HARBOR FREiGHT

[Traffer]

I am and always have been pretty poor. I used to just wish I could afford tools, never having the chance to buy many. Now I can get whatever I want (except the lathe that I am saving up for) because of Harbor Freight prices. I would vote to have things made here again and want Americans to have decent jobs making these tools, but it has enabled me to get the tools to build things which is what I love to do.

[marlin39a]

I was in yesterday. Needed a cheap, 10" pipe wrench. $5.99. You bet I bought it.

[D Crockett]

I'm have bought a lot of HF tools , anything that is electric (drills , grinders , die grinders ) is junk if your going to use it daily . But there are a lot of good deals .

I am going to have to agree with Boaz I got a 4 1/2 inch side grinder it lasts ever bit of 5 minutes about the only thing I buy from them now is 4 1/2 cutting blades and wire brushes D Crockett

[sundog]

Not HF, but possibly sourced from the same place. I needed a particular size jumbo crow foot wrench to torque a barrel nut. This is an 'only occasional' task. I ordered it off Amazon. Not a Mac or Snap-on, but it gets the job done nicely at a fraction of the cost. If I were in business doing this work I would get higher quality like my other tools, but for once or twice off tasks for myself, this cheap wrench works okay.

Like others have mentioned, watch what you get.

[fatelk]

It is sad that for many things American manufacturing can't compete. It seems like everything is made in China now. I recently bought a Starrett dial caliper. Guess what? Made in China. It's not just the junk made there now.

I listened to a friend's lecture on Chinese manufacturing a few years back. He had spent some time in China with his company, a huge multinational building a new manufacturing facility there.

He said there are several reasons they can undercut us so badly on price. Cheap, almost slave labor being a huge one, but also the nearly complete lack of environmental regulations. He said that China has massive environmental problems that they are going to have to face some day. His opinion was that sooner or later they're going to have to pay the piper and start cleaning up the mess they've made, and Chinese goods will become more expensive. He also said that eventually the Chinese people would get a taste of better things and demand better pay.

He figured that when China ceases to be a bargain, the big corporations would move on to India for cheap labor and resources to squander. It's a global economy now. It's hard to compete with people who will work for peanuts, who are hungry enough that they don't care much about safe working conditions or contaminated ground water.

[sandman228]

I agree with most others some of there stuff is decent , some is junk. For the most part I avoid there power tools . but like others mentioned almost everything is made in china now. A couple years ago I needed a new circular saw so I went to home depot and took my time and actually looked at every brand they carried . ryobi , rigid , dewalt , makita , Milwaukee , so on so on , guess what ALL made in China. I ended up buying the Milwaukee and its probably the best saw I've ever owned other than being a little on the heavy side . a little while back they bought us 2 new air chisels at work they were Ingersoll rand and sure enough made in China on the box. Those 2 name brands were a shocker to me seeing made in China on the box

[500Linebaughbuck]

i have a harbor freight reciprocating saw that i exclusively use for deer and bear. its been about 10 years now and the best $20 i have spent. rope pulleys and chains and hooks, tow hooks, ratchet straps, air hoses.....harbor freight and tractor supply is the place to go.

IF you use it everyday, i'd buy snap on and proto tools and milwaukee and makita....

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I should have mentioned in my original post that I bought a Ryobi set of battery powered tools made in China twenty years ago. My wife and I built a small barn with those tools and they are still going strong.

[sandman228]

I should have mentioned in my original post that I bought a Ryobi set of battery powered tools made in China twenty years ago. My wife and I built a small barn with those tools and they are still going strong.

Yes ryobi cordless tools are decent for the money I have several that are 10 years old or more . the ni cad battery's that came with them all took a dump years ago so I upgraded to some lithium ion battery's a few years back .

[GhostHawk]

I have that bench, its solid.
Only installed 2 drawers as they were a bit fiddly and I was in a hurry.

Those 2 hold the various bits and bobs for my Lyman Easy loader shotgun reloader and my shotgun reloading manuals.

I have a chicago Electric 4" angle grinder I bought 20 years ago. Came with spare brushes. Those are long gone I'm sure. That grinder has not been used daily, nor monthly. But every time I grab it, it works. For what I paid for it, it paid for itself the first time I used it. Everything after that is bonus.

I buy all my tarps there now, I like the heavy duty silver ones for anything that goes on the ground. I have one that is a little bit bigger in all dimensions than my tent. Stored with the tent. It goes down first, sides get rolled up and tucked under. Never had a wet floor.

I have 5 of their little blue cheap flashlights with the magnet on the fridge. Push the button once and the end LED comes on. Again for off, on again and the big side light fires up. Enough light to light up an entire kitchen cabinet like bright daylight. Dirt cheap, ohhh and they come apart, take standard AA batterys, and have both a hook and a magnet.

How do you go wrong with that? I've only had one needed battery's replaced. Anyone needs a light, they are on the fridge, waiting.

My house is full of Harbor freight tools, mini drill press, to sander. No problems with any of them.

Can you find a better deal than their indexed titanium nitride drill bits?

[dverna]

GH

I bought 6 of those drill bit sets when they had them on sale. Should last my lifetime. Lol

[Mal Paso]

I have 2 of those HF drill bit sets. Good for $10 but they don't hold an edge in steel like my $83. Chinese set.

The HF Ball Joint Press I used to have was Forged Steel from Taiwan. I tried to replace it and what they had was so bad it would not screw together much less take an 800flb air wrench. They carry another model now I haven't looked at. You have to check every purchase. My HF 5 piece front end set from a couple years ago was awesome Forged Steel. I opened the last kit HF had because it looked like it had been opened and found the ball joint press Bent with Grease Marks. Someone had returned it but more important, I never came close to bending my old one on heavy trucks. I bought OTC instead which looks just like my old HF.

Their taps are no longer High Speed Steel so I bought elsewhere.

Hard to beat their rolling tool cabinets right now. The better ones all have ball bearing slide drawers, bigger drawers have 2 sets of slides. All for $1.25/lb. LOL

[JBinMN]

My tumbler for brass is from there( I think I paid around $30-40) & the walnut media I use in it I bought there as well.

I have a few other things from there too. Nothing fancy, just do dads. I don't ask a lot of what I get there. just "make do" stuff for the most part.

Just another variety hardware/tool store like Northern Hydraulics is, to me, anyway.

Most of the tools I have bought over the years that I use for work & home are of much higher quality, but for "throw away" or, "short term use" items, the place works for me.

[Isaac]

It is sad that for many things American manufacturing can't compete. It seems like everything is made in China now. I recently bought a Starrett dial caliper. Guess what? Made in China. It's not just the junk made there now.

I listened to a friend's lecture on Chinese manufacturing a few years back. He had spent some time in China with his company, a huge multinational building a new manufacturing facility there.

He said there are several reasons they can undercut us so badly on price. Cheap, almost slave labor being a huge one, but also the nearly complete lack of environmental regulations. He said that China has massive environmental problems that they are going to have to face some day. His opinion was that sooner or later they're going to have to pay the piper and start cleaning up the mess they've made, and Chinese goods will become more expensive. He also said that eventually the Chinese people would get a taste of better things and demand better pay.

He figured that when China ceases to be a bargain, the big corporations would move on to India for cheap labor and resources to squander. It's a global economy now. It's hard to compete with people who will work for peanuts, who are hungry enough that they don't care much about safe working conditions or contaminated ground water.

This is inline from what I read through media outlets and observed on educational cable networks. There are reports and video of folks wearing facemasks while outdoors in areas of China.

Isaac

[anothernewb]

agree with others. some HF stuff is exactly what you'd expect from china. Others have been a surprise. The US general tool box has been holding up well, and was very cheap compared to it's competition. Bought a grinder and it was junk (cheap copper in the motor winding) but bought a predator engine and it's been solid as I could hope for. Have a set of hand tools in the box on the trailer. Funny how no one will steal a HF wrench. Despite taking the time to break the lock on the tool box, lol.

[anothernewb]

This is inline from what I read through media outlets and observed on educational cable networks. There are reports and video of folks wearing facemasks while outdoors in areas of China.

Isaac

buddy of mine works at 3M in Aberdeen SD, one of the lines in the factory is filter masks. China is their #1 customer. something like 80% of their production capacity.

[EDG]

I have been to China several times taking care of manufacturing problems over there. Yes the air and the water is nasty.
In the early 2000s a skilled worker made about $2.00/hr including all benefits.
The semiconductor business can get most things from China at about a 30% savings even after shipping it across the Pacific.
Some of our most critical parts could not be made from Chinese aluminum. So we had to supply Alcoa aluminum. With the political environment a lot of the critical parts are now made in Singapore. Not as cheap but much safer. The DOD prohibited manufacture of some systems in China out of concern for them stealing the technology.

[opos]

A while back I purchased a portable generator and since it was to be my first I did a lot of research...the Predator "brand" of generator that Harbor Freight sells sounded really good "on paper" from a price point standpoint...also there were a number of very positive reports on You Tube about folks that had been concerned with quality..most were very positive....I went to the local H/F store and started chatting with the guy on the floor that was in the area where there were generators..he gave me an ear full....Said the particular model I'd been interested in (competes with the Honda which is the "gold standard" at about 1/3 the price) had a "return rate" of nearly 50%.s..also said H/F "edits" their reviews heavilly..he said they were really under the gun to move them out as the quality control was non existant....he said the engines are "copies" of the Honda engine but that parts were just enough difference to make it nearly impossible to fix one when it's broken..he said the parts from one to another of the same model often were quite a bit different so would not cross fit for repairs...He said if you get a good one and not using it commerically it was a decent unit at a really good price but that the incidence of bad ones was a real pain for the local stores to have to deal with.

The size and spec for generators I'd been looking for are almost all made in the Orient and all claim "as good as Honda"...but it seems they are fine if you get a good one and terrible if you don't...I'm not a "brand pimper" I just wanted to get a reasonable bang for my buck....Honda is very high priced and I really think from what I found that it was the only game in town for a very long time and others scrambled to keep up or catch up.

After my research, etc I decided on a non Honda brand (not going to go into which one...but not H/F) and the way I made my final decision was to go to the RV web sites, the RV reviews, etc (I'm not using it for an RV but figure they probably have more usage than other places..I joined several chat boards and got past the "reviews" and read the "down and dirty" discussions)...at my age with physical problems I wanted electric start with back up pull cord...wanted "dual fuel" gas and propane because I didn't want old stale gas gumming things up if it sat ...wanted several other features including noise (I live in the city), etc...H/F could not compete in many ways and with the negative comments by their sales guy I just stayed away from the Predator...cheap..absolutely...work if you get a good one...I guess....good exchange policy...I don't know...and when I called several small engine and lawnmower shops none would touch a Predator for repairs...I would have to go to Orange County (long drive) to even have one looked at.

For me price was important so I cut out the top end and the bottom end and found exactly what I wanted in a middle range unit with all the features and several lawn mower shops and small engine shops said "no problem" getting parts or getting them worked on if needed...

I guess a $5 wrench would be a reasonable gamble but a several hundred dollar generator was a different thing...at least for me.

[DerekP Houston]

I am going to have to agree with Boaz I got a 4 1/2 inch side grinder it lasts ever bit of 5 minutes about the only thing I buy from them now is 4 1/2 cutting blades and wire brushes D Crockett

Same here, electrical tools are a no-go, but replacement bits, cutting blades, gloves etc? you bet I shop at HF. Only one item I was really disappointed with were the loading ramps for my atv. Twisted and bent the very first use, metal was just flimsy. We went back to just picking it up with 2 people and loading in the truck that way.

Manual tools I would use in a heartbeat, just had too many issues with small appliances working a few times then dying to risk another. Ryobi are still pretty cheap but at least I can use the warranty and get them replaced.

[bedbugbilly]

I have purchased things at HF over the years - some items I've been happy with - others not so happy.

I don't know which workbench you are looking at - I bought one of the woodworker benches with the vise on the end and four drawers for my garage out here in AZ. I didn't want to mess with making one and I've probably made a dozen benches over the years. I had to screw a section of 2 X 4 on to each leg so I could raise the bench up 1 1/2" as it sat too low for my height. The four drawers are O.K. but they don't pull out all the way so the backs of the inside of the drawers are not exposed - plus they are not real deep. Overall though, it works O.K. for doing projects on.

You get what you pay for, as they say . . . so look it over well before purchasing. Let's face it . . . nothing is made today like it used to be made - it's made to wear out. I earned my living by using tools so I always bought the best I could afford as in the end, they lasted. It's kind of hard though to compete these days with the stuff that is being hammered out overseas by cheap labor. I'm not knocking HF by any means - just look it over carefully.

Example - Last year, my wife and I moved from our house of 45 years in to a condo that was about 14 years old. It had ten foot ceilings and we wanted to repaint, put down new flooring, etc. before moving in. Ten foot ceilings are a PIA. I bought one of Harbor Freight's rolling adjustable height scaffolds - cost around $200. It was GREAT! The best $200 I have ever spent and it worked great for what we needed, narrow enough o go through doorways, lockable casters, etc. A great value.

A couple of years ago, I bought a small electric pump from hem for transferring liquids - cost around $60. I got it to empty out our hot water heater to winterized our house while we were gone. I ended up going through three of them before I got one with a decent motor on it - the first three burned out - not from mis-use - just bad motors. HF exchanged them with no hassle but with a 15 mile drive each way it was a hassle for me.