Why buy Harbor Freight?

[spoon671]

I have, and have mentioned before, a $3500 ratchet that has only four sockets to the set.
Should I downgrade to snap on?

Off topic (sorry OP), but please post a pic! I must know about this ratchet/socket set!! What's the COO?

 

[BDT/NWMN]

Why do people keep making these threads?

They all have the same answer: some products offered by manufacturer X meet the Y quality/price ratio for Z application. Seriously, that goes for every manufacturer.

So true

 

[ajchien]

I will buy harbor freight for 1 reason.

***If I have more time than money for a project.

If I can tolerate:
1) the tool breaking during the job and needing to return the item, slowing you down
2) the tool being underpowered for the job, slowing you down
3) the tool not being precise enough for the job, slowing you down
4) the tool being not ergonomic enough to make it comfortable to do the job, slowing you down

Then I can buy harbor freight. Yes, I know there are some nice gems from HF, but there are countless other tools that have caused me a some element of frustration, wasting my time.

So it depends on the project.

If I'm wanting a reciprocating saw to demo my front door to put a new one in, I'm NOT buying HF, because I don't want to have a gaping hole in the front of my house while running back to HF for a return. But if I bought a reciprocating saw to help me to help cut branches from trees in my yard, sure, because if it breaks, that project can wait till next week.

If I need some weird e-torx size for a daily driver I need tomorrow, nope, no HF. If it's for some project car that isn't being driven for the next month anyway, maybe HF will do the trick.

I'm I need some tool to do a task 800 times, I'll choose something else, if I need it to it it 5 times, maybe HF. Not that HF would break, but it's also possible it takes twice as long to do with the HF tool. Twice as long 5 times is not bad. Twice as long 800 times is an issue for me.

How about tapping a hole? If I want to tap a hole, and if screwing it up is a big deal, no HF. Or fixing up threads in a bolt? If that stud is on my car, the nice rethreader die comes out. If its just a junky machine screw that im recycling for the spare parts bin, uh... Maybe I'll just throw it out than use a HF die.

 

[spoon671]

Why do people keep making these threads?

It's only a matter of time before someone creates a "Why People Ask Why People Make Why Buy Snap-On Threads" thread.

 

[CJM8515]

I have a few items from HF. Some impact, a die grinder, comp tester, few hammers, a bore gauge set, unibits, a digital 6" caliper, and a vise. The only thing I ever broke was the cheap cast vise. Every thing else is fine. I don't abuse things either

 

[BirdMobile]

It's only a matter of time before someone creates a "Why People Ask Why People Make Why Buy Snap-On Threads" thread.

Why make any thread? Because I want to and the price is right!

 

[Casey69]

love HF. it all boils down to that most of their stuff is a good value for my purposes.

 

[spoon671]

Surgical equipment pics are available on line.

I post this so that the 'I only buy the best' crowd just has to shut up.

They do not buy the best. They ride the bandwagon.

Nail on the head.

 

[JAKE-THE-TOOL-MAN]

If your shop is some sort of fraternity that requires such high end tools for brotherhood... Cool.
You pay to play. Strength of character may negate such actions.


I have, and have mentioned before, a $3500 ratchet that has only four sockets to the set.
Should I downgrade to snap on? If given the choice do you want to pay the premium I charge to break out those tools? Are we in turn going to address hourly labor rates and that some of you suggest oil changers spend six months wages on a small selection of tools?

If you have in the past broken four hf sockets and couldn't afford a back up socket in your box until you could get back to an hf store... By all means step up to something better.

There are untold numbers of threads here about trucks not honoring warranty instantly.

For being magic tools: truck to sure have a lot of warranty issues.


Absolutely and positively just like a vise:
Chances are if you break an hf socket or ratchet... You were the weak one... Not the tool.

Tool truck drivers that don't honor warranty are often behind on paying their tool bill and therefor the tool company will not supply them the replacements. It's bad business on the drivers part.

 

[nieuport17]

Harbor freight ? Never heard of them.

 

[BirdMobile]

Harbor freight ? Never heard of them.

So how was your 20 year trip to Antarctica, anyway?

 

[Zeke]

I think people are too caught up in the name when it comes to HF. About 20% of their products are usable tools and the rest of their stuff is either way below par of just total junk. I've had great luck with ratchets, impact sockets, large wrenches, and ratcheting wrenches from Taiwan. Tie down straps and zip ties totally ****!!! HF is hit and miss for sure.

I'd give it a much higher percentage when you include gloves, cheap but good spray guns, winches, jacks, lifts, stands, carts, tool storage, air tools, elec power tools (some anyway), tarps, castors, wheels, trailer accessories...


...well, you get the point.

 

[Wamsutta]

With all the money I save at Harbor Freight, I can by some beer, cigarettes, crank, blow, hash, LSD, and some angle dust. Only upstanding citizens buy Snap-on.

 

[Notorious BRT]

With all the money I save at Harbor Freight, I can by some beer, cigarettes, crank, blow, hash, LSD, and some angle dust. Only upstanding citizens buy Snap-on.

I want some angle dust. It's better than angel dust.

 

[ATC]

I want some angle dust. It's better than angel dust.

Just buy the HF angle grinder. It will die in short order releasing all of its precious angle dust!

 

[Wamsutta]

I want some angle dust. It's better than angel dust.

oapes, looks like I blew it on that one.

 

[SantaAna12]

Good price on Honda Generators.

 

[JoeFin]

My friend works in their HR department. Told me every once in a while they take them down to the R&D department.

Really an R&D department

 

[EZRhino]

What really cracks me up is reading all the reviews on their own website on various products! It makes it easy separate the good products from the garbage. I think they shot themselves in the foot by adding user reviews. Then again, maybe it is a quality control department scheme to find out what needs to be eliminatated from their catalog, hmmmm........

 

[monomach]

What really cracks me up is reading all the reviews on their own website on various products! It makes it easy separate the good products from the garbage. I think they shot themselves in the foot by adding user reviews. Then again, maybe it is a quality control department scheme to find out what needs to be eliminatated from their catalog, hmmmm........

The reviews have caused a lot of sales, at least from me. Even the bad ones. A lot of the bad reviews actually reinforce the good ones. When a couple of four star reviews say "just put a little loctite on the screw at the bottom and it works like a champ" and ten one star reviews say "oh my god the bottom fell off every damned one in the store, this thing is useless," I know that it's a safe buy after I apply a penny's worth of loctite.

I do think the reviews help the quality control department, too. There've been a few times that versions of a product with bad reviews have gotten an update with the problem fixed.

 

[Parrothead]

I agree, I think the reviews have helped WAY more than they have hurt. Sure there's some really bad reviews on some stuff, but the good reviews keeps the stuff selling like hotcakes. I'd love to know what kind of volume they do in an average store and what the profit margin is on some of those items.

 

[Zeke]

Good price on Honda Generators.

Even as a clone, no way Honda quality. But will it work? Probably.

 

[SantaAna12]

That was Honda as in the Japan Honda Zeke.

Back in the day, HF sold more non-HF brands. I could pick up the 1000...the quiet one....for six and change.

 

[steed andersen]

I don't understand how some people have such terrible results with breaking tools. A fair amount of my tools are from HF also a lot of Cman,SO,SK,Mac,Matco etc. My tools rarely break under my use but I have other mechanics working with me that drive our Snap On driver nuts with constant warranties. I understand some tools are junk but I also wonder how much is from abuse.

 

[monomach]

I don't understand how some people have such terrible results with breaking tools. A fair amount of my tools are from HF also a lot of Cman,SO,SK,Mac,Matco etc. My tools rarely break under my use but I have other mechanics working with me that drive our Snap On driver nuts with constant warranties. I understand some tools are junk but I also wonder how much is from abuse.

It's mostly using the wrong tool for a particular job and not caring just because the warranty is there. I have a tech who broke ratcheting wrenches left and right. Guy would rock back and forth with all of his weight behind them when breaking things loose, toss cheaters on them, etc. He didn't give a damn that ratcheting wrenches aren't designed for high torque...he just knew that he was too lazy to use two wrenches on one fastener (well, until he broke one...).

The number of guys who never, ever use breaker bars goes a long way to explain the number of ratchets drivers have to rebuild, too. "No room for an impact? Screw it. Ratchet or nuthin'!"

 

[pi_guy]

I had been holding my breathe on the folding welding table. I figured what could go wrong, works nicely folds up fits in truck. Well HF has been true to form, the table has slop in it now. Where the screws hold the top to the frame have over sized the hole. Now the top wobbles when you lean on it, it is less than 9 months old. And has only traveled 8 times not even a full season. It makes it hard to use as a tig table when it moves.
So to answer the question of why buy Harbor freight: you want to increase the pile of scrap metal you take to the junkyard.

 

[Parrothead]

I had been holding my breathe on the folding welding table. I figured what could go wrong, works nicely folds up fits in truck. Well HF has been true to form, the table has slop in it now. Where the screws hold the top to the frame have over sized the hole. Now the top wobbles when you lean on it, it is less than 9 months old. And has only traveled 8 times not even a full season. It makes it hard to use as a tig table when it moves.
So to answer the question of why buy Harbor freight: you want to increase the pile of scrap metal you take to the junkyard.

I don't have the table in question in front of me, but it seems like a bolt and nut might be your solution. That or an oversized screw. Heck, you clearly own a welder, weld it where there are bolts

 

[MagnumForce]

There can only be one answer, it's cheap. Any answers beyond that are secondary. Even though there are diamonds in the rough, if price was not what it is then everyone would purchase something else.

 

[Troutsqueezer]

I usually buy a tool because I need it to get a particular job done. By nature, I will buy the cheapest one I can find. That way I have money left over for beer. Then, if it breaks, I will buy a better version. If that one breaks, I'll step it up until I have the tool that gets the job done. I'm more into the end result, not the means to get there. Naturally, I start with H.F. Fortunately, most of the time, the H.F. tool gets the job done. I've saved a lot of money over the years, got a lot of work done, have a lot of tools and drank a lot of beer.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

I don't have the table in question in front of me, but it seems like a bolt and nut might be your solution. That or an oversized screw. Heck, you clearly own a welder, weld it where there are bolts

It's an utter *************. I thought about buying one until I actually saw one in person.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Is modifying a mediocre tool to become something better so odd?

It wasn't worth dicking with when I could apply the cost to better materials and build one from scratch. If the table was a heavier gauge of steel, then I may have considered it, but it was just flimsy sheet metal that had no value in my eyes.

I could turn a Rubbermaid shed into a house, but that wouldn't make sense either.

 

[BirdMobile]

There can only be one answer, it's cheap. Any answers beyond that are secondary. Even though there are diamonds in the rough, if price was not what it is then everyone would purchase something else.

I'm not sure that's entirely true... I actually really like a few of the things I've bought at Harbor Freight. I would gladly pay more for some of them, and I keep them in my toolbox without the "cheap" stigma or shame many people here attach to such tools. I honestly think that if you took some of their products, and stamped "Carlyle" or "Kobalt" or maybe even "SK" on them, most buyers wouldn't raise an eyebrow or notice anything "off" that they weren't expecting.

 

[spoon671]

I had been holding my breathe on the folding welding table. I figured what could go wrong, works nicely folds up fits in truck. Well HF has been true to form, the table has slop in it now. Where the screws hold the top to the frame have over sized the hole. Now the top wobbles when you lean on it, it is less than 9 months old. And has only traveled 8 times not even a full season. It makes it hard to use as a tig table when it moves.
So to answer the question of why buy Harbor freight: you want to increase the pile of scrap metal you take to the junkyard.

Install more substantial screws to hold the top to the frame? Make a couple quick flat or angle brackets to gusset the joints where the top and frame meet? I know this can be frustrating.

I bet if you spend a few minutes on it, it will still be less time than having to drive to the scrapyard. Plus gas. And you'll still have a table.

Edit: oops I may have been late to the party. ;-)

 

[MechanicNamedJohn]

Didn't some guy on here buy like every tool HF had and start his own auto repair business? What ever happened to him?

 

[monomach]

Didn't some guy on here buy like every tool HF had and start his own auto repair business? What ever happened to him?

He's still at it. He used the money he made off of the HF tools to move into a bigger building and buy Mac replacements for some of his stuff.

edit: goddamnit John, you really snuck that one past me. Smartass.

 

[ecotec]

Didn't some guy on here buy like every tool HF had and start his own auto repair business? What ever happened to him?

He moved on to truck tools. What HF tools does he continue to use today, though? That's what I want to know, John.

 

[bubinga]

I know the Earthquake impacts are good, and I'll tell you, I am tempted by the new line of ratchets.
Oh, and l got the bearing separator kit, it's good too.

 

[wmartin]

Although the smell of the place could knock a buzzard off a **** wagon, I think HF really provides an amazing service. Given used handtool prices, I can't see the point of buy that kind of thing there, but they do give entry-level fabricators a way to actually get started. HF seems to do a perfectly adequate job (given the price) for things made out of simple lumps of metal...and those things that aren't all that great (like the wheeled carts) are pretty obvious.

What I wish they built was a few more variants of the $160 red cart with drawers. Maybe something with just a flat top.

 

[pi_guy]

I don't have the table in question in front of me, but it seems like a bolt and nut might be your solution. That or an oversized screw. Heck, you clearly own a welder, weld it where there are bolts

No the real solution is putting in bushing with different bolts.
But the point being everything from HF turns into junk in a short while, next expecting the rags to be made from toxic waste material.
Just putting up a reason WHY NOT TO BUY HARBOR FREIGHT.

 

[pi_guy]

Install more substantial screws to hold the top to the frame? Make a couple quick flat or angle brackets to gusset the joints where the top and frame meet? I know this can be frustrating.

I bet if you spend a few minutes on it, it will still be less time than having to drive to the scrapyard. Plus gas. And you'll still have a table.

Wanted a light table to travel with, not spend my time modifying something that should have been done right in the first place. It had replaced a fabricated traveling table I have.
I was just surprised that it would fail so quickly with such little use.

I make regular trips to scrap yard you can only find so many uses for broken suspension parts and rims.