Rate the Harbor Freight Tools Thread- Pass or Fail?

Just like everything in life you get what you pay for. I've had some good worth while tools and I've had some crap I've brought right back. I've got a 7x10 mini lathe, a 6x48 w/12 disk sander, a 1000lb hyd lift table, and a few other toys. The thing I still have I've had for awhile and they work well and serve their purpose so I still buy from them.

Todd
 
Its really a grab bag for what you want. For cheap and sometimes one offs, HF is good for that. If the one time tool lasts longer than you needed it, well you get your moneys worth out of it. I do own a digital calipers from them and a set of mics because I got them as presents. Mics are good but nothing like the names when it comes down to having a digital set but for something needed and not costing much they work pretty well. The other thing I got was a screwdriver set and hex sets for both standard and metric.
 
zman said:
then started messing around with things like the switch location on the Chicago one.
Click to expand...


The switches were getting a little weird on most of them, both the Chicagos and the Drill Masters. Up on the left side, hard to set, and too easy to knock off. At least the Chicago Pro kept the paddle switch.
Happy to say, though, that judging by this week's catalog, they moved 'em all back up where you can reach them, up on top, right in front of your thumb. And i got to respond to my own post, 5 months later, heh heh.
 
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Very leery of edged and cutting tools unless Drillmaster or some non-Chinese source e.g., bought a set of (get ready) Russian metal drills-excellent. Also the the little pack of slitting saws good (used on plex). Sleazy feeling power planer has been very good, trimmed doors, warped deck joists, can sharpen the cutters easily. Early "600 ft lb" air hammer a huge joke-After 10 years and no receipt local retail sold me a new "earthquake" for $10-it is much better except for nose piece into socket which is not easy. Thirty ton press and hydraulic jacks -good. Circular sander good, but sw failed. Mill drill good so far. Hi temp KE thermocouple good.
Big red sandblaster -good sometimes-mostly big problem with clogs thought to be moisture . Vises good. Aluminum punch set-does not work. Slide hammer-good. Ten ton hydraulic portable-good. Vacuum box (intended for AC work)-have used it to bleed brakes for 20 years. Wrenches India -fair to poor. Grinder buffer with stand-good. Grinder wheels 8" -fair sometimes not concentric , arbor must be opened for some shafts. Metal cutoff wheels-ok. Wood rasps ok. Tiny flashlites-very handy. Electric drill (hand) rough, but ok. "Warehouse Misc"- hose clamps have been worthless,still, just bought the latest hoping better,Copper washers -good, O rings unknown, Nyloc nuts-good. End mill set -good. Parallels-ok. Machine vises fair to poor. Elect stethoscope (trying to detect bad wheel bearings)-surprisingly good. Aluminum scoop shovel-good, at least 1/2 going price.
 
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I can't rate Harbor Frieght as a whole. I purchase from Harbor Freight. I like Harbor Freight. I hate (Ok Dislike) Harbor Freight. There are some items that work just fine for what I need and how often I use it. I purchased a set of Cobalt drill bits. The large set with the lettered, numbered and fractional sizes. They seemed "OK". I learned that the had a cobalt coating. I have another set of cobalt bits. (Snap-On and a small set of Matcos) They don't compare. The coated bits from H.F. are better than the titanium coated bits from anywhere. Once they are sharpened they are an acceptable ordinary drill bit. On automotive work there are times when a semi disposable drill bit is just what I need. With care and good lubrication the H.F. cobalts have a place. It did give me a nice metal box, indexed for the sizes. I replace them with various types of bits, black oxide, real cobalt, etc. It depends on the size and what I may have in loose bits. I do like their rolls of emery cloth as I use a lot of it. It is not as good as more expensive name brand rolls, however the much lower cost offsets the quality because I use a lot of it on jobs that make it useless after a while due to grease, dirt, etc. I have a few power tools. I hate to borrow tools, so I will get certain ones from H.F. if I don't expect hard use. I have, however been pleasantly surprised by a couple tools that I expected light use, then ended up using them often and hard. I read the reviews (which sometimes help) and it just depends.
 
HF Digital Multimeters are a great buy. Fairly accurate and easier to use.
 
My Delta 4" belt/6" disk sander finally died after 20 years and so I shopped around for a new one. I looked at Enco, HF and others and found that HF advertised a 3/4 hp motor, so I went with it. I wasn't surprised that they "mis-printed" the specs and it's only 1/3 hp like all of the rest. After setting it up, it's basically a POS, but for the price I paid it'll do for now ($60 on sale w/coupons). I certainly don't expect it to last 20 years like the Delta, and I probably should have taken the clerk's advice and bought the ext. warranty...

I was also shopping some machine tool websites for a nice set of new drills to replace my 20 YO set of Hanson's. I saw them on sale @ HF for $10 and thought, "how bad can they be?" I got home and chucked every one and found 4 that were mis-ground and I had to regrind them before they were even usable. Go figure.

:roflmao:
 
Over the years I've purchased a few items from Harbor freight. The 2 most successful purchases have been hydraulic tables. I have 1 that's rated for 500 lbs. and a second rated for 1,000 lbs. Both have held up well. I've also purchased several 2,000 lb. and 3,000 lb. winches. While I've never attempted to find our their maximum capacity I do find they work well for lifting castings up to 500 lbs., and pulling trailers out of the mud.

My least successful purchase was a pedestal grinder. The shaft was not true and caused the wheels to wobble. It took a fair amount of effort to disassemble it and straighten the shaft. It works fine now but I probably spent 20 hours getting it to work right. If I had known at the time what it was going to take to make it work properly I probably would have just returned it.

Once I tried some lathe tooling. I found I got what I paid for. If it's an item I need for a particular job and the alternative is an outrageously expensive tool from one of the machine tool houses I'll take a chance. For most things I find patiently looking for used industrial tools a better choice. While generally their tools are adequate they aren't up to the standards of industrial tools.

To be fair there is a surplus dealer in our area that specializes in industrial machine tools. I frequent the place every few weeks and have found many lightly used machines, and new tooling at less than the cost of HF tools.
 
6" dial calipers for $16. Hard to beat at that price. Very accurate when checked against my Jo blacks. While I was there I needed small button cells for my readouts Been payin' around $5 ea at Radio Shack. HF had them on sale for 39 cents ea. {reg 49 cents). Bought 6. We'll see how they last but at that price who cares? :jester:
 
In Italy we don't have Harbor Freight, but there are some brands selling products of a similar quality, as I understood from the previous posts.
The most diffused brand here is Valex.
I'm sure if you look at their catalog you'll find many things identical to those sold by HF:
http://valex.it/webvalex/valeximg.n...ILE/MENU_PROMOZIONI_PRIMAVERA_ESTATE_2014.pdf
(Remember: 1 euro =~ $1.39)
BTW, the price of my drill press doubled since November 2009, and I think it totally don't worth 100 euro.
Some things are good (for the price), some other are just "natural fertilizer", but often we have to buy these products because in the area where we live there is nothing else.
Alas, we don't have a "middle range" of tools: there is a large empty gap between cheap Chinese things and 4-figures industrial machines, but to explain this I'd have to go very deep into historical, cultural and political reasons (I'm thinking to write a book about this gap, anyway).
 
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