (it's my money) and I pay little attention to other's opinions on here and elsewhere concerning any of them. I do use TTC (Torque Test Channel) as a sounding board often times but not 100% of the time.

IMO, Ryobi tools suck big time as well. Had a couple that puked pretty quick and went to the landfill.

And that's why arguments on who makes the "best" tool, truck, tractor, etc. are very much YMMV. I've never gotten a bad Ryobi tool, HF's been about 50/50, and their QC seems to be iffy at best.
Good luck finding a battery for a discontinued line of HF tools, Ryobi has used backwards-compatible batteries on their 18v line for 20 or so years. In fact, that's how I got started with them...someone had given me a couple tools that didn't have batteries. Discovered that the current line of batteries fit them just fine and never had any reason to go anywhere else.

 

[5030]

Whatever blows your dress up I guess...

 

[5030]

I've only had ONE Bauer cordless tool fail and it was replaced. no questions asked and I recently replaced ALL my welding machines with HF's top line IGBT welders including the 2 Hyper Therm plasma cutters and so far (and I use my welders a lot), I've had no issues at all. I even added an Everlast TIG cooler and CK Worldwide series 19 water cooled torch to the Pro-Tig 205 TIG welding machine. I sold the Hyper Therm plasma cutters simply because the consumables got out of sight cost wise, especially the 'Fine Cut' consumables. Lets see, I now own a Pro-Tig 205 with a water cooled torch, 2 Titanium plasma cutters, one for hand use and the other is coupled to my CNC plasma table and I purchased everything and had a wad of money left over from the sale of my Lincoln Square Wave TIG machine and the 2 Hyper Therm cutters and I even threw in a full 120 CuFt bottle of inert gas and the regulator with the deal. Not that the Lincoln Square Wave was a bad machine because it was not but the Pro-Tig is a much better and more versatile machine, 100% digital readout and many presets to eliminate fiddling plus the foot pedal on the Pro-Tig is light years better that the Lincoln. Finally, I have a 3 year replacement guarantee on all of them. Not that I anticipate any issues as I've been running the bags out of all of them and so far, no issues what so ever. In fact the Pro-Tig develops a much more stable and smooth arc and is much easier to light off the Tungsten with.

IGBT machines are the only way to fly today. Very efficient electrically and much, much lighter than any comparable transformer machine.

 

[MossRoad]

Tool that has paid for itself over and over again...

 

[Gator6x4]

Tool that has paid for itself over and over again...

View attachment 871180

I have two of those I think. Purchased the second one when I could not find the first one. Now you know I found the first one after purchasing the second one. A couple of week ago I was looking for one of them to pick up something on the floor. Guess what? I said the He** with this it is metal use the magnet to grab it up off the floor.

 

[wilso]

Does anyone have any experience with the Penn Tool Co tools? I've recently come across its site and found several items I became interested in. But I never tried this brand. Of course, I can contact penn tool co customer service but it would be great to find out real people's experiences.

 

[jjeff]

So making a somewhat valid effort to organize, and clean my tinkering shop this weekend came across the the most fantastic tool box and tools in my hoarding inventory. Manufactured in the USA by a three or four old at the time however no child labor laws were broken. Its now permanently hanging on my shop wall.