Harbor Freight????

J

JOhnH

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Do they sell INexpensive stuff or cheap stuff. Or a mixture.

Sometimes a cheap tool is all I need. I needed a hammer drill once in my life so I bought their $29 hammer drill. By the time I finished my project, it was screeching and scraping and slipping and I threw it away. But it was cheaper than hiring someone to do the job. If I have another similar job I may buy another one and hope it lasts through the project. That is not what I usually expect from my tools, but I wasn't going to pay a couple of hundreds of dollars for a one-shot tool.

How about the rest of their stuff? Should I be wary of things like their security camera systems or air compressors? Does their stuff last? Does it generally work as advertised?
 
Anytime I've discussed tools with people who rely on them for their jobs (i.e mechanic, labor etc.) the Harbor Freight discussion came up, and the general consensus was that the tools are cheap in cost and quality.

Buy them if you use it sparingly. Not if its something that will see a lot of use.
 
Two of those stores by me, it's cheap, but it's low quality stuff. It follows the saying, "you get what you pay for."
 
Their compressors aren't particularly cheap, and are comparable to Craftsman. I.e., loud and not very powerful, but low maintenance.

The rest of their stuff should be treated as disposible.

Though, to be honest, the only time I've had a hand tool fail in a way that had a potential for injury, it was a Craftsman deep socket being used on suspension. I've never even broken their breaker bar, despite putting 3 foot cheater pipes on it.

That includes various screw presses.
 
I like to use harbor freight to purchase a tool cheaply ,that I may only need once.
 
Things without moving parts are good choices.
Hard to go wrong with a mallet.
I even have two vices which have been in service without defect for many years.
A two wheel bench grinder.
Two electric winches pull airplanes into hangars on a regular basis...although I have had to repair the switches in 10 years.
For electric items it pays to buy the next more powerful item.
 
Ryanb said:
Love that!
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the key question is 'will I get grievously injured if this tool fails?'.

I don't like to skin my knuckles our round a fastener with a tool that fails in my hands. Life is too short for cheap tools.
 
My rule: Don't buy edged items at HF (Bits, blades) and don't buy stuff you'll need to use in a production type environment.
 
I'm not a professional but I do quite a bit of work on cars, tractors, and other things for my own purposes. I buy quite a bit of harbor freight tools... for very basic things like jacks, jackstands, toolboxes, or specialty tools you may only use once ever couple of years they can be a great buy. Their power tools aren't bad either... but...

I'm now in the middle of a full on car restoration and among other things I'm now using angle grinders for more hours and pushing them harder than I ever had before. I have burned up 3 angle grinders on this project, 2 of them being harbor freight grinders. My dewalt grinder continues to work.... and I just bought another dewalt so I have another reliable grinder around. One of the china made grinders that I had fail was one I'd purchased over a decade ago and used many times... but for quick things, usually grinding a bolt off or something not hours of cutting, smoothing, wire brushing, etc.... as soon as I started to put it into continuous heavy duty use the motor burned up. Same goes for the other grinders.

That's sort of the long story short with harbor freight tools. They're a great buy for occasional/light duty use for those of us who don't use our tools all day long every day and don't necessarily need "pro" tools. Just understand there's a reason why they're so much cheaper than the high end brands.
 
weilke said:
the key question is 'will I get grievously injured if this tool fails?'.

I don't like to skin my knuckles our round a fastener with a tool that fails in my hands. Life is too short for cheap tools.
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Got that right buddy. I don't fool with that place too much.
 
The views here are similar to what the builders on VAF express. Fine for some stuff, and not so much for others.
 
to add to what others said, HF electronic items like battery charges, security cameras, etc are probably better to stay a way from.

On the other had I have had very good (better than expected) results with their Chop Saw and angle grinder.

so the answer the OP's question, is it is a mixture of Inexpensive and cheap stuff.
I have a lot of HF tools, because most work well enough for me.

Brian
 
My FIL looooves HF! I think they're generally crap, but great for *some* disposable or volume type stuff (zip ties, brushes, tape measures). Not the place for good tools
 
Have you ever seen a Harbor Feeight truck at a car dealership, mechanic's garage, or delivering to your favorite A&P? That's all you need to know.
 
Lachlan said:
Have you ever seen a Harbor Feeight truck at a car dealership, mechanic's garage, or delivering to your favorite A&P? That's all you need to know.
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I've gone with my mechanic to Harbor Freight to get stuff. Sockets and specialty tools mostly... so they're okay in your book, obviously?
 
HF power tools are garbage. I have their metal cutting band saw and it scares the crap outta me. Using it to rough cut parts for my Hatz project. I treat that thing like it's trying to lop off a finger every time I use it.
 
For occasional use by a hobbyist, most of the stuff is okay, but it won't hold up in constant use. I have a HF drill press and an angle grinder that work fine, but I only use them once in a while.

The hand tools aren't great, but they're servicable. In situations where I worry about losing tools, like an overseas trip, I'll bring along HF stuff rather than my Craftsman tools.

I had one of their "Chicago Electric" wire feed welders, and for occasional repairs it was okay. But when I started actually building some things, it fried a transistor on the control board. I repaired it, then it fried a resistor and melted part of the printed wiring board.

I now have a Lincoln welder.
 
I bought a buffer that's worked fine. Also a shop light tree and a hydraulic pole jack that I turned into a wing jack. Chain wench mounted to the ceiling of my hangar works great for removing the camper shell from the truck. I've never had a tool fail, but I wouldn't compare them to snap on.
 
MAKG1 said:
Their compressors aren't particularly cheap, and are comparable to Craftsman. I.e., loud and not very powerful, but low maintenance .
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I regularly use HF's three-gallon air compressor in my hangar, to inflate my tires. It has been completely reliable for three years now. On sale at HF it was about $35, much cheaper than any big-box store competitors.

Noisy and low maintenance, that's true. Almost deafening, in fact. I step outside the hangar during the minute it takes to refill, after I fill tires.

http://t.harborfreight.com/air-tool...psi-oilless-pancake-air-compressor-61615.html
 
I want to say that Harbor Freight tools are crap, however, I have several tools from there including simple hand tools, air tools, and power tools, and they all still work. I'm just a do-it-yourself kind of guy with my own cars and home improvement type stuff, so I'm not relying on them every day, but some of my HF tools have been put to work pretty hard, and I've had surprisingly good luck with them.

I know of one mechanic shop that employs a number of HF air and power tools, many of which have been in service for several years with very regular use.
 
painless said:
HF power tools are garbage. I have their metal cutting band saw and it scares the crap outta me. Using it to rough cut parts for my Hatz project. I treat that thing like it's trying to lop off a finger every time I use it.
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I have that exact saw. After I replaced the blade and stiffened the base, it has worked well. I bought it for my Hatz project, which followed the (completed) RV-6 project...

I've never thought it threatened my body parts. It seems relatively benign in a "rate of advance is so slow, you'd have to be comatose to lose a digit" kind of way.
 
For stuff like air hoses and fittings, Harbor Freight crap is perfectly fine and serviceable.
 
Their US General line of tool chests are actually a great value, seriously. $350 for a 41" rolling bottom chest with roller bearing guided and heavy gauged metal? I haven't seen anything else remotely close to the quality for that price.

The Earthquake line of impact air tools have a great reputation, too. Several mechanics rave about the 1/2" impacts over their $500+ Snap-On or Ingersol-Rand guns.

As far hand tools, I'd not spend much time buying those. They do have some great sales on tow straps, chains, ratcheting tie-downs, and other goods that are difficult to be manufactured with poor quality.

I do own an oscillating cutoff tool that I bought as a one-time use item which still continues to work great when the odd project comes along.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
SoonerAviator said:
Their US General line of tool chests are actually a great value, seriously. $350 for a 41" rolling bottom chest with roller bearing guided and heavy gauged metal? I haven't seen anything else remotely close to the quality for that price.
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So true. I bought the 4-drawer rolling tool chest for $109 on sale...perfect for the hangar. A smoking deal, and like you, I'm impressed with the thick gauge metal. I've also got the Central Pneumatic 21-gallon air compressor that powered air tools and paint guns over 2 years while I was building the RV-9A. It is a touch loud, but it's been dead reliable.

When I was doing all the fiberglass work, I bought a 36-pack of cheap disposable paint brushes there for $10 or so...perfect for mixing epoxy.

toolbox.jpg
 
We go on regular "coupon/tool" runs to Harbor Freight. We like the free offers of voltmeters, tarps, flashlights and the like.

The tools may not be top line, but they get the job done and I've not had one fail yet.

Their parts bins and small cases are also very well priced and of decent quality.

Not exactly a Pelican case, but for $14 this makes a nice GoPro case:

32130743245_9491954ab5_z.jpg


32012055681_e2f657e0cf_z.jpg
 
Agree about their cases. I use them for ham radio gear, cave diving lights, photo equipment, etc. They're frequently on sale and perfectly adequate for my needs.

The tool boxes look pretty good, but I haven't needed a new one for many years. My big roll-around and top box are Waterloo. At the time I bought them, Waterloo was making Craftsman boxes for Sears. I picked up one branded Waterloo from WalMart that cost half as much as the identical box at Sears with a Craftsman label on it.

I was using HF tie-downs for a while, but had one come apart. I no longer trust them for anything important, like tying my motorcycle onto the trailer. It's foolish to try to save $10 on a strap to tie down a $14k bike.
 
JCranford said:
When that melts, get a Miller! :D
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LOL!

At the time I got it, I was racing sports cars and Lincoln had some discounts and give-aways if you put their stickers on the car. It's held up very well, but I haven't needed to use it for much but farm chores lately.

I have the parts to hook up a gas bottle and do true MIG, but I'm just running flux-core wire for now. Repairs to a gate or a trailer are done outside in the wind, and the flux core works better than the gas in that situation.

BTW - I have one of HF's auto-darkening welding helmets and it's been great. Got it cheap at one of their sales. Welding got so much easier when I no longer had to flip down a shield.
 
Yeah, the auto-dark helmets are nice. I have a HF one and a Miller one. The Miller is better but not by a huge margin. I do mostly TIG on aluminum but would like to get a MIG machine for some other stuff
 
“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” – Benjamin Franklin

With that said - yeah, I buy some disposable stuff at Harbor Fright on occasion.
 
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