Acceptable and Unacceptable Harbor Freight Tools

[george graves]

Awesome thread - subscribed.

[5Toes]

http://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools/impact-wrenches/12-in-professional-air-impact-wrench-68424.html

anybody have first hand experience with this?

[pandaboo911]

Air tools from harbor freight are garbage. Save your money


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TimeMachinE30]

GOOD

The tarps. I have been using them for years as drop cloths for painting, yard work and an extra layer with the car cover. Durable.

Wet tile saw. I laid about 200 sqft of subway tile and tumbled marble. The only reason it had to get tossed was it seized up after being left outside for a few days, mistreatmemt. The included blade was great.

The wooden workbench and their tool chests. I have only heard good things.

BAD

More a reminder, many times items that are not their own are not always the best price. I see this often with their detailing supplies and paint.

[GDA]

Hog ring pliers.... merely acceptable for an interior job. If you are doing several interior jobs look elsewhere for side angle head pliers, narrower tip type etc.

Pulley system bike hanger... good.

Installed one in the far corner of my garage and use it to hang my very heavy Thule hitch mount bike rack. Not the intended use but who the hell cares. It just works.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

http://www.harborfreight.com/air-too...nch-68424.html

anybody have first hand experience with this?

I've had that impact for several years with zero issue. I'm sure it doesn't pack the punch that it's advertised for. But at ~70 with a coupon, it was an excellent beginner tool and has served me very well.

[mitchlikesbikes]

I've had that impact for several years with zero issue. I'm sure it doesn't pack the punch that it's advertised for. But at ~70 with a coupon, it was an excellent beginner tool and has served me very well.

i have the 3/8 one and it kicks ass. my 1/2 drive one is an ingersol rand though so i can't say i have first hand experience with their 1/2" version. the big thing with the earthquake impacts is they seem to need more air than higher quality ones to do the same work. on a small garage size compressor they won't work as well as a nicer unit, but i work on heavy equipment in a shop all day and have unlimited air so mine works great.

good:

hammers (except the large deadblow, i've ruined 2 of them)
most air tools
impact sockets (also literally like 20% the $$ of big brand versions)
grease gun
jack stands
floor jacks
12 ton press
test lights
infrared thermometer
spot weld drill bit
allen key sockets (i've stripped more out with my mac ones)



bad:
small pliers and cutters
vise grips
drill bits
wire wheels

[varg]

Oh you must never have had a tool that is designed like this to take high stress loads fail in glorious fashion while your hands or face are near by ehhh. Because thats almost exactly whats its doing at that point is exploding when all that stored energy is released when it fails under that load, I suppose you like Chinese built strut spring compressors too huh

Wait, so you're saying that you use highly stressed tools with your face near them? That's not very smart no matter what the brand

I'm also not in the habit of putting my fingers in crush/pinch zones and would use that tool as it's meant to be used; finger tight to get it in place, then crank down on it with my hand on the ratchet handle and not in the crush zone. If it fails, nothing of mine is going to be in its path when it snaps and throws a few fragments a few feet.

Tools fail, sometimes the parts you're using them on do too. I don't use them in unsafe ways thinking they won't. I've got a story about a snapped craftsman ball joint press that is enough to tell you that.

[mrsleeve]

Wait, so you're saying that you use highly stressed tools with your face near them? That's not very smart no matter what the brand

I'm also not in the habit of putting my fingers in crush/pinch zones and would use that tool as it's meant to be used; finger tight to get it in place, then crank down on it with my hand on the ratchet handle and not in the crush zone. If it fails, nothing of mine is going to be in its path when it snaps and throws a few fragments a few feet.

Tools fail, sometimes the parts you're using them on do too. I don't use them in unsafe ways thinking they won't. I've got a story about a snapped craftsman ball joint press that is enough to tell you that.

When shit comes apart and your in tight and odd ball position under a car laying on your back makes your ability to react LIMITED, yeah sometimes your face is on a direct line of sight with no obstruction with a tool that is under high load and failure prone. Yuppers keeping your hands out of pinch/crush points is common sense, but you have to have you fucking hand near the tool to manipulate it to make it fucking do its job right??? If your hand is near it when it fails what do you think might happen, where there was not a crush point, when a large amount of energy is released and shit starts moving around and going places where its not supposed to go. You have not had too many tools fail have you??? Years ago we had a 1 3/4 Cman 3/4 drive split and rocket to either end of the shop, we found 1/2 of it in the shitter after it went to the far end of the shop (120ish feet Heavy equipment construction shop) through 2 layers of 5/8 drywall and nearly pass through the 3rd but not all the way and come to rest between the wall and the shitter. The other 1/2 and shard hit the waste oil drums leaving a nice dent in the one that took the brunt of the force. I have others I can site mainly for jaw type pullers and shit in the shop press, I dont fuck around with tools designed for high stress and will buy the best version I can from a reputable manufacturer


H/F is great for general use hand tools, that you dont care what happens too them, great lend out tools and oh shit something broke along side the road bags under the back seat or in the trunk. I have heard the bigger shop presses are not too bad and some of the clamping tools are fine, I buy lots of bungie cords from them for work. Or some shit that I know I am only going to use once or happen to be a long way from home and know I am going to leave in the company truck or give it away when the job is over.

[marshallnoise]

What capacity press were you using? I've always heard good things about the 20ton.

I have the new style 20 Ton press and it is just fine. I am even a bigger idiot and put casters on it so I can wheel it in and out of the garage. Just chock it up and get to pressing.

[mitchlikesbikes]

I have the new style 20 Ton press and it is just fine. I am even a bigger idiot and put casters on it so I can wheel it in and out of the garage. Just chock it up and get to pressing.

i heard a lot of bad reviews about the older orange 12 ton, mine is the newer silver one at it works just fine. so the 20 ton isn't the only one worth buying for sure.

[marshallnoise]

i heard a lot of bad reviews about the older orange 12 ton, mine is the newer silver one at it works just fine. so the 20 ton isn't the only one worth buying for sure.

Yeah, mine is silver. No, its not fancy, but it does what I ask of it.

[BobombETA]

http://www.harborfreight.com/air-too...nch-68424.html

anybody have first hand experience with this?

I've owned one for about a year and have used it a handful of times. Works great for me.

[marshallnoise]

Any of the earthquake labeled stuff is rad. I have the same one in the link and it is tough as balls.

[rcsoundn1]

http://www.harborfreight.com/21-gal-2-12-hp-125-psi-cast-iron-vertical-air-compressor-67847.html

I bought that compressor about a year ago to do some sand blasting. I have no issues with it. I do stop at times and let it catch up. I would say though that if I had to do a lot of sand blasting I would suggest a bigger one for the extra volume of air.