Do we need a British HF ?

[sdelivery]

I drive right on by...if the UK could use a Harbor Fright I would be very happy to send ours....

 

[RJSakowski]

To be or not to be, that is the question.

I, for one, would rather have a store that I would never use than not to have one when I wanted/needed it. A store like HF helps to set a bar for other stores to keep their prices reasonable. Whether the quality is up to par is immaterial. Some people are going to buy it regardless. If everyone was forced to buy name brand products as the only option, the demand would go up and prices would follow.

Beware the ides of March!

 

[WobblyHand]

While we are off marching to a different drummer... Happy Pi day! March 14.
3.14159... ad infinitum

 

[graham-xrf]

My thanks to all of you!
It seems we all like the convenience, and the fact it is there as a fallback, and that it keeps other vendors from hiking their prices too far.
One underlying theme I sense is that we all have a bunch of stuff that came from China, but that we would rather it were not that way.

 

[graham-xrf]

While we are off marching to a different drummer... Happy Pi day! March 14.
3.14159... ad infinitum

Yep - for me "Pi" means the tiny little computer that performs like a champ!
I never quite got it why some would expend so much of their lives figuring out ever more digits of this irrational!

For me, even when at school, I used 355/113. It startled teacher, but he could hardly argue.
355/113 = 3.14159292035
Actual Pi = 3.14159265359
The error in this is 2.66763982239e-07
Good Lord! Just how accurate do you want to get?

A 35-digit number is enough to place an atom on Saturn! Why do we know millions of Pi digits? Crazy!
[Sorry - I got distracted there! ]

 

[RJSakowski]

My worst cheapo tap and die set came from a local farm supply store. They had full sets of both Imperial and metric taps and dies for ridiculously low prices. On the package, it stated HSS so I figured what the heck and bought one of each. I was not disillusioning myself into thinking that I was getting any kind of quality but figured that they would be a good backup out in the forge or barn for chasing threads and I wouldn't have to run back to the shop for my good set.

When I got the sets home, the first thing I did was a spark test and they were definitely not HSS. They were high carbon steel but not file hard. Needless to say, they would not cut steel. Plastic, OK. Aluminum and brass, maybe. The metric set had four non-standard sizes; M3-.5mm, M4-.75mm, M5-.9mm, and M7-.75mm. Crazy!

I took the Imperial set back but, because I had done some destructive testing on the metric set, I kept it. The threads seem to be well formed and the cutting edges are sharp. At some point, when I have some time, I may try to harden and temper them and maybe make something useful out of it.

 

[RJSakowski]

While we are off marching to a different drummer... Happy Pi day! March 14.
3.14159... ad infinitum

I take exception to this. Why are we celebrating "pi" and never "e".

Euler's constant,"e", (2.7182818....), is actually far more common in the real world than pi. Used to describe things like snail shell growth, chemical reactions, radioactive decay, capacitor discharge, population growth, and the motion of a weight hanging on a spring. Not to mention, the bell curve, and electromagnetic radiation.

In fact, pi can be calculated from e.

It's discrimination, I tell you. e should have it's day.

 

[C-Bag]

HF used to be about 60% total duds/junk. But like with air tools I have a 1/2" impact that I bought in '80 and used as a line mech and it still works perfect. I thought I should upgrade and tried a Chicago Pneumatic and to my surprise it didn't work any better than my at the time 10yrld HF. I also have one of those HF die grinders and 2" abrasive "muffler cutters" from then and the die grinder finally quit last year. The vanes wore out, but nothing else. I've had my 4x6 since '80 also with the original motor having only replaced the guide bearings. My 9x20, 14" vertical band saw, 3n1, bead roller, shrinker stretcher, and two electric die grinders,12" Hercules miter saw are all HF and will outlast me. No problem.

YMMV but this whole debate is moot as far as the UK goes as I doubt nobody is going to put in a HF because of the BS you have to go through to import now with Br***t. I've had to quit selling in the UK because over a year ago they instituted a bureaucratic nightmare where they required me to purchase a license, retain a importer, collect taxes and keep paperwork on every transaction and every 3mo remit said taxes and paperwork to the "crown". Ain't gonna happen, sorry UK.

My customers who inquired then I referred them to my EU dealers reported back none of them will ship to the UK either. The EU similarly instituted a law that only applies to direct sales but my dealers are exempt because they are tax exempt because they pay the taxes at point of sale. I have sent two direct sales before I got notice of this change. One to France, one to Portugal. The French order disappeared and he got his $$ back from PayPal and I got bubkiss. The one to Portugal said was "undeliverable" and took 6mo to come back and I refunded him.

 

[wachuko]

We have one close by... As others have mentioned, you have to take a good look at the items before you buy. I find that their price increases and now the lack of coupons, as they had before, some items are no longer attractively priced... So lately, I have been buying elsewhere.

But before they got rid of the coupons... I got a lot of stuff from them... specially things I would use once or twice and did not wanted to spend top dollar for the alternatives...

Anyway, some of the stuff I bought that continues to served me well:

1. The first hydraulic table I got. Paid 139.00 for it at the time... Made removing and installing engines so much easier. I did have to redo the plug as the stock one kept leaking, but once that was fixed, it kept working fine.
2. Engine hoist, 2-Ton - not much use, but great to have it available when I need it.
3. Several engine stands. I have 4. I bought 3 from HF. The one that is not from them I got from Summit Racing... as I wanted one that would work with the hydraulic table... easier for it to go in with the leg setup of the engine stand. Wish I had know, I would love to have all with the same setup.
4. This mechanic tool set. I have one in each vehicle. For 89.00 when I bought it, it was a great value.
5. 3 in. High Speed Air Cut-off Tool - One of the most used tool in my garage...
6. Butterfly air impact wrench - This compact air tool has been with me for over 15 years and still working fine... I do not see it listed anymore at their site...

7. The free magnetic trays... got several of those.
8. Transmission jack... got it when it was 59.00
9. Aluminum motorcycle jack... again, got it when it was fairly inexpensive...
10. Aluminum floor jack... I have their 1.5 and 3 ton jacks. On the second 1.5 jack... 3 ton still working fine after 10-15 years.

Stuff that sucked for me:
1. Mechanic roller seats... these do not last long... I have gone through several of these...
2. Slide hammer puller set... break easy, pure carp
3. Pistol grip air shears - carp, carp, carp... Now I see that they have the replacement blades available... I need to see if I got rid of it, if not, I might just fix it one more time and use for cutting paper


Many more tools that I could list...

I am looking at a couple of their rolling tool boxes... that will be my next purchase from them

 

[graham-xrf]

HF used to be about 60% total duds/junk. But like with air tools I have a 1/2" impact that I bought in '80 and used as a line mech and it still works perfect. I thought I should upgrade and tried a Chicago Pneumatic and to my surprise it didn't work any better than my at the time 10yrld HF. I also have one of those HF die grinders and 2" abrasive "muffler cutters" from then and the die grinder finally quit last year. The vanes wore out, but nothing else. I've had my 4x6 since '80 also with the original motor having only replaced the guide bearings. My 9x20, 14" vertical band saw, 3n1, bead roller, shrinker stretcher, and two electric die grinders,12" Hercules miter saw are all HF and will outlast me. No problem.

YMMV but this whole debate is moot as far as the UK goes as I doubt nobody is going to put in a HF because of the BS you have to go through to import now with Br***t. I've had to quit selling in the UK because over a year ago they instituted a bureaucratic nightmare where they required me to purchase a license, retain a importer, collect taxes and keep paperwork on every transaction and every 3mo remit said taxes and paperwork to the "crown". Ain't gonna happen, sorry UK.

My customers who inquired then I referred them to my EU dealers reported back none of them will ship to the UK either. The EU similarly instituted a law that only applies to direct sales but my dealers are exempt because they are tax exempt because they pay the taxes at point of sale. I have sent two direct sales before I got notice of this change. One to France, one to Portugal. The French order disappeared and he got his $$ back from PayPal and I got bubkiss. The one to Portugal said was "undeliverable" and took 6mo to come back and I refunded him.

Indeed! Regarding Brexit, it always about something else than economics, and we are steadily seeing the results.
There is quite a lot that I choose to import, almost regardless, like both my welders. It's not that stuff is not manufactured here - but not so much other than very high end specialist big business investments. Since before the millennium, the push for govt. was to move the land to a "high-value service economy", whatever that is. This trickle-down stuff has not worked! Despite the proliferation of beauty shops and food outlets, there is a limit to how many can be someone else's hairdresser, (or whatever).

We don't have a all tools store chain equivalent to HF in UK. From the responses, I guess we won't miss it much.

More particularly about import complexity, those that be, in UK, have long thought it a good wheeze to make the public do their tax collecting, and other related tasks, for them, under the guise of a "more efficient" computer system. I think their aim is to have it all automatic, only going "ka-ching" for them. The same for import arrangements. They try to push all of it onto the sellers. This is why I suddenly find I have "an account" at FedEX, and I am supposed to "register" and "log in", and become "part of their community", and all that crap, when what actually happened is the seller (of a welder) had to make upstream arrangements (with FedEx) and move the VAT and import duties into a special account, which I get to pay into without the remotest chance of ever communicating with a human!

I don't blame you for not exporting to UK. I note also that Stefan (Gotteswinter) will only bo business with EU countries, and those that have good arrangements with EU. I don't blame him either. There may not now be enough UK manufactured tools and suchlike stuff to support a country-wide store chain equivalent of Harbor Freight. I don't really want to be permanently buying Chinese from Banggood or eBay, but now, I also can't aspire to good stuff from Shars, etc.

[Edit: As from 4th April, all businesses are required to interface whatever accounting software they have, including spreadsheets, via a list of certain software providers approved, to somehow submit all their business accounts electronically, for VAT and tax calculation. We are not talking accountants summary accounts. They mean every transaction. The scheme is mind-bogglingy misinformed from the outset, and I think it may flop at the first try. Needless to say, later this month, I will be de-registering for VAT. It does mean that this month, I shop for all sorts of machine tool items to claim the last VAT on.

OK - so no Harbor Freight to go shopping at, but I think I can manage to find a 6 x 4 bandsaw, compressor, pillar drill, etc.

and .. they can stick their tax collection software up where it fits best! ]