Harbor Freight tools

I am here to tell you folks the tools I bought from HF are excellent for what we need.I now own 2 chainsaw sharpeners,1 set of lifetime guaranteed screwdrivers for a kit for $5.00, 2 gasoline 212cc OHV engines, a auto dim welding helmet,and a tire changer. What we need would be a bubble balancer for the tire changer,but can't find one like the old time ones. The ones they advertise,according to customers don't work,and is a waste of money.I'm not counting the miscellaneous hand tools, wrenches sockets etc that we have. So far I have very little problems with HF. Our new drill press quit on us with a spindle nut that wouldn't hold, they sent a new one no charge,put it one and used it when we did the dozer pads and it still working great.

I'm trying to get my Son in Law to buy me a sawmill for 1999.99 from HF, I have 2 chances for that, slim and none.lol.Has anybody bought a sawmill from Harbor Freight? I would be interested in reading your response.
Regards,
Lou

Some of there tools are good enough for most people. I would rather lose the HF tool than a Snapon. The engines are good engines.

I like them for out in the field or something. But they don't last, and I won't trust them day to day in a shop.

Haven't posted this for awhile---Tee

I'm involved with another forum where the HF bandsaw mill is discussed quite a bit. Pretty much what they have said about it is if you know what you are doing and get it set up right the saw works great. Those that have never operated a mill before have a lot of trouble with it. For them they have trouble with the saw not cutting straight.

Like you I've had real good luck with Harbor Freight. I have a lot of hand tools as well as power tools and nail guns. In Dec, 2010 I bought a sawzall for $19.99 and liked it so much I went back a month later and bought a second one. So far I'm still using the first one and I use it hard. Several years ago I had to take down 250' of residential iron fence and cut it apart with that saw and it did fine. I still use it 3-4 times a week in my remodeling business.

Occasionally I do get a bad tool and they will take it back without any hassle. You can't ask any more than that.

I have a bubble balancer that's the same as HF's, only a under a different name that I bought used somewhere. It's always done great for me. I use it all the time with good results.

I have HF tools. Not their saw mill. If I were making a living using tools I probably would get better quality. For me they still work fine. I still have my SK 1/2 in drive set I bought new in late 50's. The ratchet still works good..

You are a clever man there Lou. I can't believe 90% of people still go out and waste hard earned cash paying high prices for German and USA built. Why just the other day a guy told me he bought a whole box full of of forceps at Harbor Freight for what surgeons pay for only one. If only Harbor Freight would sell guns and automobiles just think of all the money we could be saving. Oh well majority people are so dumb they wouldn't buy the guns and cars either.

People complain that there are no jobs or work in this country but they drove a lot of manufactures out of business by buying this cheap junk from overseas.

Think about this, many items are made by automation now days, so the lower cost of labor doesn't apply in many cases. Even when it does, if another country can make a quality product at a cost low enough that they can not only pay to have it made, but also pay to have it shipped to the states, and then sold for 1/4 of what a US made item sells for, that tell me something.

So, no, Government regulations, and corporate/union greed drove the businesses out of the states, and overseas. Then Corporate greed, and illegal immigration caused a further drop in wages.

The end result was a the need to find and buy items at a cheaper cost due to less disposable income being available. I know that's where I was a few years ago when I bought a 12" disc sander, and tooling grinder, with two green wheels, from HF. I gave less than $100 for the disc sander, and I believe $130 or so for the tooling grinder. This at a time when even a used disc sander (say Rockwell) was going for $500 plus, and a tooling grinder, without the green wheels, was going around $1300+....it was a no brainer on my part. I've had both for nearly 8 years now, and work the mess out of them without any issues.

That aside, I've pulled the sticker off of HF 4 1/2" grinding wheels before and they were marked with a more well known 'name brand', that sold for far more under that brand name.

Now, you tell me why people shouldn't buy from HF, and save some money, instead of paying $6 for a $2 grinding disc, just to feel good about 'buying American'.....

That's no to say the premise of what you said is wrong, as it's not. Instead I'm just saying it's not as simple as you make it out to be.

When my HOME SHOP burnt down last year, I restocked w/ Harbor Freight tools..
Combo wrench sets, long & stubby, standard & metric, hammers, crows feet, tool bags, magnetic trays, S-shaped ratcheting wrenches, just about EVERYTHING you would need to wrench on a diesel in the field.. I HAD TO SPLURGE for the Snap-on screwdrivers tho.. and NOT 1 has let me down yet.. I think I walked out of there w/ a 310.00 bill but had a FULLY STOCKED tool kit for the price of 1 rack of snap-on sockets..
I did go to Sears to buy all my sockets tho..

American made doesnt mean quality. HF doesn't mean junk. I looked around at engine hoists and jacks, drove to different stores. Same design, different paint. Materials seemed similar. I bought the less expensive of the Chinese stuff as I didn't see the need to pay for paint and labels. I buy American when it's well made. And I'm buying all this stuff because I didn't want a foreign tractor and would rather fix up a well made American tractor.

We need better trade rules with other countries. This will even help with environmental issues. The reason we bother to have a Federal government in this country is to handle this.


I am all for a natioalist trade policy, and if that means no strawberries in January then so be it.

HF tools have their place. You will not find a single Harbor Freight tool in my regular toolbox, but the toolkit for my Triumph motorcycle is almost all HF. The OEM toolkit is around $65, and the tools are of remarkably poor quality. I was able to put together a very good kit from HF for about half that. I did have to buy a special tool for the front axle, which cost about as much as my HF bill. The kit is on the heavy side, but that's a small price to pay to know you'll actually be able to fix something on the road without breaking a tool.

I also bought a drywall lift from HF. There's no way I'd use this abomination if I were hanging drywall for a living, but it was adequate for the two jobs I've used it on.

As for the "buy American" philosophy, I am mostly of that persuasion, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to find made-in-the-USA hand tools.

What is hurting American manufacturing is attitude more than anything. You ask an worker in an American factory what they are making and they are likely to say eight hours. They don't care if they are making a quality product nor do they care if they produce enough the company can turn a profit. They think the company is just rolling in money and they aren't getting their share when in actuality the company have to compete on a global market and having a difficult time with employees that don't care and in a country where the government is regulating them to death.

For Christmas this year I requested cash as I was going to set up a proper dust collector in my wood shop. I had been using a shop vac and had set up a 2" manifold for that, so it included pitching that and starting over on a new 4" manifold. I knew it would not be cheap. I had found an off brand 'Shop Fox' collector for $310. The name brand equivalent was $495. Well, I took the 26th off and found out my supplier of choice was closed. I saw Harbor Freight had a dust collector for $199. Drove there, sure as shooting-it was the exact 'Shop Fox' unit, under different paint. Not been very long, obviously, but very impressed with it so far!

I can beat their price on tools by buying at auctions and most of the time they are quality name brand tools.I use these to keep in tractor tool boxes so I'll have wrenches,pliers,
vice grips etc out in the field when I'll working.

It appears to me that the HF whiners don't have brains enough to pick and choose at HF. I've been buying from the place for over 30 years. They have always had a line of good stuff and crap. Just have to "take your pick." This "buy American" protestations is also a little specious. HF employs 17,000 people in this country.

I worked in many dealerships where many mechanics were tool-snobs. If your box was not full of Snap-On, Mack, Bonney, Williams, and maybe some old S.K.Wayne stuff, you got frowned upon. Give me a break! My HF 9" grinder (the yellow version) is now 35 years old and has outlasted my Sioux grinder. Low-profile rapid-pump floor jack by far better then any USA jack I ever had. Engine hoist and transmission jack are not the quality of a rental unit-but hey - they are for personal use. The point is - I no longer HAVE to rent big tools. 800 lb. trans jack was $130 four years ago and I have used the heck out of it. If it dies tomorrow - I am still ahead. Same with the 2 ton engine-crane. $169 five years ago and has greatly paid for itself. And hand tools? Their long-handle combo wrenches are as good or better then any Snap on I've had at 1/5 the price.

(quoted from post at 03:40:37 01/15/17) People complain that there are no jobs or work in this country but they drove a lot of manufactures out of business by buying this cheap junk from overseas.

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Okay, lets remember why the "cheap junk" is here in the first place. It started after WW2 when we were rebuilding the world. The idea was to take nations like Japan and Taiwan and give them an economic base that was stable. So we set up factories over there, and elsewhere, and gave them good trade deals. Over time they learned how improve their products and keep the bottom line in the black. Eventually they got so good at it that other nations, like India and China, figured out the system and started copying the paradigm. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, American companies believed they'd always be #1 no matter how they treated the consumer, American unions started forgetting the company had to prosper to keep the workers employed and the US gov't forgot that wealth comes from the ground or water and that you can't tax and regulate an economy into prosperity. So here we are. The few remaining US tool companies make products that are unaffordable for Joe Average, if he can even find an outlet. Many "US branded" tools are made overseas and are only marked as such through shady practices. Meanwhile, foreign products are improving while remaining affordable.

It is what it is. Until we start rethinking what we're willing to pay, what we're willing to work for and until the gov't stops putting roadblocks in the way of making a business a success nothing will change.

That being said, HF certainly isn't my first choice for tools, but if I have a choice between no tool or HF, I'll take HF.

I have had HF Pittsburgh hand tools for years, and have NEVER broken one! I HAVE, however, broken a few "Snap-off" tools during that time. I won't buy another Snap-off again - unless it is a specialty tool nobody else makes! I also have a set of Craftsman that I need to get a couple wrenches to complete. Since Sears has sold them to B&D, I want to get them soon.
The only problem I have had with HF, is the 4 1/2" grinders - the black ones are junk, and the red ones break where the blade stop pin is.
I figure that I can buy 10 Pittsburgh tools for the price of ONE Snap-off. They are good tools and perform better than the over priced junk Snap-off makes.
People have a hard time figuring out that tools don't make the mechanic - the mechanic makes the tools.

I bought some power tools there about the time I retired. I used to be able to borrow hammer drills, die grinders, and porta-bands at my place of work, but that change when I moved away. I must say I've had good luck with them, but I know they are not Hilti and Milwaukee quality so I treat them accordingly.

I have quite a few of those red ones and never had that happen. Must have over a half dozen now. When they quit they just stopped running but after a lot of heavy use. I don't want the new model with the switch on the side, wish they had kept it on the top as when you turn it to do the job the switch is on the bottom where you have trouble finding it for starting-stopping.

I am lost with all the different colors. All the yellow grinders I have from HF have been great. The blue ones were cheaper and off obvious lower quality. I haven't had any other colors.

I have never had an issue with HF tools - some have been bought as a use it and throw it away after project is done type of item - seems to still keep lasting -
Never bought any of their battery powered items (I.e. Drill/screw gun etc..)...might grab a little battery screwdriver to keep in the house sometime if. I ever think of it while I'm there...just to have instead of going out to the shop to get mine...
Have bought many sets of common wrenches when they go on sale, - tractors all havce SAE wrench sets in the toolbox, equipment has certain items in the toolboxes (bales 1/2" and 9/16" wrenches for shear bolts, haybine said have 3/4" wrenches for cutterbars etc...)
Had great luck with compressors, Brad nailers, oscillating multi-tools, $5 grinders, like their chain saw sharpeners until I bought myself a timberline...just like the job that the hand rotary file does better.
When my used generac generator poos the bed, I am going to replace with a HF predator 8750...
Got a replacement engine for my dad's old troy built rototiller...said it runs better now than it did even when it was new...lol
Also...with a toddler at home and all of the associated toys...really can't beat their prices on batteries...I go through AA and AAAs like nobody's business...

Regarding the sawmill...man did I look long and hard at it...I really really really want to own a mill for myself...but I can't justify the price of a nice one...and based on reviews...I can't justify $2k for the HF. Just does not seem to be built the way you want one to be...too light in too many ways...which makes me sad...I really would like to buy it...have come close...but just can't pull the trigger on something I know I will be disappointed with...$2K buys a lot of bd.ft. Of lumber from sawyers who I know do a good job with a quality machine...if they ever drop the price to $999, I will be the first guy in line. That is a number I can justify...I can just hide it in one of the back barns so the wife never sees.

I think that sums up HF...don't buy things your gut tells you that you will be disappointed with.

I do buy some of the tools Harbor Freight sells.
There are at least two types of tools in particular I would never have been able to purchase anyway because the American made ones were so high priced at the time that only repair shops could afford them. Pneumatic impact wrenches and air grinders were sold at many times the production costs and they are not that complicated in construction. So when HF sold them at affordable prices I was able to buy them.

The black & red-orange is all I am familuar with but they are the 4-4.5" models and I have never looked at or for anything bigger.

I bought a 3 HP wood planner from HF several years ago that was junk and the power hand tools I have bought seem to have soft brush motors in them that wear out fast. I see they stopped selling planers. The non-electric stuff that I have purchased seemed pretty good.