POS Harbor fright tools

[Griff93]

Pickle Forks are junk. Someone gave me one brand new from HF. It split into three pieces when I tried to use it.

Their heat guns are dangerous. Mine caught fire in my hands.

 

[jamesemery728]

I love these kind of posts and here is why. When you go to HF, unless it is your first trip to a tool store of any kind, you have to use some common sense. Most of the folks on this forum have used tools of all brand and variety like Snapon, MAC, etc and should be able to tell if a tool is great, good, fair, or a POS just by picking it up in the store and having a good look at it. I am a long way from being an expert at anything, but I have been using tools for more years than I would care to admit. I sometimes go to HF with the intention of buying something but after looking at it I can tell that it is pure ****. Other things you can tell they will work but are not going to take much of any abuse. So for me it is a matter of using a little bit of common sense and whole lot of years of using tools that make up my decision to buy something at HF.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I love these kind of posts and here is why. When you go to HF, unless it is your first trip to a tool store of any kind, you have to use some common sense. Most of the folks on this forum have used tools of all brand and variety like Snapon, MAC, etc and should be able to tell if a tool is great, good, fair, or a POS just by picking it up in the store and having a good look at it. I am a long way from being an expert at anything, but I have been using tools for more years than I would care to admit. I sometimes go to HF with the intention of buying something but after looking at it I can tell that it is pure ****. Other things you can tell they will work but are not going to take much of any abuse. So for me it is a matter of using a little bit of common sense and whole lot of years of using tools that make up my decision to buy something at HF.

That's a good honest post. . . . buy HF tools with a grain of salt.

 

[blue2golf]

Harbor Freight is great for guys like me....shade tree mechanics who try to save money by doing the job themselves. What I've found:

I've bought a dang good 2.5 ton floor jack for $69.

Their jack stands hold my vehicles up.

Pittsburg line of hand tools has a life time warranty, just like Craftsman. Break it, turn it in for a new one.

I had a Central Forge vice blow up on me while pressing out a U joint. Lesson...use a press, not a vice for that job. (They replaced it for free by the way...)

Their air tools work fine for me. Removing lug nuts, sharpening lawn mower blades etc....


So yeah, they make alot of **** tools. Buyer beware and all that. But I can say HF has been pretty good to me and I'll keep shopping there.

 

[JimVonBaden]

Their heat guns are dangerous. Mine caught fire in my hands.

My heat gun, orange one, has been abused for three years with no issues.

Jim

 

[maxspeed96ct]

My heat gun, orange one, has been abused for three years with no issues.

Jim

I have the black one for a year now and no issues (knock on wood ) .

But ive also only done small projects with it nothing major..

Have my eye on the $35 paint gun , looking to maybe do the bumpers on my daily driver honda since they are shot.

Anyone have a review for it ? http://www.harborfreight.com/high-volume-low-pressure-gravity-feed-spray-gun-66222.html

 

[Falcon67]

Here's another hit-or-miss item - the $5 yellow multimeter. I needed a cheap-o to take to the track. First one was fine and it served it's intended purpose - work until lost or smashed. That one got smashed in the heat of the action. The replacement went nuclear first time it saw a car battery. That was fun. If I'd have known, I'd have put it on a 240V connection and got some July 4th action out of it. I happened to be in Sears some time later, went all out and bought a red $10 one. It still works. The extra $5 is for the red carcinogens in the plastic.

Maxspeed - I have the one that goes on sale for $10 and have used it to shoot primer. Works decent. I even bought a spare on sale, just in case. I have a $99 no name model bought at paint store a few years back the that is very likely the same as the HF $35 item. No problems with it either. The plastic cups do start to develop stress cracks around the pressed in thread insert, but it took a while for that to show up. Plastic shrinks anyway and I'm sure auto paint, thinner, etc doesn't help that much.

 

[BDT/NWMN]

Pickle Forks are junk. Someone gave me one brand new from HF. It split into three pieces when I tried to use it.

Their heat guns are dangerous. Mine caught fire in my hands.

well If I wanted to roast some hot dogs; maybe pick up a heat gun and some pickle forks.. Might be a little safer to just go to the county fair for the hot dogs..


I recently bought an 8" grinder that was on sale for around $54, they had an open box return priced at $44, ... Pizz away $44 on a chinder?? Ya I did.. Seems that I have to make an appointment for that thing to get up to speed... With fabbed tool rests to replace the "tin" ones, and a fine wire brush wheel to replace the coarse grinding wheel, it will hopefully work for light duty work.. Sadly, that grinder appears to be cloned in other cheapo tool lines for allot more money..
Money spent on a 40 year old USA electrical product may have been a better choice.. for both of us...

 

[tribbles]

Pickle Forks are junk. Someone gave me one brand new from HF. It split into three pieces when I tried to use it.

Now my pickle fork didn't break. The forks (tines, I guess) got pretty badly scarred up and the end got mushroomed from whacking it with a four-pound drilling hammer during the course of a Caprice rehab, but it stayed in one piece. Whatever they're doing for heat treating and tempering, they're doing it wrong.

 

[maxspeed96ct]

Now my pickle fork didn't break. The forks (tines, I guess) got pretty badly scarred up and the end got mushroomed from whacking it with a four-pound drilling hammer during the course of a Caprice rehab, but it stayed in one piece. Whatever they're doing for heat treating and tempering, they're doing it wrong.

Mine bent to hell after one use, but I got the job done. I think they can be used again, not sure lol .

 

[Schtauffer]

The double flaring tool. It does no such thing. Total POS.

I do like the HF tool box I got, however.

 

[Falcon67]

Pickle Forks are junk. Someone gave me one brand new from HF. It split into three pieces when I tried to use it.

Their heat guns are dangerous. Mine caught fire in my hands.

If you know how to "Fonz" the spindle, you don't need a pickle fork.

 

[Mr_John]

Agree on the hand transfer pump (orange), it was a POS. Also, the minim blue and black $100 generator was essentially a POS. It leaked gas and the carb went after one use. Luckily, I really only needed it for one use and was able to run my refrigerator off of it.

As a side note, instrux recommend a break-in period for the motor and I did not know this. Not sure if that would have materially changed anything, though.

As an aside, their torque wrenches are pretty damn good for $10 (with coupon). I agree the 1/4 doesn't have a very positive "click," but the 1/2, for example, is rated at +/- 4% accuracy for $10 and compare that to an Armstrong, MAC, or Snap-on that might be 2%. The thing is though, that $250 Snap-on will by you 25 HF torque wrenches... so, rather than recalibrate the Snap-on, you could essentially toss the HF in the recycle bin and buy another or use another from storage.

As an aside, I own a Snappy 3/8 digital angle torque wrench... I think I could have purchased an entire *AISLE* at HF for what that thing costs.

 

[concealer404]

Agree on the hand transfer pump (orange), it was a POS. Also, the minim blue and black $100 generator was essentially a POS. It leaked gas and the carb went after one use. Luckily, I really only needed it for one use and was able to run my refrigerator off of it.

As a side note, instrux recommend a break-in period for the motor and I did not know this. Not sure if that would have materially changed anything, though.

As an aside, their torque wrenches are pretty damn good for $10 (with coupon). I agree the 1/4 doesn't have a very positive "click," but the 1/2, for example, is rated at +/- 4% accuracy for $10 and compare that to an Armstrong, MAC, or Snap-on that might be 2%. The thing is though, that $250 Snap-on will by you 25 HF torque wrenches... so, rather than recalibrate the Snap-on, you could essentially toss the HF in the recycle bin and buy another or use another from storage.

As an aside, I own a Snappy 3/8 digital angle torque wrench... I think I could have purchased an entire *AISLE* at HF for what that thing costs.

Is this the one you guys are talking about? http://www.harborfreight.com/multi-use-transfer-pump-66418.html

I may have gotten lucky... i used it this past weekend and loved it. As long as you don't pump like a madman, it's just fine. Was easily capable of moving a quart in less than a minute.

 

[Need4racin]

any issues with their o-ring kits?

 

[mk3cn4]

So far I've had good luck with their stuff. As stated the snap ring pliers sucked. But, they got the job done.

Ditto. Just installed a 2-post lift that had 2 snaprings needing installed, hated to burn cash for a good tool just for this, they were in a place that the tool was really needed to get them on.

Bought the harbor freight ones for super cheap, worked good enough for that one job. I may never need them again, and this is the perfect use for some harbor freight tools, almost disposable.

Their 2-ton engine foldup engine hoist=AWESOME. I hoisted many things with it so far, including my 2-post car lift off the trailer when I got it home (1500lbs). I also hook it to the trailer hitch thing on my tractor and lift the whole tractor to like 45 degrees with it, let's me clean out the deck and check blades very easily.

They have a cheap $40 oil drain tank with 6' tall funnel and tube, very poor reviews, bought it anyway, there's a large sticker right on the tank saying "warantee void if dropped". Not kidding. Seems "ok", I'll be babying it for sure, but that sticker confirms that it's not a solid product.

 

[concealer404]

any issues with their o-ring kits?

I'm using one on my distributor on my daily driver right now. No issues.

Couldn't just get the o-ring, wanted to sell me a whole dizzy. Bought both o-ring kits for cheaper and it's held for a year now.

If it gives out, i'll throw another one on.

 

[Need4racin]

Well that's good to hear, Conceal. Tomarrow I'm going to pickup one of the green ac o-ring kits for 25% off.

 

[Alcohol]

You guys have hit the marks on this one. Lots of fairly good tools for a low price. I've had my failures, but I don't have a ton of their stuff.

+1 on the stud welder, but I took it apart and fixed the dinky leads.

and I had one of those high speed air powered body saws that lasted about as long it it took to attach it to the air hose. In situations like that I revel in taking a 6 lb sledge to the thing just to see its guts fly. Well worth the 14 bucks paid in fun.

But, I've done that to Makita as well.

That gets kinda expensive.

The one I got you could hold the blade from going in and out,,,no power at all,LOL

 

[Man Cave]

Sanding disc's and drill bits are worthless. When it comes to Harbor Freight and expecting quality I don't expect quality and they never let me down.

 

[2Big2Ride]

Stupid me.

Just got back from the local HF that is 25 miles away. Had my 25% off 4th of July coupon, the most recent sale flyer, and a car magazine with the $349 coupon for the 13 drawer tool chest. Wanted a drywall hoist and the tool chest. Out of the drywall hoist - my fault, did not check their inventory first. Said the tool box was too big to fit in the beater Grand Caravan (with all the seats out) - but I did carry 13 sheets of 3/4", 4x8 sheets of T&G plywood recently. Told me to "come back with a truck or trailer cuz it is too big to fit in a mini-van." He added, "wouldn't have been able to load it anyway, cuz I don't have enough people at the moment to load it." it was 5:30 and they close at 6:00. My fault, not smart enough to check on the dimensions of the tool chest crated and to bring a truck or open trailer.

Drove the 25 miles back home empty handed.

Stupid me.

Sometimes it is really hard to be a consumer.

Apparently I am the POS tool.

 

[rslaback]

It would have fit in the caravan. two different ways.

 

[uratool]

Brought home the 13 drawer in my 09 pontiac vibe (sans crate).....bet it would have fit in your caravan.

 

[arizonajack]

I usually try to avoid stuff with moving parts.

What I buy is for home workshop use.

I've had good luck with air tools.

Bought an electric impact wrench a few years ago and parts started flying off the first time I used it.

I get their coupons in the paper a couple of times a week so every time I buy something I get 20% off and a freebie.

I have a box full of little flashlights, several pair of scissors, lots of screwdrivers, and several multi-meters. Nice to have all that scattered around the place so I don't have to look too hard for something.

 

[inphx]

Their hose clamps cant take more than a quarter ounce of torque. What good id a bushel... but i use other stuff and find the price point / value tobe be fine for me.