Harbor Freight, Love Them Or Hate Them

[Oldbear]

The Harbor Freight of today is not the same Harbor Freight of yesterday. It amazes me to see how many car restoration shops on TV use the yellow Daytona floor jack, US General boxes and tool carts, etc... Those who still feel HF only sells cheap **** are missing the boat. You just need to do your research, and weed through some of the inferior items that they still carry.

We get the same thing here in Canada with our Princess Auto. I have some of my special tools - motorcycle shock adjuster, valve adjuster wrench, etc. Sure some of their stuff is junky but some are good stuff - or good enough for those of us that don't make a daily living with our tools. I still have some better tools (many with lifetime warranties) - Canadian Tire Mastercraft and Maximum, Napa Ultrapro (I worked there and got the discounts) some Gearwrench (not from the tool truck but from KMS Tools) and even a few items off a Matco and MAC truck - Matco picks outlast the PA ones.

 

[seber]

The hand tools made in Taiwan seem to be as good as any made anywhere. But I have a Daytona jack with a blown o-ring. Simple part that should be easy to find. Nope. It is special and apparently unavailable.

 

[Bucko]

Generally speaking if you do wear out the brushes, you used the living **** out of it so it wasn't actually a bad tool after all.

I had one of the cheap 4.5 black angle grinders that they would put on sale for $10. I beat the snot out of it with a ton of flap disks, grinding wheels, and cutoff wheels. One day it quit working and I figured it had a good life and I went and bought 2 more so I wouldn't have to switch between disks on a project. I got home and saw the extra brushes and looked in my parts bin and low and behold I had the set from the original. I popped them in and the old girl works like a charm so now I have 3 of them.
I have one of their older orange ones but it is a little more bulky and I have a Dewalt one but it is way bigger and regulated more for bench duties.

 

[driftpin]

I have one of their older orange ones but it is a little more bulky

My Chicago Electric side grinder had an issue with the brush holder, which I was able to make a durable fix. I bet I've had it close to 15 years, and it's always done whatever I needed it to do. It's earned its keep, many times over.



I also bought one of the on-sale inexpensive ones to see how it lasted, I haven't killed it yet. I got it for the same reason, to avoid having to change discs. I also have Milwaukee and DeWalt side grinders, and while they are more-sturdy apparently, I don't hesitate to grab the HFT if it's got the disc already on which I need.

Today I used my HFT demo hammer/drill (it originally cost me <$100) to replace an aluminum awning window in a CBS so. FL ranch-style home. It was a three-section awning bathroom window, obscure glass, and I used one of the HFT spade bits ~4" wide, to chisel-around the outside of the aluminum frame. Once the frame looked like it was clear of stucco, I used a hand spade chisel and a baby sledge from the inside to knock out the frame (I removed the awning window glass sections first). A bit of cleaning up with a 4-1/2" masonry disc from HFT for the stucco around the perimeter of the opening, (I used my Milwaukee side grinder this time) and the new impact single-hung window slid into place, where I secured it with 1/4" flathead Tapcons. I still have to repair the outside stucco and the inside grout (the window returns were recently-tiled) tomorrow.

Not sure what I'd expect to pay for that, replacement of a window in a CBS wall, I suspect $400-500 labor, the impact window was $345.

Again my HFT tools paid for themselves.

 

[Renegade1LI]

A buddy of mine did that, set up 4 grinders with different dics, under 100$ on sale.

 

[albundy]

i like the newer, higher quality items they've been stocking recently. they've got me through plenty of projects when money was tight, but they taught me not just any wrench is a wrench or with power tools, just cause it's new don't mean it's good.

that said, it's worth searching what you plan to buy from them these days. don't assume they're the cheapest, because they're not, by far depending on product. they're becoming an emotional brand, where your feelings make you buy what your brain wouldn't.

look at the cost for the titanium 65a plasma with the 2 year extended warranty [only comes with 90day], vs the everlast 82i that comes with a 5 year. or the price of a name brand hi-lift jack vs the new farm jack hf just added. i'm starting to find actual name brand tools are same or cheaper than the new hf version.

something to keep in mind.

 

[Ryan]

This thread is dumb as ****.