Rate the Harbor Freight Tools Thread- Pass or Fail?

I picked up one of the open side HF hose reels this weekend and mounted it up. I put 50ft of hose on it, supposed to hold 100ft but that would be pushing it.

As other reviewers have said on the HF site the hose tends to goo off to the side of the reel when winding it up. One guy got some pizza pans and put on the side of the reels to stop this. For me it's easy to guide the hose on with my other hand. Now it only takes a moment to reel my hose up instead of coiling up by hand. So far it's air tight, no leaks at all.

For $18 I give it a pass. I looked at the more expensive one that self wind, but was afraid the spring would go bad after time. With this being manual I don't have to worry about it.

http://www.harborfreight.com/100-ft-steel-air-hose-reel-46342.html
 
Looks like I made the right decision then on not buying the automatic one.
 
I have the auto retract one. They come in 25ft & 50ft. I've had the 50ft'r for quite some years already. I don't use it everyday but I do use it often, in my home garage. I've never had a problem with the spring or latching mech & never even thought to worry about those parts.

Hose that is comes with is absolute garbage. I replaced the hose with my Goodyear hose from HF immediately. Gave the unused hose to a friend & he said it didn't even last him 2 weeks before it sprung multiple leaks. I did have to replace the orings in the fittings some years back, other than that it has been trouble free.

I'd give it a pass for home shop use. I mainly use it for all my automotive tools when wrenching on cars on the driveway. Note sure how it will hold up to daily shop use but it does seem to be of pretty decent quality aside from what I mentioned.

Edit: To add, I only replaced the orings not cause they completely blew out, but because one had a very small leak. Could have just been damaged when my particular reel was assembled. I'm anal, I hate air leaks in my air supply. If it drops pressure over one night I'll fix whatever is causing it. Luckily my air supply is not complex. I keep it pressurized all the time.
 
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I have had my HF 50 ft retractable hose reels for 10 years, both were in daily commercial use when my son was running his auto shop out of my shop for 3 of those years. Still working fine and still have the original hoses on them.
 
I have one of the 50' retractable hose reels for 15 years, and have had no problems with it.
I just recently bought one of the 25' retractable hose reels for the basement shop, time will tell if it is as good as the one in the outside shop.
 
I took the plunge on a 44" General Tools roll-around tool cabinet--big time pass! I'd read the reviews and found them hard to believe, but this is a very well built cabinet. Highly recommended!

I also took advantage of the shipping to get a 4x6 vertical/horizontal band saw. While I'm sure I'll be able to tune it up and make it run great, it is an absolute POS out of the box. The tension knob was broken, one of the legs were bent, the stop pin chains were broken, the blade guard hits' the casting and won't open. Oh, and unlike the tool chest, it has that used-motor-oil HF smell.:disgust: Not that I was surprised by any of this, but still I'd hoped for better. I need to contact HF and hopefully they'll have replacement parts, as there's no way I can get it back into the box to ship back.
 
When you say the blade guard hits the casting and won't open, do you mean the large cover that covers the entire
blade? If so, there is a thumb wheel next to the drive wheel which you have to loosen and then you can slide part
of the guide up away from the hinge rod. I didn't notice that at first and couldn't figure out why they would make
the cover hit the hinge... :)

I think like a lot of people I found that the worm gear on mine wasn't deburred. A few minutes with a file took
care of that. Overall I like my 4x6 bandsaw, but I have only had it a few months...

One of my favorite buys from HF is the 1000lb hydraulic lift table. I use that a lot to move machinery (a bench
mill and a lathe) and also use it as a sawhorse or a portable table. I made a small plywood and 2x4 top for it that
makes it easy to clamp things down to the surface. I can also bolt things down to the wooden surface if I'm moving something heavy and I don't want it to shift or fall. It has been very useful.

I think like a lot of other people have said, if I had a business and needed to rely on the equipment to make my living, I
would probably look for something better, but for what I do as a hobby, most of the HF stuff I have bought is fine.
 
fradish said:
When you say the blade guard hits the casting and won't open, do you mean the large cover that covers the entire
blade? If so, there is a thumb wheel next to the drive wheel which you have to loosen and then you can slide part
of the guide up away from the hinge rod. I didn't notice that at first and couldn't figure out why they would make
the cover hit the hinge... :)
Click to expand...
That's the one. I found the knob last night, loosened it, but it didn't seem to do anything. I ran out of steam last night so gave up before I messed something up. Will give it another shot tonight. It also looks like the motor alignment is off, as the motor sheave rubs against the belt guard.

fradish said:
I think like a lot of people I found that the worm gear on mine wasn't deburred. A few minutes with a file took
care of that.
Click to expand...

I'll check that out as well tonight. The casting seems ok from what I can tell, but won't really know until I try to line things up.

fradish said:
Overall I like my 4x6 bandsaw, but I have only had it a few months...
Click to expand...
I think I'll like it once I get it tuned up. That seems to be the general consensus. I did find myself questioning my decision last night, however.

fradish said:
One of my favorite buys from HF is the 1000lb hydraulic lift table. I use that a lot to move machinery (a bench
mill and a lathe) and also use it as a sawhorse or a portable table. I made a small plywood and 2x4 top for it that
makes it easy to clamp things down to the surface. I can also bolt things down to the wooden surface if I'm moving something heavy and I don't want it to shift or fall. It has been very useful.
Click to expand...

I built a Noden Adjust-a-bench with a Silestone top. It's not hydraulic, but is really useful as a low finishing table, bench-height, or even outfeed for my band saw.
 
This thread is so long I imagine this HF tool was mentioned before, even by me. But I just finished an interior door project and want to mention the HF hand planer. I had used it many years back, but forgot how well it performed. (yes , wood, sorry). Mine is green plastic and aluminum, SKU 32222, Chicago Electric. I removed and just touched up the blades on a fine wheel. This thing reduced excess wood on the mating doors in no time and laughed at the end grain portions. I tried looking up the SKU on the HF site, but nothing. HF does show a unit in red resembling mine with more power. This tool looks rather cheap, but it is a pleasure to use.
 
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