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Harbor Freight Impact Socket Set

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bmxdad

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Feb 18, 2014
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Location
Puyallup, WA
Harbor Freight has the 37 Piece 3/8 in. & 1/2 in. Drive SAE & Metric Impact Socket Set on sale for $25.

I've been looking for a dedicated set of sockets for my impact gun, and was wondering what people who have them think?

Looks like a descent deal ... any reviews?
 

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Scimmia

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Dec 2, 2014
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229
Chinese Cr-V steel, skips sizes, and the standard Pittsburgh impact sockets have a marginal reputation. You'd be much better off with the Pittsburgh Pro impact sockets. A bit more money, but much better sockets and doesn't skip important sizes.
 
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snap-on-tools

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Jul 3, 2012
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Pittsburgh pro tools seem to be better made. to me anyway
I've used Pittsburgh pro for a while and haven't broke them yet.
 
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Vegaman_Dan

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Jun 1, 2012
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Location
Pacific, WA
I have both the standard and pro series for basic sizes and the Pro ones are just my go to choice of sockets on the impact. A bit beefier, seems to be sturdier, but that said, I haven't broken any of the standard ones either, so... don't know.

I just prefer the Pro series.
 
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afmrick

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Aug 7, 2012
Messages
95
I also have the Pittsburgh Pro set - just for home use but, no complaints. I haven't been brave/cheap enough to try the non-Pro versions yet.
 
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619DioFan

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Apr 9, 2013
Messages
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Location
San Diego , Ca.
My experience has been that the standard HF impact sockets didn't hold up to well. I had several crack while removing some rather difficult lug nuts. I switched to the pro line and have had zero issues. I would say to spend the extra money and get the pro line from HF.
 
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Wizzard

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Jan 28, 2011
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I saw them on sale for $25 also (the Pro version). They look like a great bargain to me. Lowes Kobalt impacts appear to come out of the same manufacturing plant...same origin (Taiwan) and same rough phosphate finish...but the Kobalts cost twice as much. I say you can't go wrong with the Pittsburgh Pros.
 
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RunninOnEmpty

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Mar 1, 2015
Messages
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Location
New England
At this budget... For a ratchet or maybe breaker bar, I'd stick to Pittsburgh impacts or Pittsburgh Pro chrome or impacts... for an impact gun, I would probably use Pro impacts only... and only if I really needed to be at this budget.
 
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Farmall450

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Marengo, Illinois
RunninOnEmpty said:
At this budget... For a ratchet or maybe breaker bar, I'd stick to Pittsburgh impacts or Pittsburgh Pro chrome or impacts... for an impact gun, I would probably use Pro impacts only... and only if I really needed to be at this budget.
Click to expand...

I'm not quite sure how to interpret your signature. :dunno:
 
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RunninOnEmpty

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Cool story. Craftsman has let me down quite a few times and frankly I don't understand the desire to have a million tools for ridiculously low prices to begin with. Wanting to pay $25 for a new impact socket set is more crazy than Snap On asking what it asks on the opposite end of the spectrum in my mind, yet I gave a reasonably objective answer about it. This certainly isn't the place to discuss my signature, nor am I interested in your opinion of it. I have my own experience and it definitely tells me that I should not trust a Craftsman tool to do any serious job. And for what it's worth, I'd use Pittsburgh Pro over Craftsman for a lot of things.

I've had worse experiences with both Craftsman and HF wrenches than I have with sockets. I hated the Danaher ratchets, too, and my Pittsburgh Pro 1/2" extendable seems a hell of a lot better even though it's chunky. It's fortunately not my only ratchet; I have nice ones as well. But that Pittsburgh Pro extendable one is great to keep in the trunk for lug nuts and stuff.
 
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cheechi

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Triad, NC
RunninOnEmpty said:
Cool story.
Click to expand...
Immediate loss of credibility starting a post this way.

I have the non pros in 3/8 (since when I bought mine there was no pro/cr-mo in 3/8) and they are fine for use with the M12 fuel. Use them at home and at the junk yard and no issues so far.

I bought the pros in 1/2 though because it was an option and (i think) the same price. The 1/2 drive pro sets don't come with a case unless that is new. The 3/4 and 1" I think do have a case.
 
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funks

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Been using mine for a couple of years, no probs with them.
 
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Farmall450

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RunninOnEmpty said:
Cool story. Craftsman has let me down quite a few times and frankly I don't understand the desire to have a million tools for ridiculously low prices to begin with. Wanting to pay $25 for a new impact socket set is more crazy than Snap On asking what it asks on the opposite end of the spectrum in my mind, yet I gave a reasonably objective answer about it. This certainly isn't the place to discuss my signature, nor am I interested in your opinion of it. I have my own experience and it definitely tells me that I should not trust a Craftsman tool to do any serious job. And for what it's worth, I'd use Pittsburgh Pro over Craftsman for a lot of things.

I've had worse experiences with both Craftsman and HF wrenches than I have with sockets. I hated the Danaher ratchets, too, and my Pittsburgh Pro 1/2" extendable seems a hell of a lot better even though it's chunky. It's fortunately not my only ratchet; I have nice ones as well. But that Pittsburgh Pro extendable one is great to keep in the trunk for lug nuts and stuff.
Click to expand...

Probably not the best way to start a post if you want people to take your own "story" seriously. :thumbup:
 
OP
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bmxdad

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Location
Puyallup, WA
What sizes are we talking about being skipped? What I mean is, are they used a lot or are they standard sizes?

This is what's included:
1/2 in. Drive:
7/16 in., 1/2 in., 9/16 in., 5/8 in., 11/16 in., 3/4 in., 13/16 in., 7/8 in., 15/16 in., 1 in.,
9mm, 10mm, 12mm, 13mm, 14mm, 15mm, 17mm, 21mm, 22mm;

3/8 in. Drive:
5/16 in., 3/8 in., 7/16 in., 1/2 in., 9/16 in., 5/8 in., 11/16 in., 3/4 in.,
8mm, 10mm, 11mm, 12mm, 13mm, 14mm, 17mm

What I see missing ...
Metric
16mm, 18mm, 19mm and 27mm

SAE:
1-1/16 in., 1-1/8 in., 1-1/4 in.
 
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RECox286

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Location
South Joisey (yeah, that is part of the USA)
Been using mine for over 25 years with no breakage,

and no complaints. Some of them got used a lot more

than others, some not used at all. Only problem I had

was I needed sizes that didn't come in the set, so had to

find singles to fill out the sets.

Uncle Bob
 
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Scimmia

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Dec 2, 2014
Messages
229
bmxdad said:
What sizes are we talking about being skipped? What I mean is, are they used a lot or are they standard sizes?

This is what's included:
1/2 in. Drive:
7/16 in., 1/2 in., 9/16 in., 5/8 in., 11/16 in., 3/4 in., 13/16 in., 7/8 in., 15/16 in., 1 in.,
9mm, 10mm, 12mm, 13mm, 14mm, 15mm, 17mm, 21mm, 22mm;

3/8 in. Drive:
5/16 in., 3/8 in., 7/16 in., 1/2 in., 9/16 in., 5/8 in., 11/16 in., 3/4 in.,
8mm, 10mm, 11mm, 12mm, 13mm, 14mm, 17mm

What I see missing ...
Metric
16mm, 18mm, 19mm and 27mm

SAE:
1-1/16 in., 1-1/8 in., 1-1/4 in.
Click to expand...

All of which I've used. Not the 16mm as much, but I have used it. The 18 and 19 are huge omissions, IMO, even though 19mm is pretty much interchangeable with 3/4.
 
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IFMJohn

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Jun 6, 2014
Messages
990
Location
Tacoma, WA
Well, yesterday I had my 15/16 pittsburg pro 1/2" drive impact socket on a 3/4" impact gun beating on a bolt for around a minute, heated it red hot, beated on it for a minute, heated it, beated on it, heated it, beat on it and then it finally broke loose. No visible signs of damage inside the socket, no cracks, no real problems.

That comes from a professional diesel tech and that particular socket is one of my most used.

Maybe someday I'll make one explode but until it does I'll continue to spend my money on other tools.
 
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Adam.C

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Jan 29, 2013
Messages
1,490
Here's another cool story. Only sockets I've ever broken in 30 years were craftsman. Had the most problem with craftsman and lisle bit sockets. I have both broken these and stripped/fasteners with them. I don't measure sockets by how many I break, I measure them by how well they fit and how well they remove parts successfully.

The craftsman I used were the "good" USA made tools from the 80s and early 90s. I never got the pro fully polished wrenches. I had raised panel stuff because that was all I could afford.

I worked on Japanese cars when they were ****. Drove a 1976 Honda civic. It had the cheapest, lowest grade hardware possible. I stripped, rounded much of it. The brake drums were frozen on the hubs. I ended up cutting them off. My craftsman screwdrivers (old clear handles) rounded screws (looking back, probably Phillips screw drivers in JIS screws).

If I had Snap On tools then, would it have changed things for me? I can't say for sure. But my impression of my craftsman tools remains negative, based on my experience.

The difference in price between the world's best sockets (choose whatever brand you want here) and the world's worst sockets (loose fitting craftsman, HF etc) is at most $100/set. I'm not willing to risk returning to my youth and stripping fasteners again to save the cost of 1 dinner out.

I think this is where runningonempty is coming from. Would be nice if we could treat each other with respect here and make an attempt to understand each other rather than just write snarky quips.
 
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bwringer

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Jan 1, 2013
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10,273
Location
Indianapolis
As mentioned above, the Pittsburgh Pro stuff is made in Taiwan and is excellent quality. And it sure does look and feel identical to the Kobalt stuff at bLowes.

The thing that really, really, truly cheeses me off are the missing sizes. Worse, they don't sell individual sockets so you can assemble a complete set. I use 19mm all the time, and 16 and 18mm are very common on 'merkin brand cars, especially in the suspension, where you're going to use an impact a lot...

I used my old sockets of various brands to complete my set, but I suppose I could have gone to bLowes and grabbed some individual Kobalt sockets. Seems silly -- I'd rather pay a few bucks more and end up with a complete set in the first place.
 
M

Model A Fan

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Dec 1, 2011
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ex-x-fire said:
Me too, I've taken apart a lot of rusty stuff with c-man tools.
Click to expand...

Farmall450 said:
Same here. Granted mine is USA stock, but still... :beer:
Click to expand...

I noticed his signature earlier...and then I saw his join date and post count. He seems to be kind of a post glutton to rack up that many posts in such a short amount of time. Craftsman is not a premium tool line, but jeez. This guy makes it out to be that if you use Craftsman you will break stuff. :dunno:
 
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S

Scimmia

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Dec 2, 2014
Messages
229
bwringer said:
As mentioned above, the Pittsburgh Pro stuff is made in Taiwan and is excellent quality. And it sure does look and feel identical to the Kobalt stuff at bLowes.

The thing that really, really, truly cheeses me off are the missing sizes. Worse, they don't sell individual sockets so you can assemble a complete set. I use 19mm all the time, and 16 and 18mm are very common on 'merkin brand cars, especially in the suspension, where you're going to use an impact a lot...

I used my old sockets of various brands to complete my set, but I suppose I could have gone to bLowes and grabbed some individual Kobalt sockets. Seems silly -- I'd rather pay a few bucks more and end up with a complete set in the first place.
Click to expand...

The shallow Pro set includes 16, 18, and 19. It skips from 23 to 27, otherwise it's pretty complete.
 
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n8n

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Messages
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Location
Curtis Bay, MD
bmxdad said:
What sizes are we talking about being skipped? What I mean is, are they used a lot or are they standard sizes?

This is what's included:
1/2 in. Drive:
7/16 in., 1/2 in., 9/16 in., 5/8 in., 11/16 in., 3/4 in., 13/16 in., 7/8 in., 15/16 in., 1 in.,
9mm, 10mm, 12mm, 13mm, 14mm, 15mm, 17mm, 21mm, 22mm;

3/8 in. Drive:
5/16 in., 3/8 in., 7/16 in., 1/2 in., 9/16 in., 5/8 in., 11/16 in., 3/4 in.,
8mm, 10mm, 11mm, 12mm, 13mm, 14mm, 17mm

What I see missing ...
Metric
16mm, 18mm, 19mm and 27mm

SAE:
1-1/16 in., 1-1/8 in., 1-1/4 in.
Click to expand...

Skipping 19mm is inexcusable, metric sizes for old school Euro stuff is 10, 13, 17, 19, 21. That's 20% of the sockets that I would use just not there. Plus since you may need to work on DIN, ISO or JIS machinery you really can't skip any sizes at all as pretty much all of them are used in one standard or another.

Sent from my XT897 using Tapatalk
 
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Farmall450

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n8n said:
Skipping 19mm is inexcusable, metric sizes for old school Euro stuff is 10, 13, 17, 19, 21. That's 20% of the sockets that I would use just not there. Plus since you may need to work on DIN, ISO or JIS machinery you really can't skip any sizes at all as pretty much all of them are used in one standard or another.

Sent from my XT897 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

19mm is very close to 3/4". That's why they skipped it.
 
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