How to Fix a broken HF Tool

[Jagmandave]

So, I'm doing a lot of metal work on my classic Mini hot rod, replacing a lot of panels due to rust - and that entails making a LOT of holes for plug welds.

Enter my Harbor freight pneumatic air powered hole punch and flange tool, circa 1990. It's worked great all these years till I went to punch some holes the other day and it didn't. It would pull down OK, but not release unless I disconnected the air source. I figured out pretty quick that there must be a shuttle valve that........wasn't shuttling.

So I go to the HF site, find the current offering that looks exactly like mine, open up the parts diagram and there in living black and white is exactly the part I need. I call 1-888 HF parts and they say "nope, we don't have any internal parts for these things". I said "so I'm going to scrap a $70 (current price) tool for a dollars worth of parts"? She said "sorry".....

Unwilling to be so easily defeated, I go to the great google and find these things for sale all over the net, all looking exactly the same except for the brand name.......one of which is for sale from Astro Tools. I give them a call, the young lady emails me a parts diagram and it's exactly the same as the one on HF, even the part numbers are the same. I asked, she says "sure we have those, they're $1." I say send me 4......given this one lasted 30 years, I'm good now for another 120 years!

So, a shout out to Astro for great customer service and for having parts for their tools!

Parts are coming from California by mail, so sometime in the next month I should have them.......

 

[zendriver]

HF saves by not stocking parts, Astro makes $4 and you breathe life back into your 30 year old tool.

Everybody wins!

 

[RTM]

Remember a lot of them come out of the same factory over there, so cross brand searching can pay off. I've done it with light switches and other things that OEM part numbers matched

 

[vavet]

Nice save!

 

[zendriver]

Kind of surprised anyone stocks $1 parts for a $60 tool.

Shoots in the foot, that whole buy dirt cheap tool - use - break - toss, import product business model, that has worked so well, for the people selling them.

 

[yatg]

let me make it easy for you.
find one of these and make a deposit.

 

[Jagmandave]

I understand about cheap throw away tools - shoot I probably only paid $30 for this when I bought it! Of course in today's money that's probably $300!

It just goes against my grain to throw away a perfectly good tool when all it needs is an easily replaceable rubber bit. To get to this part all you do is remove a plug and it and a spring fall out. Took less than a minute to figure it out. it's easier than replacing the brushes in my 35 year old Makita angle grinder - which I have done twice now, to keep it going.

So you guys go ahead and dumpster yours and buy a new one, since I'm not running a professional shop doing restorations and watching the clock, I can afford to see if I can fix it and keep using it.

 

[MiteyF]

Everyone who says "toss it" here probably has a drawer with 100 cheap *** screwdrivers and 30 pairs of rusted out wrenches that will never see the light of day, so take that with a grain of salt.

 

[lardy1]

Do your own thing. I get it. Bought and paid for ranks high in my world.

 

[mikey03]

HF saves by not stocking parts, Astro makes $4 and you breathe life back into your 30 year old tool.

Everybody wins!

Astro loses because it cost more than $4 to handle the phone call and do the work here. Unless people decide this show of good faith makes them want to buy Astro tools from the beginning next time instead of HF. But I think Chris coming here and stories like this help alot so Astro loses right now but makes up in the long run with more new future sales tbh

 

[zendriver]

Astro loses because it cost more than $4 to handle the phone call and do the work here. Unless people decide this show of good faith makes them want to buy Astro tools from the beginning next time instead of HF. But I think Chris coming here and stories like this help alot so Astro loses right now but makes up in the long run with more new future sales tbh

My post was in sarcasm because of course nobody makes money on a four dollar parts sale. The main reason harbor freight does not offer parts on everything they sell cheap.

Astro likely bites the bullet and offers parts for inexpensive items, as a customer service to entice customers

Unfortunately, for them, a common product like that can probably be purchased at 50 other places, so people will buy it somewhere else if they can get it for a couple of bucks less

People that sell inexpensive products make their profit by selling inexpensive products not parts to keep them running forever

That said I don’t blame the OP. I probably would’ve done the same thing when I know there are parts available

 

[Notgrownup]

No matter the brand, I always feel good about fixing something to make it work for another 1/4 century.

 

[JeepYJ]

The main reason harbor freight does not offer parts on everything they sell cheap.

They do offer a surprising amount of replacement parts, and they’re usually inexpensive too. It’s worth a look if something from HF is broken and you know how to fix it with the correct replacement parts.

 

[stillnostrebor]

I know Astro and HF are often the same/similar. I own a lot of Astro stuff, and a bit of HF stuff, mostly because Astro is much cooler to their customers when something goes sideways. It's a personal thing from my experience. I also like supporting Astro because they really try to bring some interesting things to market, and they communicate with the little people on the forums.

That said, I certainly am not immune to visiting the local HF on a lunch hour. It's about the only place left that you can wander around and look at just tools for 45 minutes.

 

[The Cobbler]

Kudos to @Astro_Pneumatic_Tools, for stocking parts, Kudos to @Jagmandave for taking the time to research and repair .
I have also had great service from Astro when rebuilding a pneumatic paint shaker.
too bad we're in such a throw away society and getting worse , stories like this one make me warm & fuzzy .

 

[WWheeler]

let me make it easy for you.
find one of these and make a deposit.

That cybertruck owner has enough problems already. The noise that broken hole punch makes rolling around in the bed will probably have them back at the service center wondering what else is wrong now.

 

[Bubba Fett]

Good work on researching and fixing the issue. We (as a society) are too quick to trash something, and buy a new replacement. That's a testament to how well we really have it. That wasn't always an option, and for some, it still isn't. Plus, you gained some knowledge, satisfaction, and a working tool - while saving money.

Good on Astro for having/selling/shipping the part. The low price may seem unprofitable, but they probably got this in bulk for a few cents each.

 

[PugetDude]

Great customer service experience for me at Astro as well.

 

[Astro_Pneumatic_Tools]

Good work on researching and fixing the issue. We (as a society) are too quick to trash something, and buy a new replacement. That's a testament to how well we really have it. That wasn't always an option, and for some, it still isn't. Plus, you gained some knowledge, satisfaction, and a working tool - while saving money.

Good on Astro for having/selling/shipping the part. The low price may seem unprofitable, but they probably got this in bulk for a few cents each.

Stocking parts and shipping them out is certainly a money losing proposition, it's never intended nor will be profitable, but it's a requirement we feel to be a professional tool company so we've been doing so for 45 years. If you call us a human will pick up the phone and get you sorted today the same way we did 40 years ago, and the same way we will decades from now.

 

[Bubba Fett]

That is even more awesome.

 

[Aaron_W]

Grizzly has good parts support, and in many cases the parts will work on similar tools from other vendors like HF, Jet, Enco.

Probably not an option in this case as Grizzly doesn't offer many air tools.


Good for you for trying to fix the tool. It might not make a lot of sense for the time investment vs the price of new but I also hate seeing things thrown away when they can be fixed.

I probably would have bought a new one, and thrown the old one in a drawer to fix later, and I wonder why I have no space in the shop.

 

[Jagmandave]

Thanks for all the comments, and thanks to Astro for helping me out - that's one of the reasons I posted this, to give kudos where due!

Also, the reason I contacted Astro in the first place was due to my exposure to their company here on GJ.

I bought this tool over 35 years ago to do a job, it worked perfectly then and it will work perfectly now, once I get the part I need...... at the time I bought this tool HF was the only local game in town for stuff like this - as far as I knew. There really was no internet shopping in 1990! I don't know how many HF stores existed in 1990, this one was in an industrial area of Sandy Eggo - I had never seen a place like HF before - tho yes, I had been in a Sears store before. But nothing like this tool store existed before in my experience.

So yes, I could have gotten another new one from many different suppliers all over the net, but I always prefer to use the tool I already have and know.......

I'll follow up post on this once I get the parts and show you all what I'm doing with it.......

 

[NYBODYMAN]

I've been buying Astro tools for over 25 years and will continue to do so. They've always been great and I love hearing stories like this.

 

[mike93lx]

it will work perfectly now, once I get the part I need..

Look, I get that it's bad luck to be superstitious, but I'd excercise just a little caution.

 

[dnschmidt]

Astro does what Astro does because that's what Astro has always done. Steve Fisher is a man of integrity and his entire company operates this way and has for decades. The Fisher family will always be this way because that's how they were raised to be.

 

[Jagmandave]

Not a complaint exactly, but I ordered these on the 25th, shipped the 27th according to Astro, and now they say I should have them by this Friday - seems like an awful long time for tiny parts in an envelope to come by mail from California to KC...... 12 business days from the ship date. I mean, I know the post office is slow these days, but they sure seem to get my bills and junk mail from the hearing aid store and the seminar sales people here in good time!

 

[RTM]

Not a complaint exactly, but I ordered these on the 25th, shipped the 27th according to Astro, and now they say I should have them by this Friday - seems like an awful long time for tiny parts in an envelope to come by mail from California to KC...... 12 business days from the ship date. I mean, I know the post office is slow these days, but they sure seem to get my bills and junk mail from the hearing aid store and the seminar sales people here in good time!

It's going sightseeing. El Monte to LAX to Dulles, truck to NC, then back on a plane to Reagan, then small local truck to KC.

(At least that's the kinda trip my last HF order made from SoCal to NorCal. Took 12 days. I had friends bicycle that trip in less time.)

Not poking fun at Astro, once they drop it off...

Maybe it's too small, and one of the Big @$$ fans new it off the belt in a sorting facility.

 

[Beerhippie]

Stocking parts and shipping them out is certainly a money losing proposition, it's never intended nor will be profitable, but it's a requirement we feel to be a professional tool company so we've been doing so for 45 years. If you call us a human will pick up the phone and get you sorted today the same way we did 40 years ago, and the same way we will decades from now.

Damn it!

I only own one Astro Pneumatic tool. Now I need to buy a couple more just to support that attitude!

Hmmm... what could I use???

 

[PugetDude]

Damn it!

I only own one Astro Pneumatic tool. Now I need to buy a couple more just to support that attitude!

Hmmm... what could I use???

All of them.

 

[Jagmandave]

Still no parts.......I don't know if the issue is with the post office or if someone just forgot to put them in the mail or what. All I know is that it's been 19 days......

 

[pi_guy]

I am interested, had tried fixing a few with no luck.
Think the remains are buried some where.
I rebuilt a hand held air belt sander in the 70's and it has been in my toolbox since. Worked great.
Bought the HF electric version and it sits in drawer belts just don't stay on it unless you hold it at 90 degrees to work item.

Also remember a place called Harbor Salvage in Quincy early 70's.

 

[Houdini5150]

Bravo, if it works and keeps some tool that been working well for you, why not.

 

[Jagmandave]

So, out of frustration I called Astro again today....they still maintained they had mailed the parts out but I noticed they hadn't charged my CC for them. So I asked them if I could just buy a new tool from them, and they said they don't sell direct, but given the problems I'd had they would go ahead and do that, quoted me a price and took my CC again. They also waived shipping costs!

5 min ago a neighbor came to my door holding an envelope that had been delivered to his address by mistake - weeks ago. Guess what was in that envelope?

Yep!

So I'll call tomorrow and see if they have already processed the order - if so then I'll have two of these punch/flange tools!

Once again - Astro did everything right - so did I - but we were both victims of the postal carrier and a neighbor who was a bit lazy about getting my envelope to me.

So, I never doubted they had sent them, I only wondered why it had taken so long, and as it turned out, it sure wasn't Astro's fault! Once again kudos to Astro for great customer handling!

I put the one part in but it didn't fix it, so if they've already sent it I'll just keep the new one and get on with the project.

I had ordered everything I thought could give trouble the first time I called, so just as an exercise I may go ahead and take it all apart and see if I can figure out what's wrong. It sorta works, it clamps down hard, but then the jaws won't release all the way unless I disconnect the air hose......

The tool owes me nothing at this point, I bought it about 35 years ago and used it steadily for about 4 years building my Jag, so if I replace it now I can't complain.

 

[Jagmandave]

Final post on this subject, I got the new tool in and it works perfectly!

I also figured out why I couldn't fix the old one - in fact I don't know how it ever worked in the first place.....it turns out the bore for the plunger that operates the tool was not drilled accurately and was considerably offset and at an angle, so the rubber seal that fits in that bore and operates the shuttle could never seal properly.

So, now I have a few spare parts for my new tool in case I ever need them, and the old one went in the dumpster, just like zendriver and yatg suggested in the first place!

Oh......and I found out why my neighbor didn't bring the parts up to me for a week or two after they arrived at his place by mistake, he was in the hospital having heart surgery!

 

[Beerhippie]

Final post on this subject, I got the new tool in and it works perfectly!

I also figured out why I couldn't fix the old one - in fact I don't know how it ever worked in the first place.....it turns out the bore for the plunger that operates the tool was not drilled accurately and was considerably offset and at an angle, so the rubber seal that fits in that bore and operates the shuttle could never seal properly.

So, now I have a few spare parts for my new tool in case I ever need them, and the old one went in the dumpster, just like zendriver and yatg suggested in the first place!

Oh......and I found out why my neighbor didn't bring the parts up to me for a week or two after they arrived at his place by mistake, he was in the hospital having heart surgery!

What a lame excuse! "Ooh, I'm having heart surgery...." Slacker.

 

[Jagmandave]

Ha!

 

[mike93lx]

Yeah, time for better neighbors