Thanks Harbor Freight

400 lb. $49.99 electric winch.
 

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Terry Oxandale

Skinny Man
Nice work. I wished my Harbor Freight experiences went as well. Below is a small sample of casting sand inside the gear and spindle casing of their big drill-press I purchased. This was just the loose stuff. The grease around the bearings and spindle splines was a gritty mud mixture. Needless to say, we had a little go-around over this.



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The HF is a hit and miss deal....most time good....sometime not so good.

"pay no attention to the car looming overhead"
 

Seymour Snerd

Lifetime Supporter
400 lb. $49.99 electric winch.
Yup. I have two of <$100 hoists holding my front and rear clips in the air, and the winch at the rear of the garage so I can pull cars in from my sloping driveway.

110 Volt, 440 Lb. Capacity Electric Hoist with Remote Control

2000 Lb. Capacity Remote Control Utility Winch

There great big red ball-bearing tool chest set is great (way better than price-equivalent craftsman).

13 Drawer Red Industrial Quality Roller Cabinet

The 54.5" bandsaw is OK as long as you clean out th gearbox and replace the oil (what was in there looked like karo syrup), and tinker a bit with adjusting.

Horizontal/Vertical Metal Cutting Bandsaw

Vice-grip clones are made out of recycled licorice. Same with hex keys.

I could go on.... to me it's a kind of sport to pick and choose the good stuff from the crap. When you win with HF you win big.

There are a couple web sites or forum entries that list what's good and what's bad at HF. I'll try to find those and post.
 

Rick Muck- Mark IV

GT40s Sponsor
Supporter
I won with the 4 drawer roll around cabinet for $99.00 with the coupon. Not Snap-On quality, but not Snap-On price either! Works great for rolling around the shop with basic tool assortment and encourages me to put tools away when done rather than scattered over 2000 square feet....
 
I bought the winch just because it was on sale. Maybe to hang one of the kids on it to save $$ on baby sitter.
My experience is that HF is mostly miss, especially air tools.
I made a pulley system to lift the car about 2ft at a time then snugged up 6 ratchet straps as it went up.
Just to feel comfortable with the car hanging, I asked my wife to take a ride up. If it held the car with her in it I felt comfortable. I did this on Sunday and I'm sure she's still screaming to get down. :furious: It's nice and quite at my house all of a sudden. AAHH!
 
Hmmmmm, this idea makes Alex very skeptical :/

Hopefully it doesn't backfire, that would suck pretty hard!

Btw, I think something's wrong with the back of your car - real SLCs leave the back open with the transaxle dangling in the middle of nowhere screaming 'come get some' :laugh: ;)
 
We bought a HF 1 ton arbor press yesterday, had a need and needed it quick, and they were the only game in town. Mike and I took it apart and scrubbed it down...removed the imitation lubrication from all the parts. The arbor needed the ends touched up with a belt grinder to get rid of burrs. All the slop adjusting screws and sliding pressure plate needed tip dressing and polishing...Used real lithium grease on reassembly, and so far so good, at least it is square. ...It was crap out of the box, but if you think of it as a kit and don't mind some work to do on it , it DID the deed and has been punching out tiny parts all day today.

Some HF stuff is VERY poor, but there are some gems hiding, and then there is the middle stuff, where you have to consider whatever you got as a kit of parts and with some work you arrive at a serviceable tool...

Snap-On still rules, and the local dealer stops here every Tuesday....He is like a drug dealer for tool junkies, with truck full of desirables.
Jennifer
 
"I bought a benchtop drill press years ago from HF when I was young & not too bright. I couldn’t figure out why I was having trouble drilling to a specific depth until I noticed that the Chinese engineer who designed the depth gauge divided an inch with 8 equally spaced marks, thus creating an inch with ninths not eighths!"

That's classic... :laugh:

I buy from them expecting junk so I can never be upset with what I get. Mostly I am pleasantly surprised...
 

marc

Lifetime Supporter
I agree with all of you. I buy alot of "junk type" tools from them knowing full well that the tool will last a few times before it dies. but the use vs. cost factor is why certain tools I buy this way.
 

marc

Lifetime Supporter
Okay I stand corrected... I don't agree with all of you.
I have two reasons for buying a tool at HF. I have an immediate need and the work that I am doing has the cost of a cheap tool factored in. Or I see something I figure will last the time that I will use the tool in my lifetime and will need eventually.

I am currently building a stainless steel stands for my solar array (PV System) thats going on my house. I bought a metal cut off saw for $70 because I will have burned up the motor by the end of the work it is doing (500 cuts throught 304 SS 3/16 thick angle. Am I buying the insurance? No, I think that is cheating knowing full well I am intending to abuse the saw. when I am done I will trash it or donate it. I have no use for it after wards and I am smoking the windings if I don't let it cool every 15 or so minutes. I bought a drill press from them as well, Not worrying about accuracy or this or that. I built a jig to drill the holes, about 4000 of them. when its done, will see if its not scrap. but the cost to buy the TOL or rent would have exceeded the calculated cost per use for the project that was intended. If there is more life in it afterwards, thats a bonus. If I care to fix it and keep will see. buying a tool to last a lifetime is over for me.

I think that HF builds the tools knowing this type of buyer and this is reason that we keep them in business.

This being said, I still won't give up my Milwaukee power tools.
 
Yup, i agree, you've gotta pick and choose at Harbor Freight. Some of it is junk. If it's something going to make 100's of cuts, look to Ingersol Rand. If you're making a dozen cuts, it's nice to have a tool at low cost tool you didn't have.

Wayne you gotta love the clips up in the air.
 

Seymour Snerd

Lifetime Supporter
I have a Starrett 1" micrometer, and a HF 1" micrometer. They both measure exactly the same, and both read correctly on a Starrett measurement standard. They will measure the same when they are in probate. Same with my several HF electronic calipers. Same with my HF OBD-II reader. There are people on the web reporting use of the HF 93762 bandsaw in professional shops for years without trouble.

And my HF 36221 hold down clamps will always be the same dangerous pieces of crap they were the day I bought them.

The HF 91938 metal-cutting chop saw is notoriously awful.

My point is simply "It depends...." and research is your friend. Some HF stuff is quite good.

Not buying the insurance because it's cheating is a far loftier moral stance than HF ever takes. HF makes a huge profit off those "Extended Service Plans." HF cashiers basically live or die by how many "ESPs" they sell every month. Any buyer's evil intent is absolutely built into the pricing of the ESPs. I don't buy them just because I know it's a bad gamble for the above reasons; but I make sure to exercise the tool so I don't end up with a "lemon" after the warranty period is up.

The really moral stance might be always to buy the ESP in order to keep your cashier from losing his/her job.
 
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