Harbor Freight for tools?

Anymouse said:
I bought a two piece US General tool box for my hangar about 10 years ago. It's still serviceable, so I guess I got my money's worth.

About three years ago I bought their dust collector for my wood working projects. It's still going strong, although I really need to change the bottom bag soon.

And their furniture dolly is still in good shape. I was going to make my own and realized their completed dolly was less than the cost of the scrap wood I was going to use (never mind the casters!).
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I built one, the n found their Dolly’s are on sale at $11, my caster wheels are 7 each
 
My HF drill press, electric impact wrench, chop saw, and angle grinder have been fine. For intermittent hobbiest use they hold up okay but I wouldn’t subject them to hard professional applications.

Avoid their wire feed welders. The control transistor is undersized and not properly heat sunk, and other components are undersized as well. I rebuilt mine a couple of times before my wife bought me a Lincoln for Christmas a few years ago.

Floor jacks and jack stands are okay. Toolboxes have been good, too.
 
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"It depends."

I have wrenched on a lot of stuff - everything from John Deere combines and tractors and associate implements to all of our personal vehicles - with their hand tools (sockets, ratchets, wrenches) with no problems at all. I've used their pneumatic tools on two airplanes (RV-7A and RV-10) with no major problems. I have bought a few of their electrical tools (hammer drill, miter saw, oscillating tool, etc.), but so far the only thing still standing from that list is the hammer drill, even though each of the tools got me through the immediate project I had bought them for, the miter saw never really stays 'true' and the oscillating tool came with a spare set of brushes for the motor - that should tell you something.

The nice thing about their hand tools is, if you're working on-site somewhere (or in the middle of a soybean field) and you just happen to leave a set of sockets on the wheel well as you drive away while pulling a 53' field cultivator and don't remember it until you're on the other side of the 1/2 mile long pass, you don't have to worry about losing a high dollar set of tools. Not that I've done that or anything.... just making up a totally hypothetical situation...
 
I'll probably get some heat for saying this but it is my opinion that many (but not all) of the HF hand tools are now of better quality than the equivalent Craftsman tools, which were always kind of the standard to view hobbyist tools by in years past. They are in no way, shape, or form as good as the tools that come off the tool trucks but they aren't that bad either. I've been paid to wrench on things professionally for most of my adult life and I have a lot of HF tools that get used on a daily (or almost daily) basis with good results.

Of the easy to obtain hobbyist type tools I think the Kobalt stuff from Lowes is the best quality for the money right now, and that is what I'd suggest getting if someone is looking to fill a toolbox with useful tools that will last a while.
 
The stuff I've purchased from HF is ... meh...

Hand tools:
I have some older Craftsman stuff that is ok, and bunch of variable quality stuff from Lowes and HD. When I use my A&P's Snap-On tools, I'm reminded of how much junk is in my tool box.

Power tools:
Life is too short for cr@p power tools. I only have Porter-Cable and DeWalt, except for a light duty Craftsman band saw I scored for $90 from Sears a couple years ago.

HF is fine for anything that you don't care how well it works (i.e., storage) and won't be mad if it breaks in a year (or less).
 
I had a set of properly sized bits in a bit set I bought at HF and used in my A&P classes. Overall, I've had pretty good luck with HF, but I don't buy their wrenches as, at the time, Craftsman was a lot better. I could never justify buying Snap On, nor Matco.

I have a vibrating cutter. It doesn't have a built in vacuum, and when I use it, dust gets all over the place. The best is Fein Tool, and I think they have a built in vacuum.

A professional carpenter said as far as Bottom of the Harbor Freight goes, if you use it enough to break it, buy better quality some where else,
and I agree with him.
 
So I am in Harbor Freight the other day and this gent was buying a power washer... when they told him there was a 25% restocking fee if he returns an open box he got real indigent.... and was holding up the line...

The guy behind me told the guy that was ****ed of about the restocking fee that he could rent one from Home Depot... the guy just walked out...

Some of their stuff is OK... sure do miss the Snap-On truck.
 
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I bought most of my Craftsman stuff over 25 years ago. It’s in as good of condition now as it was then. Back then the quality was very high. Today not so much. I think as Sears business declined over the last few years, they cut quality and traded on the name. That doesn’t work out too well for very long, and now Sears is bankrupt.

Buy the quality that makes sense for your application. In some cases HF will do just fine. My advise is not to skimp on things that turn fasteners: sockets, open and closed end wrenches, screwdrivers,.. Things that cut, drill and grind can be bought cheaply and improved with high quality blades, bits, and disks.
 
Half Fast said:
I bought most of my Craftsman stuff over 25 years ago. It’s in as good of condition now as it was then. Back then the quality was very high. Today not so much. I think as Sears business declined over the last few years, they cut quality and traded on the name. That doesn’t work out too well for very long, and now Sears is bankrupt.

Buy the quality that makes sense for your application. In some cases HF will do just fine. My advise is not to skimp on things that turn fasteners: sockets, open and closed end wrenches, screwdrivers,.. Things that cut, drill and grind can be bought cheaply and improved with high quality blades, bits, and disks.
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I have my father's craftsman 1/2" ratchet. Still rock solid after 70 years
 
I bought this basic tool cart from HF when I got my RV and Hangar at about the same time:

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For tool control, I want to go to a shadow box set up, so need more space. Took advantage of Lowe's new association with Craftsman and a lower price on this big ding dang cabinet:
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No issues with the former, hope for the same from the latter.
 
RJM62 said:
Their predator engines are reported to be quite good. I'm told they're actually rebadged LCT engines. LCT makes some of the best small engines available right now. I don't know anyone who's been dissatisfied with an LCT engine nor a Predator . . .

Rich
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I bought one of their 7HP Predator engines to replace a unit that threw a rod on my power sprayer. That engine fires up first pull every time even if it’s been sitting for a year unused. I think the entire engine ready to run was $95 at the time.


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DaleB said:
Some are absolutely junk. Some are great for the price. It's a mixed bag.

I have had a 100% failure rate on anything from Harbor Freight that has an electrical cord... bad enough that I won't even consider things like drills, polishers, etc. On the other hand, the furniture pads and moving dollies are fine. I sometimes buy zip ties from them for household stuff. Storage bins have been fine. Their $20 spray guns work fine for primer. You really just have to go look at the stuff and figure out what's junk and what's not.
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I have had good luck with HF power tools: hand grinder/sander/polisher/sawzall clone/electric impact wrench. They are good enough for the very occasional use i put them to.
I have a couple of their 12 volt air compressors that I use all the time. One problem with them is that the air hose connectors are non-standard and HF doesn't sell them
separately. Also, the screw-on Schrader valve fitting is a PITA to use. OTOH the compressors themselves have held up quite well. Never bought any battery tools from them
(my old Makita and Bosch drills never let me down).

Dave
 
cessna182b said:
I have had good luck with HF power tools: hand grinder/sander/polisher/sawzall clone/electric impact wrench. They are good enough for the very occasional use i put them to.
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I will say the bench polisher and the little bench belt/disc sender have both been fine. However, the 1/2" drill smoked (literally) within the first 2 minutes of use, and the buffer/grinder had a bad speed control out of the box. Its replacement (if I'm remembering right) had a bad gearbox. We didn't bother trying a replacement drill, just got a refund on it. I bought a magnifying hood... broken and missing parts out of the box. There have been a few other returns, but they're really good about taking stuff back. I mean, it's not like they've never seen a return before, right??

The good: Furniture pads, moving dollies, a watch repair kit ( the case press alone was worth the cost). A few brass air hose fittings. Storage trays, bins, etc. Bungee cords. Tarps. A couple of canvas drop cloths. The folding aluminum step thing - priceless. I think my roll-around gray plastic shop cart is from HF. I have a couple of aluminum straight edges. We bought a couple of their ceramic kitchen knives, they're the same apparent quality as the Kitchenaid branded ones. You really just have to go to the store, look the stuff over, and see if it's going to be a POS or not.
 
I've bought quite a bit of stuff from them. Some of it is good, stuff like storage cabinets, hammers, jacks, jackstands, engine stands, engine hoists, in general stuff that doesn't require a high build quality or that you're only going to use a few times.

Power tools depend on how hard you run them. I've had a plug-in reciprocating saw that I've been using for years from them, I've also managed to burn up a new HF angle grinder in about 5 minutes(don't use a wire cup brush in a HF grinder). Occasional use power tools for woodworking seem to hold up decently. Their cheap pneumatic tools are absolute crap(except for the paint guns), but they have a high-er end "Earthquake" branded air tool line that seems to be pretty good, I have an earthquake impact gun and air ratchet that I like. They also have a couple of new higher-end power tool lines but I've not really used any of them. It seems like they're trying to pick up Craftsman's old market- decent tools that are good for hobbyists and occasional pro use.
 
Crashnburn said:
Overall, I've had pretty good luck with HF, but I don't buy their wrenches as, at the time, Craftsman was a lot better. I could never justify buying Snap On, nor Matco.
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The biggest reason to buy wrenches off one of the trucks is that they don't stretch and round bolts off the way a Craftsman or HF one will. They really are worth the money you spend on them if you're using your tools to make money but a HF wrench that costs a fraction of the price and a little common sense will get about 95% of the jobs done that you'd use the expensive wrench for.

If you're working on light airplanes I haven't run across much of anything that was so tight or inaccessible that you couldn't do anything you needed to with a cheap wrench. Cars on the other hand aren't the same. Between stuck bolts and working in tight places it really is nice to have good tools (yet I don't).

ejensen said:
I have my father's craftsman 1/2" ratchet. Still rock solid after 70 years
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Just don't ever break it or wear it out. You won't get anything back you'll ever want to use again. I don't think Craftsman has made a decent ratchet in the last 15-20 years.
 
By the way, I don't know how widespread they are, but Northern Tool seems to be a good mid-line alternative. Better quality than Harbor Freight -- setting the bar pretty low, I know -- but the prices are good, and most of the tools are of decent quality. My compressor came from there, as did a wire feed welder I need to learn to use and a bunch of other stuff I have.
 
DaleB said:
By the way, I don't know how widespread they are, but Northern Tool seems to be a good mid-line alternative. Better quality than Harbor Freight -- setting the bar pretty low, I know -- but the prices are good, and most of the tools are of decent quality. My compressor came from there, as did a wire feed welder I need to learn to use and a bunch of other stuff I have.
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A word to the wise....

If that’s an off-brand cheap wire feed welder, before you use it throw away the spool of wire and the gun tip that came with the unit. Go buy a good tip and wire spool (Lincoln, Miller, or Hobart). Makes a world of difference. Trust me.
 
Most of the reviews are surprisingly consistent; HF tools are of inconsistent quality. I certainly agree.

I have several pairs of HF handtools; one broke so I got another to finish the job. Wuz Worth It!

I grew up on Craftsman but bought several floorstanding tools during the 80 - 00s that were just crap with stamped parts and work guides that just wouldn’t stay aligned. No comparisons with the 60s or even the most recent examples. I have a combination disk/belt sander whose safety switch failed in the ‘ON’ position. Nothing safe about having to pull the plug to turn it OFF.

Snap-on is great but such premiums!Keeping a lonely airport mechanic company every other week has value however.

Snap-On Eye Opener; the crowfoot wrench especially made for the 4th stud on the Lycoming power takeoff where you can bolt on a 2nd alternator. After screwing around for hours trying to get anything on the stud I dropped the $40+ on the quarter sized 7/16” extra thin crows foot, Ouch! After seeing how a local A&P mangled the nut with a straight driver and hammer, Priceless!

Oh, the crowfoot wrench is available for rental by you RV builders out there, just contact me


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Bill Watson said:
Snap-On Eye Opener; the crowfoot wrench especially made for the 4th stud on the Lycoming power takeoff where you can bolt on a 2nd alternator. After screwing around for hours trying to get anything on the stud I dropped the $40+ on the quarter sized 7/16” extra thin crows foot, Ouch!
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Is that what we used to call that the vacuum pump pad? ;) That's where Harbor Freight shines - so you don't have to take a grinder and torch to your expen$ive combination wrench when you bend your own. :D

Nauga,
and the sacrificial wrench
 
Half Fast said:
My HF drill press, electric impact wrench, chop saw, and angle grinder have been fine. For intermittent hobbiest use they hold up okay but I wouldn’t subject them to hard professional applications.

Avoid their wire feed welders. The control transistor is undersized and not properly heat sunk, and other components are undersized as well. I rebuilt mine a couple of times before my wife bought me a Lincoln for Christmas a few years ago.

Floor jacks and jack stands are okay. Toolboxes have been good, too.
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I was looking at drill presses for quite some time and actually did quite a bit of research. The general consensus was that a few of the HF drill presses were actually quite good. I was looking at Grizzly as well, but supposedly they come out of the same factory? Craftsmen makes one but not sure of its quality.
 
nauga said:
Is that what we used to call that the vacuum pump pad? ;) That's where Harbor Freight shines - so you don't have to take a grinder and torch to your expen$ive combination wrench when you bend your own. :D

Nauga,
and the sacrificial wrench
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Got lots of tricks for that one, like super gluing the lock washer to the nut to hang it onto the stud while you curse yourself blue trying to start a thread...
 
Built most of my airplane with HF tools. But not the tin snips, drill bits or safety wire tool. Pretty much everything else, including about 100 hours on the 7" polisher.

Im not saying they are great tools, but they work for the average weekend warrior.
 
Chip Sylverne said:
Got lots of tricks for that one, like super gluing the lock washer to the nut to hang it onto the stud while you curse yourself blue trying to start a thread...
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My most successful trick so far has been to use an unmodified Harbor Freight wrench to torque down the blankoff plate :D

Nauga,
who no longer embraces the suck
 
nauga said:
Is that what we used to call that the vacuum pump pad? ;) That's where Harbor Freight shines - so you don't have to take a grinder and torch to your expen$ive combination wrench when you bend your own. :D

Nauga,
and the sacrificial wrench
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That’s the one but no idea what it was called. What’s a vacuum pump for anyway?

I tried every trick I could think of before buying the little gem but just ran out of ideas. Sacrificing a wench or two sounds promising though.

Bill “when you lose the suck a 2nd alternator starts making sense” W.


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I did buy an oscillating tool from them which, while it got the job done, was a chore to use and I kept having to retighten the cutoff bits. But for the price it was well worth it. I used one of their $15 automotive paint guns (surprisingly well built) to paint my boat trailer with primer and top coat. Came out looking fantastic, especially for someone who has never used a paint gun.


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Got a HF air stapler. It often drives a staple when I pull the trigger. It may randomly over / under drive it. But many times, it does drive the staple.
 
Bill Watson said:
I tried every trick I could think of before buying the little gem but just ran out of ideas. Sacrificing a wench or two sounds promising though.
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Arrrrrr ya gonna make her walk the plank, matey? :rofl:

As far as the tools go, if you google "Harbor Freight tools that don't suck" you'll find lots of useful threads on other forums too.
 
ejensen said:
I have my father's craftsman 1/2" ratchet. Still rock solid after 70 years
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Timely thread. I just bought the 30” 5 drawer cart from HF and have yet to assemble it. A YouTube comparison video with a $900 clone, the HF one was $189, blew the competition away.

I now need a tool set for the hanger and was looking at HF’s 301 piece set for $159. I have a full set of Craftsman, with Snap-On tools mixed in at home, but need a set of dedicated tools at the hanger. Useage will be low, does the collective think HF will fit the bill or should I step up? And if so, what’s the next step? Who’s tools? Don’t want to go for my lungs on this. I won’t be doing major work, just want the right tool on hand when I need it.
 
Harbor Freight has come a loooooong way since they first started. In the beginning, their tools were rough and hit or miss. Now they are polished, feel good in the hand and work well, at least a lot of them do but I don't have a set of them. We will often will buy a HF socket or a wrench to modify it in order to meet our needs working on airplanes. I have two of their General toolboxes and couldn't be happier. I've also had good luck with some of their air tools. Their higher priced paint sprayers are really good. I used them in my woodworking business to spray lacquer and they worked flawlessly.
 
C-1 PILOT said:
I now need a tool set for the hanger and was looking at HF’s 301 piece set for $159. I have a full set of Craftsman, with Snap-On tools mixed in at home, but need a set of dedicated tools at the hanger. Useage will be low, does the collective think HF will fit the bill or should I step up? And if so, what’s the next step? Who’s tools? Don’t want to go for my lungs on this. I won’t be doing major work, just want the right tool on hand when I need it.
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Me? I'd go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy a set of their house brand combination wrenches and a couple of sets of ratchets and sockets (1/4 and 3/8 drive) in imperial measurements while they are on sale for Christmas. I'm much happier with those tools than with any hand tools I've seen at HF.
 
C-1 PILOT said:
I now need a tool set for the hanger and was looking at HF’s 301 piece set for $159. I have a full set of Craftsman, with Snap-On tools mixed in at home, but need a set of dedicated tools at the hanger. Useage will be low, does the collective think
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I call HF tools Snap-Off brand. But, as mentioned, they can be used for some things.

Airplane parts are more expensive than tools.... what if a socket or wrench slips, because it's a piece of crap, and breaks something else on a plane? For that amount of money, you could have had some really nice tools.
Just a thought...
 
But they can “make” good aircraft tools.....:D
 

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WannFly said:
I built one, the n found their Dolly’s are on sale at $11, my caster wheels are 7 each
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Sorry, this made me laugh in a thread about building airplane. Maybe that's why plans are so expensive.

I am near a Northern Tools and I think Northern and HF shop at the same place. I still give them my business for stuff like tarps, lawn tractor seats, plastic parts bins...and casters LOL :)

If you have the time, you could scan CL in your area and maybe out to the Twin Cities area and find some nice older tools. Estate sales can be good but too time consuming. Local Auctions turn into "gotta have it any cost" frenzy bidding on high quality tools.

I've never built a plane....are there like a top 10 tools needed...if so why not go high end Snap On / SK / etc on those. Then Kobalt / etc on the majority and HF / Northern on the rest..
 
Sinistar said:
Sorry, this made me laugh in a thread about building airplane. Maybe that's why plans are so expensive.

I am near a Northern Tools and I think Northern and HF shop at the same place. I still give them my business for stuff like tarps, lawn tractor seats, plastic parts bins...and casters LOL :)

If you have the time, you could scan CL in your area and maybe out to the Twin Cities area and find some nice older tools. Estate sales can be good but too time consuming. Local Auctions turn into "gotta have it any cost" frenzy bidding on high quality tools.

I've never built a plane....are there like a top 10 tools needed...if so why not go high end Snap On / SK / etc on those. Then Kobalt / etc on the majority and HF / Northern on the rest..
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There are tool sets that they sell as a package deal of everything u need for building, most my tools are kobalt, I broke a few over the course and now getting some porter cable for garage stuff. If I build anything other than a big work table eventually, I am gonna get some good ones.
 
Skyrys62 said:
Airplane parts are more expensive than tools.... what if a socket or wrench slips, because it's a piece of crap, and breaks something else on a plane? For that amount of money, you could have had some really nice tools.
Just a thought...
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The skill of the mechanic holding the wrench is far more important than what store the wrench came from.

A good example of this is two of my friends, who are brothers. They both are employed as mechanics and work in the same shop. One brother is constantly breaking bolts or rounding them off and having to torch or drill them out and the other one rarely has a problem. Both are using tools from the same box so it isn’t a cheap vs. expensive tool problem.

Some people will make a mess of anything they get their hands on.
 
Sinistar said:
Local Auctions turn into "gotta have it any cost" frenzy bidding on high quality tools.
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+1 I am aghast at almost every auction... :eek:


mondtster said:
The skill of the mechanic holding the wrench is far more important than what store the wrench came from.

A good example of this is two of my friends, who are brothers. They both are employed as mechanics and work in the same shop. One brother is constantly breaking bolts or rounding them off and having to torch or drill them out and the other one rarely has a problem. Both are using tools from the same box so it isn’t a cheap vs. expensive tool problem.

Some people will make a mess of anything they get their hands on.
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Agree and disagree...

Some people will make a mess of things no matter what.
If both are using quality tools, then yes it's the skills.

My brother is a retired diesel mechanic, and mechanic instructor. One of the best I've seen.
You put a crappy wrench in his hand, and he will mess around for a minute or two, and if it's not doing the job, it goes in the trash.

I've learned the hard way not to get them out anymore.
Some tools are just *****.
 
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