Acceptable and Unacceptable Harbor Freight Tools

[kalib0y]

Great thread

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[jaywood]

Motorcycle lift. Works great! Link Here

[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?

[AndrewBird]

GOOD:

Nice and compact when folded up, but plenty big enough to reach into the back of the engine bay,


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.


This little guy is great. Super thin for a ratchet and multipurpose with both 3/8" and 1/4" drive.


Bought a 12" pair of these for cutting some stainless steel aircraft cable. Worked great.


Haven't really used this yet, but I got it on sale for a good price, so I figured what the heck. Used it to measure the different speeds on a drill press and small lathe I have. Seems to work fine.


BAD:
DO NOT buy this piece of crap. Absolute garbage.


Got one of these thinking it would be fine for home use. Not even close. Thing is junk.

[mrsleeve]

^

I have found one use for that POS speed square for my line of work. Its a good way to double check a set up on a out of position/difficult position stand off, off set radiograph. The only part I use is the blade and the bisected 90* slid all the way to one end so it self centers on a piping butt weld, its not perfect but it will get you close enough to be with in the margins of error to get the exposure right 99% of the time.

Other than that the only other thing I have found to be of decent use from H/F is the basic hand tools.

[brianao34]

That low profile ratchet looks awesome, I might go pick one up.

[karmatose]

Good:



The Front Wheel Bearing Adapters make doing the rear wheel bearings on the E30 a quick and painless job. The threaded rod that comes with it is a bit sketchy, but I had a machine shop turn down a new one for me. If your rear trailing arms are rusted to shit, I wouldn't even bother trying with the rod that it comes with because it will probably strip off.

Anyway, I think I got this thing for like $90 shipped with a 20% off coupon.

[jaywood]

Bump...

[dougie30]

Torque wrench???

[brianao34]

Good:
Front Wheel Bearing Adapters

Added to Wishlist thanks.