Tax write off ha ha ha
Harbor Freight shocker!
- Thread starter autoace
- Start date
Tax write off ha ha ha
brian90505
Well-known member
Reminds me of a Maury show I saw. They looked like females, sounded like females, but they were men!
expatriated
Well-known member
Now that's funny!
I was in harbor freight the other day scrutinizing their ratchets and came to the conclusion that ther roto head ratchets had a superb finish that was in no way inferior to snap on. It didn't have the fine tooth mechanism of the snap ons with 100 teeth but it appeared well made. To be honest if it had Snap On stamped on it I'd believe it. I still carried this prejudice and couldn't get myself go buy it. There are a lit of HF tools that I do buy but try to stay away from the mechanics hand tools.
sberry
Banned
I personally wouldn't try to make the claim its as good as a Snappy, I doubt if it is, probably wouldn't have the ultimate torque or last as long but how much was it?
3/8 are always in short supply it seems no matter how many we have, but of the 2 only shiny hi dollar ones I have one never did work right and needs to be replaced. Over the years I collect some others that became the workhorses, they were cheap and never give a problem. Luck of the draw to some extent but the odds are good.
Having an abundance of air power also takes a share of the workload from hand ratchets making them last longer.
3/8 are always in short supply it seems no matter how many we have, but of the 2 only shiny hi dollar ones I have one never did work right and needs to be replaced. Over the years I collect some others that became the workhorses, they were cheap and never give a problem. Luck of the draw to some extent but the odds are good.
Having an abundance of air power also takes a share of the workload from hand ratchets making them last longer.
It may or may not be as good as the Snappy but the chrome finish on the HF roto head ratchet is as good if not better than the snappy. I have the 100 tooth SO roto head and I scrutinized both. The HF has fewer surface imperfections on the chrome. Is it a better ratchet? I doubt it but who knows. Would I buy it over the SO even though it costs 1/5 to 1/6 the price? No I wouldn't but I'm sure that a lot of others would.
It has been mentioned before, but really what we need is a person who has the ability to set up a few side by side comparison tests of the best HF tools and comparable SO. Someone who has the skills to set up testing rigs like on Mythbusters, for example.
Hard numbers about how much stress a SO breaker or wrench can take before distorting, then breaking compared to the HF piece would give a new element to this otherwise stale back and forth we have on here every week.
I know we have some gifted machinists and engineers and whatnot, and buying a few sacrificial tools would not be much of an expense. Think of all the web publicity one could derive from such a series of tests....
Hard numbers about how much stress a SO breaker or wrench can take before distorting, then breaking compared to the HF piece would give a new element to this otherwise stale back and forth we have on here every week.
I know we have some gifted machinists and engineers and whatnot, and buying a few sacrificial tools would not be much of an expense. Think of all the web publicity one could derive from such a series of tests....
Stick Figure
Well-known member
i'm sure a simple paypal account would offset the cost of testing. I would donate a few dollars to start the first round of tests. We just need to agree how to test which items.
allapanoo
Well-known member
I would be up for this too.I have a brand new well stocked HF minutes from my house.
expatriated
Well-known member
And those dedicated brand fans could place side bets on which brand wins each test, like Snap-on vs. Toptul ratchets. Of course, we'd have to spot Snap-on a few points in that particular head-to-head 
wineslob
Well-known member
And those dedicated brand fans could place side bets on which brand wins each test, like Snap-on vs. Toptul ratchets. Of course, we'd have to spot Snap-on a few points in that particular head-to-head
I hope Snap On dosen't turn into Snap Off.
BTW I've had 2 CM 1/2" drive ratchets bite the big one. Sears replaced them....but....I still have a TAT 52178 that's going strong, and it's the same age.
Shadowdog500
Well-known member
I was cleaning the garage tonight and found a 3/8" deepwell socket set (shown below) that I must have received as a gift or something. This thread got me thinking about trying to see just how hard I have to pull to break a socket. I put a carriage bolt with two double nutted 3/4" nuts in my vice so that the vise had the bottom nut and the socket was on the top nut. I put a 1/2" to 3/8" adapter on the HF 3/4" socket and went to town with a long 1/2" breaker bar. I was really surprised that the socket didn't break before the carriage bolt was twisted in half. Then I got a plow bolt with a grade 5 nut and put it in the vise. I actually started pulling so hard that I put on a face shield and work gloves for when the socket cracked. It never did. When the plow bolt started to slip and get distorted in the vise I moved everything down a bit so that the vise had the bottom half of the grade 5 nut and the socket had the top half of the nut. The bottom half of the nut actually rounded completely in the vise and the socket never broke. I may get some more grade 8 hardware this week a just to see how hard I will have to pull to break this socket.
I'm not planning to replace my Craftsman sockets with the HF stuff, but I am more than a little impressed that a socket from a set that goes on sale for like $12 didn't break.
Chris
I'm not planning to replace my Craftsman sockets with the HF stuff, but I am more than a little impressed that a socket from a set that goes on sale for like $12 didn't break.
Chris
I was cleaning the garage tonight and found a 3/8" deepwell socket set (shown below) that I must have received as a gift or something. This thread got me thinking about trying to see just how hard I have to pull to break a socket. I put a carriage bolt with two double nutted 3/4" nuts in my vice so that the vise had the bottom nut and the socket was on the top nut. I put a 1/2" to 3/8" adapter on the HF 3/4" socket and went to town with a long 1/2" breaker bar. I was really surprised that the socket didn't break before the carriage bolt was twisted in half. Then I got a plow bolt with a grade 5 nut and put it in the vise. I actually started pulling so hard that I put on a face shield and work gloves for when the socket cracked. It never did. When the plow bolt started to slip and get distorted in the vise I moved everything down a bit so that the vise had the bottom half of the grade 5 nut and the socket had the top half of the nut. The bottom half of the nut actually rounded completely in the vise and the socket never broke. I may get some more grade 8 hardware this week a just to see how hard I will have to pull to break this socket.
I'm not planning to replace my Craftsman sockets with the HF stuff, but I am more than a little impressed that a socket from a set that goes on sale for like $12 didn't break.
Chris
My ex-wife bought me some of those years ago, I thought they were funny, especially the colors. I threw them in my travel box, and bring the whole set underneath cars to keep from getting up for the right size all the time. Many years later, the colors are all but worn off, and the function of the abused sockets are 100%
Nothing short of a 3/4 inch impact gun will break them, so just give up, trying to break them by hand and leverage, the fasteners will break first.
Those are Harbor Freight tools from Taiwan. Maybe weld the heads of a Snap-on socket and one of those HF sockets together and put an impact gun in each one, and it will be like a socket truck pull LOL
Those "prisy" sockets are tough! LOL I laugh every time I hammer them onto a rust salvage yard bolt and give them the muscle. Unbelieveable how strong they are.
Funny! yes, but true.
AaronHayden
New member
I'm 13 I just bought the set and my grandpa who was a technician and a body man years ago was looking at it. He said he has to pick one up now too. All the sockets are 6 point and everything feels solid. The old thing I've broke is it's little 3/8 breaker Bar the tip busted right off while where putting new found wheel bearings on our Surbarban. Otherwise it's been reallly good.
I started my first mechanics course in college years ago with a 200 piece set from Halfords over here, its similar to those sets and was made in Taiwan, the sockets and tools were (still are) great if a bit basic.
Still have all of it spread over my current kit and halfords still warranty all of it. All of my 12 point chrome sockets come from that set, still work like new.
Still have all of it spread over my current kit and halfords still warranty all of it. All of my 12 point chrome sockets come from that set, still work like new.
im going to go out on a limb here and say that for the most part tool manufacturing in taiwan yields just as good of a product as the USA nowadays. Flame away, its true. Also as an ex tool distributor there are TONS and TONS and TONS of "professional" mechanics who use HF and even shittier tools. It was a shock to me as well when i was in a shop i only used HF for consumables a couple items i found to be of decent quality due to the amazing HF pass/fail thread here. That being said, the modern mechanic as ive experienced doesnt care about purchasing from a particular brand/COO. They want cheap prices even if it means poor quality, interestingly enough the modern taiwan tool is the pretty much the same quality as a modern USA tool except for 40% of the price.
hangfirew8
Well-known member
There was never any need to resurrect this 7 year old thread.
MadMechMaster
Well-known member
The resurrector should be encouraged. Welcome Aaron, I started with the equivalent set from Craftsman decades ago at the same age. Still use pieces from it. Here's to you doing the same!
As somebody recently pointed out, the gap in sockets has been closing a lot in the last few years. For not much more than they pay for junk, somebody like HF can get very decent quality. Even the Chinese have stepped up their game. Tekton was one of the first to realize this. I got a couple of sockets from them and they look really good and reviews suggest that they hold up just fine. Bottom of the barrel stuff now comes from India.
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
shawndp
Well-known member
I have been using HF sockets for a while now in revenue service and they work rather well. I can not think of an instance where the tool failed. The chrome isn't as nice as my SO set, but I bought them at a time when I could not afford SO and they certainly got me through. I am going to get the big kit for our shop set / floater. Thanks!
Willie Makeit
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2013
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Honda guy
Well-known member
Welcome Aaron! Feel free to join in and tell us a little about yourself.
MikeF2316
Well-known member
Just think, when this thread was opened, you were 6!
Put me on the list of folks who think there's nothing wrong with adding onto an old thread. I do it myself. In fact I think it's better, all the information is in one place.
