Harbor Freight - Gems and Junk

Shattered the cast blocks on the 10 ton press. Look out for that.

Creepers are too weak for me, but I'm 6'5" 210. They tend to split on the mold line.

Jaw pullers are sketchy, broke the steel link that connects the cast jaw to the center. Could probably be modified with better steel arms.

Impact guns work, but they are weaker than you want them to be. They won't touch anything around 130+ ft lbs

Don't bother with the air hammer. They may have improved, but I tried 3 of them and got bypass/ hissing with no hammer action on the trigger, out of the box

blasting cabinet is wicked. Beat the snot out of it with heavy garnet, down to glass bead. Get a better gun and gloves, when they go out, from a supplier. I use a roll of acetate and masking tape, with a board template to cut window protectors for the view and light. Get two buckets with a lid, cut the lid and glue a doubled up metal screen to clean the media. Also, get an air line dryer and put it lower than the media sump on the side of the cabinet, to keep from clogging the gun with wet media.

3/4 hp bench grinder is weaker than advertised. I'd be curious to measure amps, because I don't think it's even close. We use one for a polisher and it cuts slow, so we put the light rouges on it. It might do better with stone wheels that help keep inertia.

Cutoff wheels and consumables are good.

I've had good luck with the titanium bits, they also sell cobalt bits that are even stronger, but I'm really nice to my drill bits and oil them when I cut hard/ rusted metal or chuck them in a press. I had a full 30pc set for 3 years, until my boss and his dad got a hold of them and ate them like candy in minutes on a crooked drill on a broken stud. You should be using cobalt for that kind of work, anyway.

I'll try their cobalt bits next time. If they behave well, like the titanium ones, I'm willing to bet that they will fare good when oiled.

Quite honestly, my boss blamed the bits. He bought a $250 set of 40 from a tool guy and none of them are sharp after 6 months. People really underestimate oil on drill bits. Even some penetrating spray helps when cutting sheet metal.

We have a chop saw from HF at the shop. Same story as the bench grinder. Works, but it's weak.

I'm not against buying electrical tools from them, but anything with an expensive winding in them, they seriously cut down on copper to save money. Welders, electric motors, etc. Just know that you're getting an entry level/ hobby/ occasional use tool out of anything with an electric coil in it from them.

It doesn't really matter where a tool is made, or rather, what company it comes from. The manufacturing process and quality control is so all over the map, even with companies like Lincoln Electric, Craftsman and even Snap-On, that you can't trust a name or place of manufacturing anymore.

The best thing you can do, if you plan on purchasing a piece of equipment that is either expensive, and/ or will be used heavily, is to look into product support from the company and look on sites that offer reviews, like cnet and Amazon. Sometimes the parent company will offer tool reviews on the site. HF has a great review log.