What have you gotten from harbor freight
 

So we have all seen the threads about the bad stories of harbor freight tools. what have you gotten that you are pleased with?

I have a set of there highly polished wrenches, the 22pc Screwdriver set, a set of pliers and have used them very heavily exp the wrenches and none have broke.

wet saw...couldnt have done any of the tile work in my house without it. I am very pleased with it. Air compressor, nail guns...very pleased with them all.

Air compressor, motorcycle jack, air hoses and fittings several different one off tools. Have been pleased with them all. Air they the best? No way. Are they good enough for the 3 to 5 times a year that I use them for an hour or so? Yes.

I had a blowout in my GM pickup last week. First one. The factory jack was a pain to use by the interstate. It wasn't even tall enough, placing it at the required jacking point. Then the lug wrench bent trying to loosen the lug nuts. It did get them off but it is bent. I stopped by Harbor Freight, bought an 8 ton bottle jack on sale, and a 4 way wrench. Set me back about $20 for all of it.

I have wrench sets, fencing pliers, cheap corded drills and sanders, a brad gun, gloves, air hose fittings, tile saw...

Try to find their little pack of 10 rare earth magnets. They are about 5/16" round. Amazingly strong and less than $2.

Air powered flooring nailer works good. Drywall lifter is weak for 5/8 inch dry wall, but works.Have had a big 2 horse bench grinder for ten years, works good. Engine stand is fine. Collection of steel C clamps are good. Chainsaw chain sharpener works, but not as stable as the Oregon $200 setup.

air nailers etc...............

No problems

I got the free "no purchase necessary" LED flashlight. I lost it the first night I had it.

No HF but Princess Auto seems to be sourced from the same factories. I have two 2" pumps for liquid fertilizer, two 6.5 hp Honda clones different places, a 1" drive socket set, various hammers, adjustable wrenches, channel-locks, a small parts washer, too many hand tools to remember.

I have the motorcycle/atv lift and an engine hoist.
They have both worked just fine.
just sold my way to big and heavy 6,500 watt Honda generator and am going to go buy the 750 watt small generator from them this month.

Air compressor, big tool box, the kind in 2 parts on wheels
Ceramic knife, it is now my fave knife, cuts everything in the kitchen!

I know there is more but can not remember it now.

I bought a big bag full of the 4 inch caster wheels, swivel ones and some not.
They work great on the dollies I made to move honey supers around in the honey house. About 650 pounds per load.

:D Al

Have not had much luck with anything that needs to be exact, but then, that is why they are cheaper. Their paint sprayers aren't so hot - motors kept failing on ones I got (but you can keep taking them back until the job is done), had 2 bottle jacks that leaked fluid when I tried to use them (not gonna crawl under anything when they will not hold), brad stapler would never work, miscellaneous things that I didn't hold a lot of hope for, to start with.

On the plus side, when I need a 1 use wrench, I head for HF. Bought a backup generator (7500 w) as when we needed them here in city neighbors who had theirs liked them (have only test run it and warm it up once a month or so, hope it works when I need it!) The pumps for my wife's koi pond are from HF, too. They only last about 6 months, but they will apparently keep replacing them forever under 1 year warranty and they are a LOT cheaper than ones at the "fish stores."

Too many things to list....

I started buying from them before they had stores... In fact my trailer I use to haul our Civil War gear came from HF it has a 2200 GVW. I haven't seen any that heavy since.. I have been using it now for well over 10 years and it is still going strong. Most of the tools I've bought have lasted except a few items. But I know that they aren't the best tools and aren't meant for hard/daily use..
I have no complaints about what I've gotten there.

When my Dewalt recip. saw needed repaired and I needed to use it I bought a recip. saw from HF to use till I got the good one fixed.. Now I have 2 recip saws, so if family needs one to use I still have my good one...lol (of course I don't give them the good one:nana:)

I've never stepped foot in the place, but can understand why people like them so much.

I thought about building a go kart last year for DD. The prices for parts are unbelievable! HB was just a fraction of the price.

I try to buy American made and/or high quality whenever possible, but again, I can see why people love HB.

I have bought a lot from harbor "fright" I mean freight and salvage,

pry bars, hammers, sockets 3/4" drive, I bought the 1" set, (have not used it),
fence pliers,:thumb:
years ago, there 3/4 air impact, :thumb:
and a few years the middle 1" impact, :thumb:
and many impact sockets, there 3/4" large set I think is good, :thumb:

chain binders,:thumb:
chains, :thumb:
some of there other air tools drill 1/2" :thumb:
and a tire buffer, :thumb:
also have both the 3/8 air impacts, :thumb: :thumb:

(it will only let me post ten smiles at a time)

years ago I found more things that were junk, I think there quality on many things are improving,

I have only bought two electrical tools, the electric impact and a jig saw, both were marginal IMO, yes one could change the tire on a car with the impact, and it works for that, the jig saw for my grand son, it need to be repaired once all ready, a pin in side fell out of place in the head. :mad:

I have bought there long 8 ton jack and have used in a custom made engine hoist, and have used it a lot, :thumb:

the pry bars some of them needed to be touched up (sharper points):thumb:

I bought a few sets of there wood chisels and once properly sharpened they have been a good by, out of the box there trash, :thumb:

the wood hand screws, a excellent buy IMO, :thumb:

the drill bits are not much good, (bought a left hand bits set for getting broken bolts out, and the bit untwisted),:mad:

the pipe wrench are not worth much in my Opinion :mad:
they will work but not like a Ridgid,

at one time they had some US brand name products, and they were all good, but I rarely see them any more, (Dewalt saws all blades and the like),

a lot of my decision to "try" a harbor freight product, is how much will I use it. like the air impacts on the one inch we needed one for the truck tires, and has come in handy on the field disk, tighten up the gangs on it, :thumb:

but in the tree or four years I have had it it has only been used a dozen or so times, if it was for a tire shop I would have gone name brand,

I have the mini tire changer also,:thumb:

I close family friend who lives up the road is a retired auto body mechanic and he said when he first started out all of his airtools were snap on or blue point. Then he realized at the end of each year most of them would need a rebuild kit which set you back about 50-60 bucks a tool(tools costing several hundred dollars), He then started buying them from hf he said they would last about a year and he would just throw them out and go back and buy one for 10-20 bucks.

the good year air hose has been good, :thumb:

and one of the best values I have had is the air reel it came with 50 foot of hose (china made), but it has been in use for a number of years being used nearly daily now, and it is low cost, well made, and works well, :thumb:

I have bought some of there parts assortments, one was not very good but the others were good and usable, also the crimp on wire ends are not as good as USA made, but serviceable,:thumb:

I use a lot of there electrical tape, (there is better out there but a good value):thumb:

Had the same problem with the tire iron and jack that came with my ranger. i went to walmart(it was closer) and bought the 20 dollar 2.5 ton floor jack and the biggest 4 way they had.. best 30 bucks ive spent in a while. it all fits nicely in the tool box in my bed

Yep, it was a joy laying on the shoulder with my feet in traffic, balancing the factory screw jack on top of the receiver hitch drawbar, trying to get enough height.

I forgot about my favorite HF item, their driveway alarm. It is always under $20, sometimes $12. They last a few years. Ours lets us know if a dog tries to sneak out, or a deer herd try to sneak in the gate. We stayed in a motel one night and discussed whether to unload the cooler under the roll up tarp on the pickup. I said if we had our driveway alarm, we could set it in there and as soon as the tailgate moved, we would know it. We have used one to guard the orchard from deer, and to guard the henhouse from foxes.

A tool that satisfies the light weight uses of a hobbiest will not stand up to the hard use of commercial application. That said, many a Harbor Freight tool has satisfied my needs.

Screw post lift. Worked perfectly at jacking up the rear porch to replace some beams.

12 ton press. Presses just fine.

Tire changer. Changes tires just fine.

Bubble balancer. Mea. But I'd say mea about just about any bubble balancer.

Fiber optic scope. Works great. Wish it was smaller, so it would fit down a spark plug hole.

10 ton hyraulic ram setup. Works fine.

Chainsaw sharpener. Works fine. Not the most precise.

Circular saw sharpener. Works fine. Not the most precise.

Aluminum jack. Works fine.

Earthquake pneumatic breaker. Works fine.

Color coded sockets. Quite strong.

Wrench sets. Have held up fine in the emergency tool kit.

Big drill bit set. Gives me all those odd sizes I sometimes need. Cut surprisingly well.

Orange gloves. Some of the toughest work gloves I've used.

Have bought a few things.
The fence post puller has held up for a number of years,
Their ball pein hammer set has been in my toolbox at work and on the farm for over 10 year and they are still in good shape.
The big size double open ended wrench set held up well in an industrial setting, still in my toolbox and not spread at all.
Have welded the hitch on the haybine with their little 110V wire feed welder and it made a good weld that stood up to haying season this year..so that was a good buy.
The 1/2" drive impact allen wrench sockets held up as well as any thing I used from Proto. Bought 2 sets of them.
Have a set of prybars that have held up well. Bought a set like it off the Snap-On truck and the tip broke off a bar the first time I used it, haven't broke a tip off the cheap set yet.
Bought a wire strippers that has held up well over the 2 years I've used it.

I might have to check into that sometime...sounds like a useful and interesting tool.

HF was out of these (for good reason), so I purchased the "tool Shop" brand, of electric sheet metal shears, from Menards ($39), which is the exact same tool.

Don't attempt to work sheet metal WITHOUT of of these. ;)

It will cut an 11' piece of sheet metal roofing, lengthsway, in about 90 seconds. It struggles cross-cutting up through ribs and bends, but this is probably true of most electric shears. These shears ROCK. Must have tool.

http://www.harborfreight.com/14-gaug...ars-92115.html

I also have the HF 3ton floor jack, that would probably take on an M1 Army tank.

Their 4" paint brushes (99 cents) looses about as many bristles as any competitors $4 brush. Just pitch them when done - don't bother cleaning.

Their LED trailer light kits, work great and I paid about $30.

I purchased 100' neoprene air hoses for my pond aerator - $20 each.

oooo, I love Harbor Freight. I'm not allowed in there unsupervised anymore...

I have a lot of their hand tools. Bought them to "just get by" until I could afford better...but they are still going strong.

I agree that there are lots of hit and misses with their stuff, though.

The trailer dolly is wonderful, a little difficult to put together but once it was together it worked just fine.

Zip ties, low price and hold up well.

Blue nitrile gloves, we use a lot of those.

The tarps aren't the greatest but they work better than the ones you get from Big Lots.

I really want to get one or two of their solar panels and a solar power wall mounted light.

Cordless drill/flashlight combo, pry bars, basin wrench, garden stuff, all have worked fine.

We just bought the 11 drawer tool chest - $139 on sale. It's thinner metal than the heavy duty ones, but the drawers slide well, they're padded and they lock. DH is happy with it.

................(2)-10 Ton Jacks , 1-10 ton Airpowered Hydraulic jack with the auto pull down springs , 7 inch polisher for 5'ver , and , finally the neatest thing is a 12 volt DC powered 2-Ton Scissor jack that I keep in my Ranger , it plugs into the cigarette lighter ! Was $59.95 but I had a 20% off any 1 item cupon . , fordy:nanner:

Got a brake bleeder tool,pretty worthless but the handle/gauge pump was awesome when tracing leaking vacuum lines.

Got the tool chest for resetting screw in disc brake calipers,has doodads to fit all cars,very good buy.

Zip ties,average quality

Wire nuts,cheap plastic junk.

My wife bought me the hole saw tubing notcher for the shop. THats the best 50 bucks ever spent. I use good bimetal saws though. I did have to shim it to make it more accurate. I had never used one like it before. WHen this one wears out I willbuy the US 150 dollar version. ITs a time saver on pipe and tubing projects. I made a pipe gate for a stock trailer in 1 hour insted of the 4 It would have taken to free hand notch the tubing.

I keep a few of the wrenchses for special made tools in my service truckso I wont have to torch a Craftsman. Also mostof the Snap on and Blue Point hydraulic Jacks are made in Taiwan. I buy some of the 10 pound spools of Italian welding wire there to.

I also buy some of my die grinders there as well. The worst thing I did was I needed a combination square with a crows foot to centersome holes In a round plate project. I had gotten a Centech and when I got home the rule didntfit right in the square or protractors orthe crows foot. The goofy thing had a ridge right in the center of the slot that was machined in. Looked like the mill cutter had a slot worn into it. When I went back the next weekend all of them were like that.

I've gotten lots of little things for doing jewelry and metalwork that have been just fine for me - small files, alphabet stamps, clamps, etc. I also got a meat cleaver there - super heavy - that I use when I butcher poultry. It is nothing like the light ones that usually come with cutlery sets.

I don't use it a lot, but I got a small meat slicer, and it has served me well. I don't know if it would hold up to major use, but for us, it works great and gets the job done when we need it.

Every time I turn around we have more coupons for those free LED flashlights. So every time we're in that part of town we stop and get some (one per person). My parents and my inlaws live where there are no HF stores, so we've sent some to them too.

Purchased it over a year ago, but finally used the HF Auto-darkening welding helmet today.

SWEEEET! This helmet and a Lincoln flux wire welder, even a dummy can weld. ;)

Paid a whopping $39 for the helmet.

We have 3 and they are terrific.

When painting the mining sluice with oil based paint , I just bought a bunch of there $ 2.49 paint brushes ( same ones at Ace Hardware for $ 6.99 ) and tossed them .
I also have the good motorcycle transport stand and love it .
Bob

As a locksmith I also buy quite a few of the small screwdrivers, files etc. there also. They seem to hold up well enough for daily use. I bought an Allen wrench set there once not expecting it to last a week, and 2 years later it is still working well, none of the heads are stripped out at all, although the one I tapped on with the hammer has a little twist in it. Always been a fan of HF for ok tools at a decent price.
Gonna have to check out their Solar Panels and Lights next time in there, sound nice for the new and improved "Flippin Chicken Mansion" I'm building....LOL

A drill press that no longer works and a set of end wrenches. I had to file the 3/8 one open to fit a 3/8 nut. I no longer stop there.

Only been in the store a couple of times with Son. Bought a couple little things (don't even remember) seemed ok but a lot of the "stuff" looked really cheap made. I have a full Craftsman tool set so....no tools....James

For occasional use stuff there many times isnt any alternative. And some of the chinese tools are now actually pretty good.

I dont buy much from Harbor cause I have a local chinese tool store called A2Z which has very simular stuff usually cheaper. Or at least more convenient than waiting for a "super coupon" deal from Harbor.

I did recently buy a 12T press with super coupon for $89 plus tax. I also decided to spend the $12 or whatever for them to FedEx it to me rather than drive up to store and try to fit it in Festiva. Still dont know how they ship something that heavy, that cheap. It worked fine to press out ball joints on my old F250 4wd. It was no marvel of design, but it worked. I suspect sometime I will weld its frame to eliminate the wobble and to maybe reinforce the frame some also. They tried to use minimal amount steel.

I have also bought few things off ebay from place that resells the stuff people return to HF on warranty. You have to be super aware of any problems or missing pieces, but I have got some deals through them (you have to pay close attention to any problems they mention!!!!). Couple angle grinders that are far superior to the traditional cheapie Chinese grinders that used bushings instead of bearings. Plus these use cheap to buy standard size ball bearings that I can replace economically. I wish the name brands would use standard bearings. I have old skil saw and old B/D saw that both need bearings, but bearings cost more than just buying another saw on sale. Such waste just cause manufacturer doesnt want them repaired, they want to sell more new ones.

I have got 6.5hp horizontal shaft engine and a couple 5.5hp lawn mower vertical shaft engines from them. Clones of Honda design except these HF versions have a very cheapened gas tank and the recoil start on the lawn mower engines is plastic (yuck). Anyway they run fine. The gas tanks will rust quickly, so be prepared to replace with alternate tank within couple years. Otherwise treat them with respect you would a Honda (hopefully regular oil changes and clean filter) and you will get good service. I got my engines from that place that resells returns. The 5.5hp engines were like $40 shipped for each and one was brand new, perfect in every way. The other had light use and returned cause fuel tank had rusted inside and I had to fix the recoil starter. That plastic recoil starter is really bad design. The 6.5hp had to give $60 (gokart people bid them up), but was brand new, only damage was a dent in the gas tank and part of plastic on fuel tank cap was broken.

what is the company that resells the returns?

taddwholesale

They dont mention it in their auctions but if you win two or more auctions within 3 days and pay at same time they take 25% off shipping. So if you are buying something that has super high shipping like a pump or gasoline engine, worth buying something else with cheap shipping like a angle grinder or drill or something. And always check the HF site for current price on the item. Sometimes Tadd has such high shipping on a particular item that you just as well buy it new at HF. But usually item plus shipping will be half to two thirds price of new at HF.