Harbor Freight corded power tools

[rapyoke]

I am breaking my own "nothing with a motor from HF" rule here, but I am strongly considering purchasing the Harbor Freight reciprocating saw and orbital sander for some minor remodeling that my girlfriend and I are doing. My drill and angle grinder are both Dewalt (love them both), but I figured that for the $50 total compared to the $140 for a Dewalt saw and sander, I could buy the HF stuff three times before I broke even. I am going to be using this stuff for the remodeling, and then maybe once a month afterwards.

Recommendations/experience/comments are much appreciated

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-amp-reciprocating-saw-with-rotating-handle-65570.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/5-inch-random-orbital-palm-sander-93431.html

 

[greasemonkey44]

yeah, youll break that saw 4 times
idiot with a security company bought one and cooked it, swapped it and did 4 more magic smoke tricks
go to a pawn shop if you need a recip, like 20$ out the door for a cheapie and itll last way longer dunno abt the sander

 

[dodge610]

I am breaking my own "nothing with a motor from HF" rule here, but I am strongly considering purchasing the Harbor Freight reciprocating saw and orbital sander for some minor remodeling that my girlfriend and I are doing. My drill and angle grinder are both Dewalt (love them both), but I figured that for the $50 total compared to the $140 for a Dewalt saw and sander, I could buy the HF stuff three times before I broke even. I am going to be using this stuff for the remodeling, and then maybe once a month afterwards.

Recommendations/experience/comments are much appreciated

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-amp-reciprocating-saw-with-rotating-handle-65570.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/5-inch-random-orbital-palm-sander-93431.html

I am not a big fan on HF electrical power tools I dont have either of the two that you are lookin at but have bit the bullet on other HF elec. tools and still got em and they still work fine. And the breaker bar that ratchets that you failed in the pass fail thread if its pittsburgh they will warranty it for life.

 

[jtbinvalrico]

I have beat the poo out of my HF rec saw and it still runs like a champ:
http://www.harborfreight.com/industrial-duty-reciprocating-saw-65298.html

Of course, I got it with a coupon for about $30. The biggest issue with HF stuff is getting a good one.....All the bad reviews it got on the HF site are obviously indicative of those who got duds.

Whoever gets a good one will sing its praises; whoever gets a dud will rant on it.

 

[Kirbot]

I have 4 power tools from Harborfreight.
I haven't had any trouble with any of them.

I don't have either of the ones your talking about though.

 

[wafrederick]

I have the corded right angle 3/8 drill and has been great so far.I don't use it a lot.

 

[Jack Olsen]

I'm more leery of anything needing a precise casting or very hard steel. I got a set of pliers that were just junk.

But I've got lots of motorized HF tools, and I've never had a failure.

 

[jwitt]

I have the sander. I bought it to do one job and it worked fine. I figure everything else is gravy.

Jim

 

[Kev442]

Wife bought the square sander from HF for about $7. Many hours on it, like 20.
I bought the $20 4.5 amp recips for throwaways. I wasn't having any trouble with them, a metal blade in one and a wood blade in the other, until I put a metal demolition blade in one and started cutting up a car with it. That lasted about 2 minutes. The bevel gears stripped about 1/2. By that I mean that I can still use it to cut PVC and other light duty work without it jamming. Sooo, don't cut up any cars and it should be ok.

 

[Lightfoot]

I ALSO said i would never buy a HF power tool.
But, i bought the HF oscillating multi-tool (last year) just because i only needed it for a small project, and i didn't feel i needed to give 5 times as much for something i'll rarely use. I still have it, it still runs like new, it paid for itself the first job, and i will definitely look at HF power tools again because of it. One of the few times i've been pleasantly surprised when buying cheap tools. If it laid down today (and it shows no signs of it), it has already paid for itself many times over.

 

[ibedayank]

I have this miter saw use the **** out of it building crates to ship cycles
http://www.harborfreight.com/power-tools/miter-saws/10-inch-compound-miter-saw-91995.html

 

[tooth]

my father in law bought a big drill from HF, thinking he'd be able to drill a hole through a concrete brick (it's mostly hollow, so really through 2 x 2" concrete portions of the brick).

Using a brand new sharp concrete bit, it made it through about 1/2" on the first portion before the motor smoked itself.

I'd stick to your rule - hit up CL or a pawn shop to find a real brand.

 

[Jack Olsen]

You should never use a big (or small) regular drill on concrete.

HF has pretty cheap hammer drills. They will go through concrete like butter.

 

[ibedayank]

you really dont "drill" concrete you chip it by hammering a chisel into it...therefore the Hammerdrill hammers a spinning bit

 

[pcpro15]

I had that recip saw in your first link. I didn't even use it that much and still managed to bust it in no time. imho, complete fail. At first... it is nice. Then the front guard fell off (two allen screws). Trip to the hardware store and some loctite fixed that up. After the first time I used it... the vibrations started getting worse with it to where it felt like I was running a jack hammer lol. I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't even get 10hours out of the saw collectively before the oscillating mechanism busted. If I had to do it all again, I would have spent the money right the first time and went for the Milwaukee

 

[diggerrick]

I don't have any experience with the HF tools you're asking about, but since you brought up "nothing with a motor from HF", I'll toss in my 2 cents.

My wife and I have used the HF oscillating multitool on a lot of projects for our home & the rentals, and my office for at least the last two years. It still works great. I bought another one in January, and it quit running in March. I called and they sent me a replacement that has been working fine. I took the other one apart and found a broken brush holder that I epoxied. It works fine again, but who knows how long the epoxy will hold with all the vibration.

I also had a couple HF drills several years ago. The 1/2" hammer drill worked ok, but didn't have much power at all, so I sold it in a garage sale. The cheap 3/8" VSR drill also worked fine for a couple years until I was pushing too hard to compensate for a worn phillips bit and screwed up the bearing(s). It still ran, but squealed, so I sold it in a garage sale for $1 (I had the guy try it so he knew what he was buying).

I've had my cheap angle grinder for about ten years that still runs the same as new, but also never had much power. So I use it for surface cleaning only and bought a Dewalt at the pawn shop for $30.

I understand they do have lower and more powerful versions of most of their power tools, and I would not probably buy the cheaper, less powerful version of the tool from HF. You also, in my experience, have to handle HF power tools with more care than you would contractor grade tools.

For the record, I'm a big fan and user of HF tools, but if I can I can find a used higher grade power tool for about the same price that's what I buy. You can buy a 10A Dewalt recip saw new for $89, or used in the pawn shop for about $60. I haven't looked at sanders in our local pawn shops.

 

[ajchien]

My theory with HF. They like seeing you come back into the store. Whether its something you need, something with a great coupon, or returning/warrantying a product.

They have a good return policy. Buy it. Try it. If it doesnt meet your needs, return it.

Ive returned more things to HF than any other store Ive ever shopped at. But Ive kept so many more things from HF than Ive returned.

If I buy Sears craftsman, I likely wont be back in the store to return it. It's not snap on quality, feel, look, or smoothness. It does the job. If I buy HF, theres a chance thats its really nice for the price, that it does the job, or that it really is junk.

FWIW, my HF angle grinder and drill have sufficed for home projects.

 

[99_xc600]

I purchased this one about 6 months ago and used it to relocate some ceiling joists. Used it for 2 days straight and it never skipped a beat. Make sure you purchase a good blade. It makes all the difference in the world.

If there is one bad thing about it. I would have to say the location of the "On-Lock" button. It's located in the same spot as your thumb would naturally be. So as soon as you start to use the saw. You engaged the "Lock" button and when your done with the cut. The saw is still running.

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-amp-reciprocating-saw-with-rotating-handle-65570.html

 

[SweetD]

I bought that sander last week on sale and with the 20% coupon - total around $15.50.

I bought it to sand the loose alblative bottom paint off of my boat, which is an annual job before coating it again for the season. If it lasts through that nasty job, I've gotten my money's worth out of it.

I fried my Porter Cable 5" Orbital after a couple of years, so I figured I'd go for it with the HF sander this time around. We'll see...but for $15 or so, you can't really go wrong.

 

[GarageEnvy]

I had a similar rule and I've broken in and wished I'd broken it. My father has the recip saw, along with 2 milwaukee sawzalls. The HF is definitely inferior but it is still running and gets used just as often. No experience with the sander. My father owns the HF jack hammer and it is all but worthless. However, the medium size and the smaller roto hammers are actually pretty decent. They have their limits for sure. I used the smaller hammer drill to drill 3/8" holes every 2" through a 4" slab (perforation line for demolition) and it kept up just fine. I tried to use it for a 1" hole for some conduit and a to bore 1-3/8" holes for a boulder demolition and it was worthless. For those jobs I rented a big Hilti unit which was like a knife through butter. As part of the renovation on my house I had to remove all the stucco. I used my Makita grinder and killed it with all the stucco dust. For that, I wished I had broken my own rule and bought sacrificial HF grinders. That being said.....and I know others have had good luck with HF grinders, I had one literally fall apart in my hand as I was walking across the shop with it. I'm glad it wasn't in use when it happened.

 

[Plump]

I ALSO said i would never buy a HF power tool.
But, i bought the HF oscillating multi-tool (last year) just because i only needed it for a small project, and i didn't feel i needed to give 5 times as much for something i'll rarely use. I still have it, it still runs like new, it paid for itself the first job, and i will definitely look at HF power tools again because of it. One of the few times i've been pleasantly surprised when buying cheap tools. If it laid down today (and it shows no signs of it), it has already paid for itself many times over.

I love mine. Only used it a few times but it's now one of my favorite tools. Absolutely no complaints.