Harbor Freight: Friend or Foe?

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Surprisingly, I think the only thing I've ever had bad luck with from Harbor Freight has been a couple LED flashlights...they were really nice in the beginning, but the LEDs went out rather quickly.

I have a hose for my air compressor...it's about 15 years old, and still in great shape. I also have the cheapie impact driver...about the same age, and still working just fine. Of course, I don't use it day in and day out...it probably wouldn't last a month in a garage, but for home use it's fine.

[GasSavers_GasUser]

Almost all my tools are Craftsman and S&K. Mostly purchased when I was working as a professional mechanic years ago. The S&K tool truck was always around to get my money....haha.

That said there is a HF about 25 miles from me and I do go there occasionally. Mostly I look around and when I do buy anything it is only various hand tools. I had a multimeter not work right and they took it back without any drama. I bought a tarp and some tarp tiedowns and 2 of the tiedowns broke already within a month of purchase. I did buy an 02 sensor socket and used it once and it didn't break. Not something I will probably use a lot.

I try to be careful what I buy there as I can tell their quality is not the same as my Craftsman and S&K tools. .....just my opinion.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

I used to have some nice SK tools years ago...they vanished mysteriously one day when my then landlord had some guys in working on the house I was renting.

For my use (occasional shade tree stuff) HF tools are plenty adequate. I wouldn't want to use them on a daily basis in a garage or factory, however.

[VetteOwner]

Originally Posted by GasUser

Almost all my tools are Craftsman and S&K. Mostly purchased when I was working as a professional mechanic years ago. The S&K tool truck was always around to get my money....haha.

That said there is a HF about 25 miles from me and I do go there occasionally. Mostly I look around and when I do buy anything it is only various hand tools. I had a multimeter not work right and they took it back without any drama. I bought a tarp and some tarp tiedowns and 2 of the tiedowns broke already within a month of purchase. I did buy an 02 sensor socket and used it once and it didn't break. Not something I will probably use a lot.

I try to be careful what I buy there as I can tell their quality is not the same as my Craftsman and S&K tools. .....just my opinion.

yea thier perfect for one lifetime use or very little use stuff. or if you need to make a tool rather cut up a $2 wrench than a $10 one ya know?

altho i bought that $10 6 pt 3/8 drive socket set and havent busted one yet, ive used it with an impact gun and worked fine! my friends dad has bought the deep well impact sets from there and him and when i borrowed it twice we both have put them thru hell and worked fine.

ive bought those like 8 and 10 inch wheels and they work great for liek hand carts, wagons etc but haha lawnmower noooooo blow out a set of bearings every year. one i broke the weld from the wheel to the hub haha. of course never were designed to be put on a racing mower that goes 40 mph...

[ben98gs]

I love a lot of my Harbor Freight stuff. Granted I have never bought anything major from there. Some of my "larger" purchases were:

Pry bars (have worked great and keeps me from snapping the tips off of my Craftsman scredrivers... )
Engine support (spans fender to fender, worked great for dropping the transmission out of the neighbors Taurus)
Air Grinder (have not oiled the thing once since I got it 2 years ago and still works great)
Bungee cords (I usually lose/give them away before any break, have not had one break yet)
Ratchet Straps/Tie Downs (have worked great so far... Seem to stick a bit when trying to release them. Only ones that broke were user error (rubbed on the edge of a chrome bumper and it cut through them).
Tarps (no heavy duty use, but have worked great for lining the car trunks/interior to keep dirty parts from staining)
Mini-sledge hammer (can you really do too much "wrong" with a hammer? Has worked great)


That is kinda a "highlight" I have gotten things like zip ties and cutting discs for the air grinder, fuses and wire, but the above are the more "major" items.

Hell, my Craftsman $200 aluminum racing jack is (or at least was at one point) made by the same company that made the $99 Harbor Freight one. Also, just got a small rolling stool for Christmas that is a Craftsman, and looked at the one at Harbor Freight for 1/2 the price and it is a DEAD RINGER of the one I have (minus the Craftsman logo). So not everything is "junk", it might be exactly the same as the name brand stuff.

[Jay2TheRescue]

I was just in Harbor freight 2 weeks ago with my dad. We were in there to buy a "sawzall" type of saw. They were on sale for $20. Then the guy tried to sell us on an extended warranty for $9! We declined. I told him "If I'm going to break it, I'm going to break it tonight."

[bowtieguy]

yup, a basic rule of thumb is that extended warranties are widely garbage and a money making scam. there are of course exceptions.

[fowljesse]

I have bought small tools and stuff with no problems. I used to build antique reproduction furniture, and would never consider getting cheap power tools.. except; I am making picture frames for my girlfriend's art, and they are simple 90 degree joints. We don't have money, so I got a HF miter saw. I knew it wouldn't be perfect, and it's not, BUT it's worth all of the $90 we paid for it! I can fanagle corner joints, and use putty if needed (rarely). I wouldn't consider using it for projects where the wood wasn't painted. The cut "Walks out" by the time it gets through the 2" cut, making a compound angle of up to about 1 degree, but it's good enough for our use.
I get what I pay for there, and have been happy with it.

[Jay2TheRescue]

I think a lot of what I go in there for meets or exceeds my expectations. I go in there expecting cheap Chinese crap, and the products meet or exceed that. My opinion is that the stuff is so cheap, as long as it lasts through the job I buy it for, I consider that I got my money's worth. If it lasts longer than that, great. That being said, I don't think I've broken much stuff I've gotten there.

[theholycow]

I was working with my HF bench grinder today. It is certainly a cheesy piece of machinery...but it does the job. It is the 1/2hp 6 inch low-price unit with the gooseneck light attached.

The tool rests (the things that you rest the chisel/bolt/whatever against) are flimsy and doen't mount well. The clear plastic guard's mount is similarly flimsy but the result there is scarcely any different from a good grinder - it's just as annoying. The housing that goes around the wheel...you guess it, flimsy, but that doesn't matter.

Mounting a wire wheel is a difficult proposition. The wheel housing is too narrow for HF's cheap wide wheels. Their cheapest, narrowest one works, it just makes a scraping sound. A good quality wire wheel would probably work fine, but the cheapies have wires fraying off to the side. I could probably go around in circles with a cutoff wheel on the dremel and clean it up but I don't care.

The main housing, the motor, the shafts, etc are all decent.

If it wasn't for a bad grinder I wouldn't have no grinder at all. I got my work done with it...without it I'd be using a wire wheel mounted on my drill, possibly strapping the drill to the bench.

That, my friends, is the least satisfaction I've ever had with a Harbor Freight purchase. I got the job done, I'd have done worse without it, and I couldn't have spent the money on a good one.