The one really good tool they have, at a great price, is their 1/2" breaker bar, that can be caught on sale for less than 20 bucks. I don't own any other of their hand tools.
The one really good tool they have, at a great price, is their 1/2" breaker bar, that can be caught on sale for less than 20 bucks. I don't own any other of their hand tools.
I actually just used mine two weeks ago when I needed to take a rear tire off my Kubota to get it fixed...I knocked the stem out of it while pushing some downed tree parts. Sheesh... The breaker bar was "just the ticket" and long enough to give me the leverage I needed to do the job.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Just placed an online order totaling over $500, $6.99 to ship it to my house. Hard to beat that. One item is a set of replacement jaws for a metal shear. Grizzly no longer sells the shears, did not call about replacement parts. Did check other places for a new shear and jaws. Harbor freight was about 50-70 percent price on jaws of anywhere else. Add the shipping in and still less than anyone else. This means everything else ships no additional charge. Everything I bought in this order will be lightly used and returned if anything doesn't work or break in first 90 days, I started buying mail order from Harbor Freight over 20 years ago maybe 30, lost track, returned very little, never had a problem returning anything. Craftsman is no longer the go to brand it was last century. Have been very happy with my HF tool box.
Looks like Porter Cable is going down the tubes just like Black and Deck professional and then Craftsman did years ago. Skil at one time was very well considered especially the Boar Gun battery drill and the worm drive saws.
Ron
These premium hand tools from Harbor Freight aren't competing with box store tools. Their competing with tool truck quality tools. People who wrench forty hours a week can tell the difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmvK7h7ZL2A
I bought a couple of the HF floor jacks (not the lowest end, but don't remember their name) to add to the two old ones I have for leveling a shipping container. They worked fine. Both of my old ones leak down if a load is left on them, but there's no good reason to do that anyway. A couple of weeks ago, I split a tractor to put a clutch in it, and put it back together using one of the fairly new HF floor jacks under the back end. It did fine. No floor jack is to hold a load for very long.
Now that I have four, it makes it a quick job to rotate tires on a vehicle.
The one tool I will advise against if their die grinder. It has a locking switch, and no forgiveness in the chuck for anything locking up in it. I bought one while a compressor was down, but after the first use, I tossed it, and spent 5 times the money on a Makita with a paddle switch, and spring in the chuck drive that has some give if it locks up. That HF diegrinder locked up with a carbide burr in it, the burr bent, jerking the tool out of my hands, and it climbed the cord, and my jeans leg before I could unplug it. Carbide burrs will lock up easier than it seems like they should. The Makita makes such a lockup a non-issue. No more HF power tools for me.
I do own their parts washer. It's paid for itself many times over. I pretty much hate cheap hand tools though, but that breaker bar in the video is a nice one. Unfortunately, my 3/4", and 1" breaker bars were not available at HF, and they were significantly more painful to buy.
I don't have the ability or equipment to weld. I've seen that kind of quard on larger machines, but they don't appear to be common on sub-compacts. The service folks just fixed the problem and I reinstalled the tire. It was a "rare" thing and I'm not really worried about it, but if I did a lot of this stuff, I'd get them installed as it's a great idea!
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
When I bought my BMW convertible, I wanted a tool roll to go in the trunk. I seldom use it but I feel more comfortable with at least a minimal set of tools in each vehicle. I had all my "spares" in my SUV. So I went to HF, bought a set of combination wrenches, some pliers, a multi tip screwdriver and a socket set with a few extensions and wobble joint. I do not consider these to be great tools but none have failed and they work fine. They were pretty inexpensive.
I also have one of each size click type torque wrench HF offers. I don't do a lot on the car any more but if I do something, even tighten aluminum wheels, I like to use a torque wrench. I've seen a review where they were fairly accurate. The digital torque gauge was quite accurate.
I also have a 1/2 inch HF cordless impact. It is not terribly powerful. But it has been really handy to pull and insert lags on my dock when replacing floats. I would not use an expensive tool for this because I occasionally drop a tool in the water when I'm working on the dock. The batteries for mine are Ni Cd and one doesn't work great but with a full battery, it will drive a 1/2 lag without a pilot hole.
These are just meant to be examples of why I firmly believe HF makes some very servicable tools.