Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[hutchman]

I had an almost wrist breaking experience with my Bosch corded SDS drill the other day. I was boring holes in the stumps (trees I took down) to put in Epsom salts and Glyphosate to kill them for eventual roasting. I had my Inverter genny in the FEL and the Bosch plugged in with a large ship auger chucked. Started boring into a stump and the auger really bit in and the drill got away from me (hand slipped on the Tee handle and I found myself rotating with the drill. The ship auger was stationary and the drill motor was rotating with me attached as the cord had me captured. The only thing that saved me was the cord ran out and unplugged itself from the genny.

I got a very sore wrist and lost some skin and I had to back the auger out with a 1/2" drive socket and a breaker bar. Those reduction geared drill motors make some torque. Be careful.

Thanks for the warning.

I've been pretty useless this year so far and am itching to get back to being busy again ... but I have to be careful not to mess up my $5K (or maybe it's up to 6 or 7K, I don't really know with all the therapy tacked on) bionic arm:



... of course it doesn't look like that now.

They say it will be a year before it approaches what it was before so that's depressing. Been kind of going stir crazy.

 

[newbury]

I think I'd open up the gearbox and check the lube content and/or replace the rice grease with some real stuff.

A while back I bought the ATV winch with the remote, on sale for 69 bucks. Nice winch btw. Had to build a custom mount and change some frame geometry on my old Foreman 400 but it works real well.

First thing I did was open it up and clean out all the (very little inside) ricer grease and repack the gearbox with real EP grease. The stuff inside was already hard, what there was. Maybe a finger tip amount.


Maybe the philosophy is.... little or no grease equals a faster break in -breakdown.....


The Chinese factories that supply HF, really skimp on grease from what I've observed.

All chinese equipment requires lubrication replacement.

I had an almost wrist breaking experience with my Bosch corded SDS drill the other day. I was boring holes in the stumps (trees I took down) to put in Epsom salts and Glyphosate to kill them for eventual roasting. I had my Inverter genny in the FEL and the Bosch plugged in with a large ship auger chucked. Started boring into a stump and the auger really bit in and the drill got away from me (hand slipped on the Tee handle and I found myself rotating with the drill. The ship auger was stationary and the drill motor was rotating with me attached as the cord had me captured. The only thing that saved me was the cord ran out and unplugged itself from the genny.

I got a very sore wrist and lost some skin and I had to back the auger out with a 1/2" drive socket and a breaker bar. Those reduction geared drill motors make some torque. Be careful.

That should be ALSO posted in the safety forum!

 

[prichard]

I had an almost wrist breaking experience with my Bosch corded SDS drill the other day. I was boring holes in the stumps (trees I took down) to put in Epsom salts and Glyphosate to kill them for eventual roasting. I had my Inverter genny in the FEL and the Bosch plugged in with a large ship auger chucked. Started boring into a stump and the auger really bit in and the drill got away from me (hand slipped on the Tee handle and I found myself rotating with the drill. The ship auger was stationary and the drill motor was rotating with me attached as the cord had me captured. The only thing that saved me was the cord ran out and unplugged itself from the genny.

I got a very sore wrist and lost some skin and I had to back the auger out with a 1/2" drive socket and a breaker bar. Those reduction geared drill motors make some torque. Be careful.

I used to be an electrician. I've been thrown off ladders by Milwaukee gear drills when running 1" auger bits. They can kick your but if you let them. Using hole saws are the worst though.

 

[hutchman]

I used to be an electrician. I've been thrown off ladders by Milwaukee gear drills when running 1" auger bits. They can kick your but if you let them. Using hole saws are the worst though.

OK, now you guys are scaring me ... I need to do a 3" hole saw for 2" PVC drain.

 

[prichard]

OK, now you guys are scaring me ... I need to do a 3" hole saw for 2" PVC drain.

Brace drill against your leg and get a good hold of the second handle. Try to keep hole saw square with surface. They tend to grab at beginning or end.

 

[PILOON]

If we are talking about HOLE HAWG drills, one side is fitted with 3/4" female pipe thread.
That is intended to allow you to add a decent length of pipe (like 16" would be nice).
A good firm grip on that pipe length will usually let you overpower the torque, at least enough to let go the switch.

On my HAWG I even wrapped the pipe with rubber tape for a better grip.

 

[hutchman]

If we are talking about HOLE HAWG drills, one side is fitted with 3/4" female pipe thread.
That is intended to allow you to add a decent length of pipe (like 16" would be nice).
A good firm grip on that pipe length will usually let you overpower the torque, at least enough to let go the switch.

On my HAWG I even wrapped the pipe with rubber tape for a better grip.

Yea, this angle drill I've been talking about has that ... and handlebar grip on it too. My thought was it would be safer in my "condition" to use that rather than use a smaller drill with right angle attachment attempting to do the same job. At least that's how I justified the purchase (when the wife asks why I need yet another drill)

 

[5030]

All chinese equipment requires lubrication replacement.


That should be ALSO posted in the safety forum!

I've never posted and will never post on a safety forum. I have to put up with that crap at work and thats a big enough PITA for me. Between OSHA and the DEQ and ambulance chasing attorneys, I'm surprised we manufacture anything in this country today.

I did it to myself and I bore the brunt (hurt) of it. Nothing that 4 Motrin's and Ben -Gay didn't handle (with a couple Miller High Life chasers)....

 

[5030]

I used to be an electrician. I've been thrown off ladders by Milwaukee gear drills when running 1" auger bits. They can kick your but if you let them. Using hole saws are the worst though.

In my case, the drill slowed down but I went around with it. Wasn't a Milwaukee though, it was a Contractor Grade Bosch SDS Hammer running non hammer mode in LOW gear. That sucker has some big gonads, bigger that I thought it did but then I've SDS drilled concrete anchors for grain bins with it in 6 bag mix with fiber in it and it took everything I could give it, basically sitting on the end of the drill motor..... those are 1" diameter expansion anchors btw. I will say, in hammer mode it makes my hands fall asleep.

 

[hutchman]

In my case, the drill slowed down but I went around with it. Wasn't a Milwaukee though, it was a Contractor Grade Bosch SDS Hammer running non hammer mode in LOW gear. That sucker has some big gonads, bigger that I thought it did but then I've SDS drilled concrete anchors for grain bins with it in 6 bag mix with fiber in it and it took everything I could give it, basically sitting on the end of the drill motor..... those are 1" diameter expansion anchors btw. I will say, in hammer mode it makes my hands fall asleep.

Now you got me to thinking. I have one of those big SDS plus hammer drills too but I've never used it for anything other than drilling through really thick concrete or busting up concrete. I never paid attention to if it even had a non-hammer mode. I know it has several hammer modes. Do they make SDS bits for stuff like mixing etc.? I guess I've never noticed any other kind of SDS bit besides masonry type stuff.