Rate the Harbor Freight Tools Thread- Pass or Fail?

You forgot the rule of three at Harbor Freight.

Before I buy anything at HF, I unbox and examine three units before selecting the best of the three for purchase and putting the rest neatly back. This has saved my bacon more than a few times over the last thirty years. The buyer is the final inspector with bulk chimported goods!
 
Actually I remembered the rule, but to save a 60 mile round trip I had my wife pick them up after work.

What I didn't remember was to tell my wife about the rule :(
 
I don't know why so many people are afraid of Harbor Freight tools. Just about every tool imagined was made in China. Sure, there a re a few manufacturers from other countries but few and far between.
Yeah, some of the HF stuff is cheap but the difference is often just metal vs plastic gears on some things.

I've yet to break a HF wrench or ratchet. I've broken an older, USA-made, Craftsman ratchet and a lot of the cheap Taiwanese ones from the 80-90s
 
GeneT45 said:
That seems like an exaggeration of what you can get from Snap-On for only $60K...
GsT
Click to expand...

I had to look that up. KEXP725 will get you there if you want to explore option that they might have forgotten... The box, (the middle four casters and as tall as the guys left elbow), that it's self is 33K. Full retail on that whole Snap On setup (the box, two side lockers, the work station/hutch, the drawer section to the right of the hutch, the three overhead lockers...) is 70K. That's been around a while, and it's not far of. Probably it was a valid number when it was made.


All put together, that whole thing is seventeen feet long
 
I like nice tools as much as anyone else and I own a few Snap On pieces I bought mostly from my neighbor who was trying to make rent after getting laid up and unable to work.

But, I'm proud to say most of my tools (at least before getting into hobby machining) made lots more money for me than they cost. I might be a little different though since I had to supply at least part of the tools for the techs who worked for me, so I had motivation to be frugal.

I won't disparage pros who have a loyalty to any certain brand, and it's awful nice when the guy just shows up during your break and gets you whatever is needed. And, there are definitely techs who earn enough to justify $60K plus of tools.

I just feel sorry for the young guy who goes into debt trying to keep up with everyone else in the shop and ends up spending half his paycheck on stuff he doesn't use.

HF is doing a great job with it's Ikon stuff. From looking at it in the store I'm pretty sure you won't get laughed out of a high end shop when you roll one of those in.

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They even offer financing;)

John
 
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