The I love/hate Harbor Freight thread!

[axl911]

Look what my HF 5+ years old $90 pancake compressor and my HF $10 mini spray gun did to my beautiful 993 bumper!!!







With some Grand Prix White PPG paint, it came out BEAUTIFUL. The clear came out flawless. No runs, easy to spray, but takes forever because the gun is so small.

I tell ya. I have the compressor for 5+ years and have used it to run my compression/leak down tests, filling tires, etc. I also used the gun to dye my seat black. The paintbrush method can't beat the spray gun whey dyeing.

I know many hate HF for their cheap/low quality/crappy stuff, but I got GREAT mileage out of these two.

---
anthony

[Embraer]

If I have to buy a tool that I know I'll only use once or twice, I'll glady get a cheap-o.....enter Harbor Freight. My Snap-on/Matco collection was expensive enough!!

[DRACO A5OG]

Wow, Nice Job!

Can you paint mine

I recently bought a analog calibrator, I was actually impressed with the quality for $20. It also measured to .001.

[bonkers]

Harbor Freight is great for cheap, simple stuff and the occasional interesting widget: just bought a nice hand truck from there for $30 on sale.

Anything beyond that is a crapshoot: they used to carry a great 3/8" cordless impact gun - broke race torqued lug nuts no problemo - but the 1/2" one I bought couldn't break an egg much less a lug nut.

[porschefool]

That HF orange makes my stomach churn....
As mentioned, good for widgets: tarps, clamps, I may buy a bead blaster cab..but NEVER anything supposed to hold serious weight.
Glad to see you got great results!

[SXSMAN]

For the most part it's small items for me .

I've got a Snap-on screw gun that HF makes a keyless chuck for that converts it to a drill . It was $7 shipped .

I'm thinking about a tile saw from them . Just because of the price and I will seldom use it .

When my wife was working out in Phoenix a hit and run totaled her car . Needed a porta-power and tried to rent one . No go . Found a HF , bought it , went to Home depot and bought lumber and went back to where she was staying and jacked the trunk/rear valance back in place and Wal-la !!!

The trunk would close and latch . Brought it back with me on the plane and sold it to someone I work with .

HF has it's place .

When just good enough is good enough .

SxS

PS Anthony , from the photo it looks very good . I've played with HVLPs but I guess I'm ole school . I prefer my old Sharps 75 .

[carmad]

For the price, and once you change the blade,oil and reinforce or build a better stand , the red HF bandsaw works great, if you like tinkering. I built a welding table, racing simulator cockpit, hydraulic tubing bender, and a stand for the saw, currently building a rollcage, had no prblems yet.
The orange 41/2 grinders work pretty well, I have 3 and use them a lot, no problems after 3 years.
6'' digital calipers are a good buy when on sale.
ATV stand for engine drops.
They have a lot of crap, but you can find some gems.

[rick-l]

I have the older green bandsaw

HF 4x6 bandsaw newsgroup

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by porschefool

That HF orange makes my stomach churn....
As mentioned, good for widgets: tarps, clamps, I may buy a bead blaster cab..but NEVER anything supposed to hold serious weight.
Glad to see you got great results!

I used to feel that way. No longer. they have either upped the quality or I don't care about stuff as much as i used to, like pride. Or a little of both.

Originally Posted by carmad

For the price, and once you change the blade,oil and reinforce or build a better stand , the red HF bandsaw works great, if you like tinkering. I built a welding table, racing simulator cockpit, hydraulic tubing bender, and a stand for the saw, currently building a rollcage, had no prblems yet.
The orange 41/2 grinders work pretty well, I have 3 and use them a lot, no problems after 3 years.
6'' digital calipers are a good buy when on sale.
ATV stand for engine drops.
They have a lot of crap, but you can find some gems.

I have 3 grinders as well plus a drill. I expected them to die a long time ago. they keep going.

When I go in there and buy something, they always ask if I want the extended warranty, to which Ii reply, "No, if it breaks, I will toss it and buy another." So far, I have tossed an air body saw and one other thing. I can't remember what the other thing was, so it can't be important. I'm way ahead of the game.

The rest of the topic is about buying foreign made tools. We've been over that. It's hard not to. So, if your money is going out of the country, do us all a favor and send as little as you can.

[Elfer]

Originally Posted by porschefool

That HF orange makes my stomach churn....
As mentioned, good for widgets: tarps, clamps, I may buy a bead blaster cab..but NEVER anything supposed to hold serious weight.
Glad to see you got great results!

I agree with the HF orange paint, just can't stand it. As for something that holds serious weight, I bought the mid-rise lift a couple of years ago for under $900 shipped. Best tool I've purchased, and a own a Snap-On set or two. Sometimes I wonder if these lifts were designed specifically to remove/replace 911 engines. At least they painted it blue, not the nasty cal-trans orange.

[schnellmann]

Many of the things sold there are same ones sold at Sears, etc. One such item are the nice digital Vernier calipers I bought at HF for around $20. Exact same tool sold at Sears in the same sturdy black plastic case except with "Craftsman" screened on it for $60.

Another really good deal I got there is a great stainless ultrasonic parts cleaner... about $65 if I remember.

Some stuff is crap, though. I'd never buy a MIG welder there, for example. Or at least the ones they are selling there now. Tomorrow... who knows?

[khamul02]

Some of it breaks but 95% of what I have purchased from them I still have in working order.

I'm not a professional mechanic and these tools work fine for the limited amount of work I do on my cars.

HF = more $$ for quality parts for my 911

[haycait911]

we have our own version of HF here in Canada. we call it Princess Auto.

[Joeaksa]

They make descent bead blast cabinets. I buy their latex gloves by the cart full when working on restoration projects and some of their wrenches are descent.

You just have to pick and choose as there is a lot of crap there.

[tmsautoart]

you cant go wrong w/ real " Goodyear" air hoses....air hose connectors, some hand tools etc.... Some stuff I have bought is crap, like the "dremel" tool I bought for a couple bucks. Won't grind down a stick of soft butter. Then i've had some really great buys like the same spray gun above.....very impressive and sprays very well. Exactly like the touch up guns that cost 3 times as much. Bought a nail gun and it lasted a year w/ limited use. I took it back and they let me switch it out for a new one.

[axl911]

Another thing I really HATE about Harbor Freight is that.....every time I walk into one, it is REALLY difficult to walk out of the store empty handed!!! And I am not a tools guy.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I'm one of those folks that puts "big picture" ahead of short-term practicality with respect to this. I don't shop at Wal Mart (ever) and I similarly won't buy anything from H.F. I'm sure there are good deals to be had, but I also think that supporting the influx of cheap, poorly-made, sweatshop/slave-labor junk from Asia is directly responsible for a lot of "bigger picture" problems including trade imbalance, American job loss, etc.

Call me crazy, but I'll hold out for a product made here in the U.S.A. even if it's more expensive.

I'm in the market for an air compressor. I noticed that Pep Boys was pushing some Chinese knock-off brand today for cheap (IIRC they were about $120). I don't care. I'm holding out for something higher quality that won't result in someone working in a sweatshop somewhere, won't undermine our own economy and (perhaps most importantly) won't blow up and kill me while I'm using it.

Long story short, I don't like their stuff because of what it is and I certainly don't trust it - I wouldn't for anything serious (like jacks, stands, compressors, etc.) - things that can hurt you.

YMMV. Different strokes.

[Trotskyite]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

I'm one of those folks that puts "big picture" ahead of short-term practicality with respect to this. I don't shop at Wal Mart (ever) and I similarly won't buy anything from H.F. I'm sure there are good deals to be had, but I also think that supporting the influx of cheap, poorly-made, sweatshop/slave-labor junk from Asia is directly responsible for a lot of "bigger picture" problems including trade imbalance, American job loss, etc.

Call me crazy, but I'll hold out for a product made here in the U.S.A. even if it's more expensive.

I'm in the market for an air compressor. I noticed that Pep Boys was pushing some Chinese knock-off brand today for cheap (IIRC they were about $120). I don't care. I'm holding out for something higher quality that won't result in someone working in a sweatshop somewhere, won't undermine our own economy and (perhaps most importantly) won't blow up and kill me while I'm using it.

Long story short, I don't like their stuff because of what it is and I certainly don't trust it - I wouldn't for anything serious (like jacks, stands, compressors, etc.) - things that can hurt you.

YMMV. Different strokes.

With all due respect, if you are holding out for American made, why do you drive a German car? Because being made in the U.S.A. doesn't guarantee quality. Your American tools are just as likely to be made in a factory that largely employs immigrants that are treated just as unfairly. Just labeling "made in the USA" has no real guarantees anymore.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Fair enough point. I should clarify that I'll buy "Made in the USA" where/when possible and if I don't like the domestic-made options because of superior quality competing product available elsewhere, then I'll buy that one. It's worth pointing out that I have NEVER passed over a domestic-made product for one "Made in China" because of superior quality. If I ran into the situation where there was a widget or whatever made in the USA and I thought the Chinese-made one was better on the basis of quality, I'd certainly buy it. No problem then. But I've yet to have this happen.

When I walk outside my front door and look across the street, I see the beach and beyond it, an absolutely ENDLESS parade of enormous cargo ships streaming into the Port of L.A./Long Beach. Virtually all of them are from China (Shanghai, mostly). Seeing this going on day and night, 24/7/365 to the magnitude it goes on - and then realizing that (1) this is only ONE port (there are several other large ones on the west coast similarly being innundated) and (2) these ships are returning EMPTY (except possibly for U.S. dollars I guess) tends to influence one's perspective a bit. It worries me. Then I get on the 710 freeway and it's PACKED wall-to-wall with semis hauling cargo containers full of this Asian-made junk to the Wal-Marts of America or wherever it's going. Seeing the extent to which we absolutely are addicted to cheaply-made foreign stuff tends to slant one's perspective. It's humbling.

Come out here sometime. Drive through the port over at Terminal Island and see the scale of that operation. See how many of these ships are processed in a day. it's mind-numbing. Then realize in addition to these ships, there are cargo aircraft, other ports, etc. And virtually all the stuff coming in is of "minimum standards" type quality. Junk. Pure junk, in a lot of cases. . . Certainly this will improve in coming years and with increased Q.C. on specification compliance, but I see it as a personal challenge to try and be part of the solution rather than part of the problem by refusing (where possible) to buy into the seemingly insatiable lust for cheap consumer crap that is slowly and steadily eroding our domestic manufacturing sector.

I agree there needs to be stronger "truth in labelling" with respect to "made in XXX" labels, but as a general rule-of-thumb if I pick something up in the store and it says "Made in China", I put it back. Unless there really is no alternative.

I don't want to belabor this point (and this thread is already gone O.T. enough so apologies for any unintended hijack) but I'll just say this - maybe the H.F. stuff is getting better but I wouldn't know. Until it's better than the stuff I can get here that's made here and supports U.S. jobs, I won't consider it.

FWIW, I've owned "Made in the USA" stuff that's turned out to be junk too - but it's far less common.

[eauboy]

This is a hilarious find:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/retail_stores.taf?f=detail&Retail_Store_ID=177

Manager: RUSTY BITZ

Sounds like one of those fake DJ names...