Acceptable and Unacceptable Harbor Freight Tools

[efficient]

bought a 3/4 to 1/2 inch socket reducer and it snapped. id stay away from the socket reducers.
i also have the cherry picker and jack they both work good. anyone own a compressor from hf?

[jaywood]

Motorcycle lift. Works great! Link Here

[jaywood]

These 6" and 12" clamps are great.



We abuse this so much at work. It gets used every day. Never failed.



This is great -- I use it for sharpening my tungsten. I built a bracket to hold it steady on the vice when turned on




Great thread!

[kwill22]

I recently bought a pair of their spring compressors. I think they were like $10 and they worked fine but they look like very cheap cast metal and I'm skeptical of using them again. For a one time use job a lot of HF tools are great.

Definitely one time use. Especially with our strut assemblies on the E30. They don't really compress the spring enough to get it out without disconnecting the control arm and the limited space .

I've used mine twice. I will not use them again though. The threads started getting jacked up and I had to alternate between tightening the cheap compressor and tightening a long rope around the spring until it got it compressed enough to remove. Will definitely remove the control arm next time now that I have that ball joint separator tool posted early.

[nmlss2006]

No. They do not. That's their business model.
Oh, and the bearing puller mentioned earlier? Horrendous trash. Do not use. OK, we were using it outside its intended primary use, but it shouldn't have failed the way it did.
Other trash: their borescope.
Those are the two purchases I made... and I plan on keeping it that way.

[2761377]

do they sell anything not made in china? i'm not convinced about AGW but i hedge my bets by avoiding as many chinese products as possible. their heavy industry is among the worst polluters in the world- most greenhouse gases come from there, russia and india.

not to mention their prices are low because they pay their workers shit and manipulate their currency to artificially depress value. they do this as a campaign in the economic war they are waging against us.

some things like sneakers and smartphones are only available from there. tools are not one of those things.

sorry, but nobody else brought this up and it needs to be mentioned.

[CabbE30]

I've been using the yellow harbor freight tool bag with 50#+ of tools for ~2 years. No issues and even the itty strap they provide hasn't broken or bent.

[kalib0y]

Great thread

[TimKninja]

Bad:
750 Lb. Engine Stand
I made the mistake of buying this. It only has three wheels so it WILL tip over if you are doing anything on the motor which requires a bit of force, or you need to wheel the stand/engine around on uneven or bumpy surfaces. Ask me how I found out. Yeah my m20 block tipped and I some how managed to ketch it before it hit the ground. Heavy mother f**ker!

My S50 Is sitting on one of these....Hmmmm. Time to remove it.

I love their orange Jack stands, ive had them forever and they work great.
All of their big sockets are great. ive used the 3/4 Inch ones to press many wheel bearings and bushings in and out.

[deutschman]

Bad:
750 Lb. Engine Stand
I made the mistake of buying this. It only has three wheels so it WILL tip over if you are doing anything on the motor which requires a bit of force, or you need to wheel the stand/engine around on uneven or bumpy surfaces. Ask me how I found out. Yeah my m20 block tipped and I some how managed to ketch it before it hit the ground. Heavy mother f**ker!

[brianao34]

Bad
Leakdown Tester: Absolute hogwash. Only tests at 15psi and was terribly off compared to an "OTC" unit I compared it to.

[M44schnell]

The HF Earthquake 3/8 and 1/2in impacts are AMAZING, the 3/8's one is my go to for everything.Cant really say enough good things about these, AS LONG AS YOU OIL THEM!!
The impact sockets as stated above are really good.

The torque wrenches are pretty junk (My experience), the 3/8's one broke my thermostat housing and striped the hole on my M42.

Sandpaper is kinda junk, i know 3m is expensive but HF stuff is junk.

Compression tester is pretty accurate, less than 5% off of a snap on gauge.

Angle grinder, air ratchet and cut of wheel air tools are great for the money, throw a good cut of wheel or wire brush with them and there perfect for the super chepness they are.

The giant axel sockets are pretty good for occasional usage (28,30,32,34mm)

[spike68]

I'll agree with MasterOfPuppets. Never had a single issue with my breaker bar. then again they arent very complex. I also keep it in my trunk in case someone wants to get beat.

GOOD


GOOD. Bearing Puller.


BAD. Another bearing puller. Broke right when i used it...took it back anyway. They didnt even check. Sorry. Im a bad person.

[///M42 sport]

Good, used these aluminum stands for light duty... I cant trust them 100% and I always leave my HF aluminum jack under car for backup lol

[Wiglaf]

I can vouch for these:

(HUMANGOUS PIC OF 1/2" BREAKER BAR)

I've had mine for years and done all kinds of stuff with it, including snapping off a bunch of 7/16" bolts holding my Jeep together. Also snapped a bunch of HF socket adapters with it, too, so there's that. I'll also vouch for the 1/2" extensions, often used in conjunction with this very breaker bar.

In general: if it has parts that move during operation, I'll skip it. Otherwise, go for it!

actually I broke one of those, the square socket interface nub nipple thing just rolled right off. I may have put 400lbs of force on it but honestly who doesn't expect those things to be able to handle a good shove.