Acceptable and Unacceptable Harbor Freight Tools

[BraveUlysses]

Torque wrenches? Mig welders? Paint guns? Anyone have any experiance with these from HF?

The torque wrenches are generally accurate and worth it if you can't afford an expensive one.

[jalopi]

would you really trust something, that with a coupon, would cost less than a single ARP head stud that you'd use to torque it down with? the answer should be no. buy a sunex torque wrench if you're trying to ball on a budget, gearwrench is a decent midgrade wrench

i hear the HF welders actually do work (kind of), but their duty cycles are so horrible that it takes almost no amount of welding to overheat them. replacement parts are also unavailable. spend an extra $200 and get a hobart welder, they're pretty nice machines for the price

they're hard to get running right, but i had not terrible results with a HF style paint gun




on a side note i bought their SAE 10 piece 3/4" drive socket set over the weekend, as they were somehow the only store to stock a 1 13/16" socket (pulling hubs on an e36). took the 250 ft/lb nut off no problem, i don't see how there could be with that much metal though

[mrsleeve]

Just dont

really you have to ask this

Primer only, or anything you dont care what the finish looks like or your going to sand the shit out of

[_JDizzle_]

Torque wrenches? Mig welders? Paint guns? Anyone have any experiance with these from HF?

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Yep hf floor jacks are awesome same with all there press's and cherry pickets

[ajhostetter]

What do we think of these floor jacks? I've heard the aluminum one they sell is junk, although it looks just like the one summit, etc. sells, so I dunno. Seems like the steel ones are mostly approved. Anyone here have experience with these?

http://www.harborfreight.com/2-ton-L...ump-68050.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/25-ton-...ump-68049.html

I have the 2.5 ton one. I think I got it for $80 with a coupon. No complaints.

[rturbo 930]

Combine this guy with the above and you will have a killer package. I did drill out the holes in the ends that the rod passes through though. With weight on it, it was rubbing there a bit and making things very hard to turn. I also welded a nut on the end on the handle side so I could use an electric drill to turn it.

Is this the same one? http://www.harborfreight.com/2-Ton-C...ler-60659.html

Looking to pick that up tomorrow.

What do we think of these floor jacks? I've heard the aluminum one they sell is junk, although it looks just like the one summit, etc. sells, so I dunno. Seems like the steel ones are mostly approved. Anyone here have experience with these?

http://www.harborfreight.com/2-ton-L...ump-68050.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/25-ton-...ump-68049.html

[jalopi]

Never had an issue with anything from HF, ever

[rcsoundn1]

http://www.harborfreight.com/21-gal-...sor-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.

[marshallnoise]

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

[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]

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.

[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]

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.

[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.