Harbor Freight - Gems and Junk

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I have some sweet coupons for either the 12 ton press ($100.00) or the 20 ton press ($155.00) and can't decide on which. I keep wondering if the 20 ton is over kill for my needs and if I should go for the smaller one to save some dough.

Any opinions?

What would I use it for? Well, I was thinking of using it to press out the wheel studs from the axles and rotor. Press out the suspension bushings. Maybe get the SWAG Off-Road brake to bend stuff (that' a big MAYBE). Would make a good walnut cracker I suppose. lol
 
JoesEdge said:
I have some sweet coupons for either the 12 ton press ($100.00) or the 20 ton press ($155.00) and can't decide on which. I keep wondering if the 20 ton is over kill for my needs and if I should go for the smaller one to save some dough.

Any opinions?

What would I use it for? Well, I was thinking of using it to press out the wheel studs from the axles and rotor. Press out the suspension bushings. Maybe get the SWAG Off-Road brake to bend stuff (that' a big MAYBE). Would make a good walnut cracker I suppose. lol
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12 Ton frame is bolted, 20 Ton is welded. Not a huge deal, but the welded is a little strudier..
 
bOb shingler said:
I've had the 12 ton for 18 years and never needed the bigger one.
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Good to know. What have you used it for? What kind of jobs have you thrown at it?

Ben Drinkin said:
12 Ton frame is bolted, 20 Ton is welded. Not a huge deal, but the welded is a little strudier..
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I think the newer models (the silver vs the orange presses) are all bolted now.

Check them out:

12 Ton Press (Item#: 60604)

20 Ton Press (Item#: 60603)

With the coupons I have, the 20 ton press isn't a whole lot more but add in tax which is nearly 10% it all adds up.
 
The 20 ton is wider and that sometimes is a big + Then go to the Usables section of your scrap yard and get some press blocks and a flat steel plate.
 
pistons on and off the rods, axle bearings on and off, transmission bearings on and of, transmission seals in, straighten the butter flies that got bent in my supercharger injector hat, straighten shafts that were bent, etc.
 
smalblokmopar said:
I have there three ton jack and the aluminum jack both are great. Had there sawzall for about fours years before the gears finally gave up. I have had there 110 volt and 220 volt welder they work fine. I bought a ratchet from them 3/8on one side 1/4 in on the other, handle adjust in and out everyone always asks where I got it has not failed me yet. There drills where hot garbage but that's the only thing I have bought fromhabor freight that I haven't had luck with.
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I have that same ratchet. LOVE those things!!! The 2 screws on the back of mine fell out and the front one started coming out yesterday at the pull a part so I went to the HF down the road and got a brand new one!! Can't beat that!!
 
Abodybomber said:
The old school iron jacks, feel SO GOOD , against the aluminum jacks. solid piece.(and cheaper, for old school people). It actually, acts like a heavy old school steel jack... Time will tell...
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Reporting back. It's an old school brute. I love the feel of steel jacks,over the aluminum. Yeah it's heavy,I'm good with it...
 
Any feed back on one of their small generators?

I am working on an art car and need something small to generate electricity for lights and maybe music. Using a 4 stroke motorcycle engone to power the vehicle and near as I can tell it may be easier to run a generator for everything electrical. Would rather have a 4 stroke gennie but size and price may be prohibitive.
 
at my job they have a strange policy on tools...you bring your own
if something breaks they buy the replacement

so with my first paycheck there I bought a craftsman toolbox and maybe 200 bucks worth of HF tools
so far the only thing that broke was a 3/8th allan head socket


on a side note, the salesgirl at HF cracked me up when she tried to sell me a 2 year replacement warranty for 12 dollars on a cut off tool I paid 9.95 for
 
I picked up the 3 ton steel jack using a coupon and local sale price for under $60 this past weekend. It's a big heavy brute, but it made short work of getting the rear of the Scamp up in the air and onto stands. I've had the 1.5 ton aluminum jack for several years now and it works great at the track for quickie wheel changes and such.
 
I'm in year three of my 2.5 ton low profile floor jack.

Used about three times a month, and doing fine.
 
Picked up the 18.5" (24" total length) cast steel lathe.

http://www.harborfreight.com/5-speed-bench-top-wood-lathe-65345.html

They have models that go longer, but this one is extremely stout. The drive bearings can handle lots of thrust.

I chucked up a piece of 3" square persimmon, which is otherwise known as white ebony. It's extremely dense.

At first I thought the motor was crap. Turns out, I was just an excited kid and didn't tighten up the tail and it was clutching on the spikes. Tightened it up and this thing flies.

The wood was wet (wax coated) and square. I didn't trim it octagonally and it still took everything down without slowing down once.

I'm going to mod it for metal spinning. I want new early A body headlamp bezels. Maybe stainless. Some of the work can be done by spinning and final shape on some wood or metal bucks.

Lots of people are using these lathes with metal and making mill bases to go in place of the chisel rest.

I'm working on a stainless 1"x1.5" solid rectangle stock rest with multiple hole/ position vertical round bar fence for resting my metal spinning tools against.

They don't offer it anymore, because it was kind of crappy, but I picked up the small english wheel (they advertised it as the motorcycle fender english wheel) and I'm going to use the dies for interchangeable rollers on one of the spinning tools, as well.

They do offer just the large english wheel dies, though.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um-biLfru-c"]Metal Spinning, - YouTube[/ame]

That is a really massive lathe, but you get the idea. I'm building a set of milled riser blocks for the motor and tail, as well as some new V groove pulleys (this lathe uses a multiple groove belt) so I can get the drive and tail up.

The thing that I've been told to check on the lathe, is the tail to drive centering. Mine checked out ok, but some people on Youtube checked the tail right against the center spike inserted into the drive and had to angle mill correct the tail.

You don't always need a tail to do what you want. The thread is 8tpi, so you can use other internal round or square chucks, as well as drill chucks on the tail or drive.

For $200, this is a really useful and modifiable tool that can make it's own tools.
 
black 3/8 to 1/2 impact adapter split in half on me, using a ratchet! I thought the black oxide socket stuff was indestructable but I was wrong. EZ to get replaced though. The pipe expander stripped its drive threads and the rubber bands melted off after a year of storage. Their old carbon tap set was pretty bad, the new stuff looks much better. Nitride gold bits are good, but you have to use oil as with any other bit. Cobalt is the way to go on bits nowadays. I got that huge black crescent wrench, bad ***! My 'kit' 1/2 impact has lost its torque, cant break a lug nut at 110psi. maybe I can rebuild it...but it was very cheap to begin with. Brake expander works well as well as the jackscrew style ball joint seperator. I like that place but you just have to choose wisely, cheap disposeable tools are not the most economical in some aspects.
 
Good to know on the extensions. Probably garbage in the metal casting, causing a gas pocket or contaminant, creating a stress riser.

Castings that go through forges are stronger, but if the casting has a piece of garbage in it or isn't degassed thourghally, it will not heat evenly in the forge, which completely defeats the purpose of a forged piece.

I'll stick with US quality control on forged stuff.
 
Skip the HF bolt cutters - for 2x the price at Ace Hardware, their cheap bolt cutters worked a LOT better.
 
I've had one of the 1/2" Earthquake air ratchets in the garage for years and it has been through hell and back. It has removed thousands of wheels, u-bolts, you name it. It gets used hard every day.

I also have one of their 10,000 Pound Winches on the front of my truck, and one of the 12,000 pound Winches on the back of the truck.

I've beat that poor 10k winch, exceeded the weight rating by at least 6,000 pounds, bounced heavy objects off of it (I've had engines slam into it, bounce off and not hurt it), ran it for extremely long periods of time without letting it cool down. It just won't die. It's not the fastest winch in the world, but it is reliable.
 
They have LED trailer tail light on sale for $29 for the whole kit.

Most other places are $38-$44.
 
I'll add one to the junk list: dremel bits.

I bought their cheap $6.99 set that came with a few different grinding bits and cut off wheels. I went through 4 discs to cut 3" of ABS plastic. They would shatter very quickly after you start cutting.
 
Well, Im now changing my tune on the C-Frame Ball Joint presses they have.

My original HF C-Frame press lasted many many year until this past winter. The frame finally cracked on it and had to toss it. So I went and picked up another, since I was in the middle of a job. Started putting pressure on the press and sure thing, it was starting to bend right away. This one didnt break but I couldnt even use it to remove one ball joint. It was spread to far open, and I didnt even really give it to it. From now on I will just rent a press from Oriellys or something if I have to do them.
 
i bought this last weekend $109.00
 

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straightlinespeed said:
Well, Im now changing my tune on the C-Frame Ball Joint presses they have.

My original HF C-Frame press lasted many many year until this past winter. The frame finally cracked on it and had to toss it. So I went and picked up another, since I was in the middle of a job. Started putting pressure on the press and sure thing, it was starting to bend right away. This one didnt break but I couldnt even use it to remove one ball joint. It was spread to far open, and I didnt even really give it to it. From now on I will just rent a press from Oriellys or something if I have to do them.
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I'm disappointed to hear that. I've had mine for a while and so far it's done well. I've only pressed the ball joints in my Ramcharger and some suspension bushings for my Valiant. Time will tell. :)
 
dont use press to press out swedged wheel studs! Cut them flush with drum or hub and then push them out or safer yet, grind head off back then press out whats left. You can get swedge cutters too, look like hole saws. if you press a swedged stud back through the hub, youll enlarge the knurled hole and nothing will fit right.
I pressed a 360 pin into a cold rod and it took 16000 lbs on the gauge! It was on a 40 Ton beast with a high and low pressure settings. I was waiting for the rod to split but it never did. My machine shop couldnt heat the rod enough to slide it in properly. Are magnum rods any different on the little end besides being thinner???
 
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