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Hi Glenn, I got 2 14.4V drills at Harbor Freight at different times. They are clearly from different manufacturers. I've owned and used one of them constantly for at least four years that I can be sure of. It has been an amazingly good tool. The other one isn't actually bad, it's just a cheap drill. This lack of uniform quality is what has done more to sour me on HF tools than anything else. I took a chance on the low price of HF angle grinders, and bought about a dozen of them over the last couple of years. Cost me about what I would have paid for one and a half of the best brands (Milwaukee, Metabo, Bosch) or about two DeWalts or three Ryobis. It was an experiment, and I'm about ready to say that I wish I'd gone the other way. I've used up 2 or 3, have 3 or 4 in a bucket waiting for me to get around to seeing why they won't run (often quite simple to fix but still a PITA), several in service, and a few still in their boxes. I've found it to be little comfort (though some) to remember that a grinder only cost me $16, or that I have its replacement at home, when it craps out on me on the job. But I break tools, too. Two weeks ago I was trying to do one of those things that you'd scold a kid for trying, and I had the workpiece smack me in the hand hard enough to draw blood and make two fingers hurt for two days, while the grinder went the other way and killed itself on the concrete floor. Maybe a Bosch or a Milwaukee could have survived the fall, but maybe not. The experience would have been bitter rather than irksome if my carelessness had cost me a $120 tool rather than a $16 one. So there's that. All the best, Stan
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