Harbor Freight dissatisfaction

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JimmyV said:
and the end of the day if you need a tool to work on your car and it comes down to spending 10 at hf or 80 somewhere else and funds are tight..spend then 10 and use the rest for your car.....whats alot of really nice expensives tools gonna do if you dont have somethign to show for it
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Yep! But Imma be using that angle grinder a bunch and I know it.
 
This is the HF grinder I always use, $10 with a coupon... The last one lasted through 8 months of pure hell and torture, pretty good bang for the buck in my book...
 
There's nothing worse than a tool that lets you down on a sunday at midnight. (no pun intended!)
Buy something quality if you can afford it.
If not, "you pays your money and you takes your chances"
I would never buy anything from a pawn shop though, from my experience, i've looked at the stuff they have there and they want almost new price for beat up crap.
 
H F. my dewalt grinder is so old the cord is coming apart and it still works beter than new. just don,t stand in water when pluged in.
 
I have 2 Makita's. One is 20yrs old, and still works well, the other one is about 5 yrs old, and no probs with it either. We have 240V 50Hz here.
I have 2 so that I don't have to change from grinder to cutter all the time.
 
OK, here's my take on HF. Their hand tools are total crap. I can watch the open end bend with very little torque. OK for a second set in the truck for emergencies. Their sockets suck too. They are the opposite of Snap-on as they just Snap-off.

I've had a HF grinder that has lasted for 5 years now and even built my Ramcharger. It's noisey as hell but it still works. I also have a HF pnuematic die-grinder. I paid 10 bucks for it, used it for 4 years, it blew a bushing and I bought another for 10 bucks. They are disposable. One day I'll buy a nice one but I just don't see the point right now.

Their special tools are OK and are no worse than what you'd rent at the auto-parts store. I literally JUST used their rear axle bearing puller set and got the bearings right out of the Dana 35 jeep axle. It did such a nice job I could re-use the bearings if I wanted. I was actually blown away at how well it worked.

In summary, thier stuff is mostly crap and I buy it for emergency or a one time use and would never, ever think of using it professionally. If I get more than one use out of it I'm pleasantly suprised. My expectations are low and so is the price.
 
My expectations are low and so is the price.
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That pretty much sums it up.

I have a transmission jack I have used 4-5 times and I love it. I have also used it to jack up the dirt bike and work on it. I got their sandblaster though and it was a pos. Never did get it to work properly. Their autodarkening welding helmet has been going strong for 3 years now and I use their welding gloves to play with the dogs. No complaints with my impact either.
Win some lose some.
 
Anyone else here find the irony in their tools' name of "Michigan Steel" ???

REALLY ???

Michigan , ding-dong China ????

I'm so sick and tired of Chinese 5H1T !!!!!

btw , Harbor Hong Kong Freight = GARBAGE
 
It's hit or miss there. I bought a cheap swap-meet grinder (equivalent to a HF grinder) once that lasted me almost 10 years of pretty hard use.
 
Ive always had a HF power tool and air tool fail on me.The air tool I have from HF is a spray gun that I use for primer,so i dont care if it gets dirty on the outside.I like going there if I need rivets,electrical connectors,shrink tubing,solder,zip ties,etc.Some of thier specialty tools like oil filter wrenches,o2 sensor sockets,oil sending sockets work ok and I do have a set of misc. tools I keep in the trunk of my car inclding one of their $2.99 digital multimeters that works good.They have some cool stuff there besides tools.My 3 gauge set in my Duster is from HF,lol.But I only have the water temp and oil pressure gauges hooked up and they work ok.
I had to return a couple of their battery chargers also.
For power electric tool,Ive been happy with Makita ,Dewalt,Milwaukee
So lets just say when I walk into HF,I already know what to buy and what nOT to buy.
 
Grinder = Mekita

Air tools = Husky or snap on

Harbor Freight = Evaporust in the 1 gallon jug

I did but an electric impact gun from harbor freight out of desperation and it has lasted a few years so far but I wouldn't buy another. Anyone that buys air tools from HF is just waisting their money.
 
thats too bad about the grinder.i look at it like cheap tool if it does the job you bought it to do anything more is a bonus. i do use their tools all the time.luck of the draw i guess.View attachment 177916
 
I bought a set of 3/4" impact sockets from HF. I use them for bearing drivers, lol.
 
Oh and if anyone is thinking about getting one of the HF bench grinders....punch yourself in the balls they are crap!
 
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