Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[Midniteoyl]

I have a general drilling question: I have plenty of plumber's pipe thread cutting oil. Is this the same thing, or suitable, as oil for a drill press?

I've used it for big bore drilling into cast iron which is done really slow. Higher speed drills might make it smoke.

 

[Gary Fowler]

What advantage to you see over using the FEL? I'm assuming the FEL is blocked and the mower secured to the FEL so it cannot slip as those are easy and necessary for safety.

I trust my FEL much more than I would one of those mower lifts AND my mower weighs 800# without any mud and grass debris underneath so I will continue to use the FEL to lift my mower.
I bolted on a chain loop on the front of my mower just for the FEL lift. I just hook my lift chain hook to the mower and the other end in my FEL chain hook and up it goes. I can lift it nearly vertical with ease so hosing out the mud and gunk is easy. It works just as well for changing the mower blades also.
I like to live dangerously, so no 2x4 blocking used either (Safety police jump on it if you like). After thinking about it and deciding that the possibility of the 4700# working load of the chain lifting partial weight of a 800# mower breaking is NIL and also the possibility of a hydraulic hose bursting is really low, I don't mess with 2x4 blocking (4x4 likely would work)which might not hold the load anyway should the impossible happen.
If I were really paranoid about the FEL failing, I would make some 2x2 angle blocks to use on the FEL cylinders as stops.

 

[IslandTractor]

FELs don't fail catastrophically often however kids or animals might bump the FEL joystick or other unforeseen events can result in dropping the mower. I'm pretty comfortable with a simple 2x4 as a "safety chain" blocking the loader while working under the mower. If all I was doing was hosing the underside of the mower though I wouldn't use anything.

 

[California]

... pipe thread cutting oil...

I've used it for big bore drilling into cast iron which is done really slow. Higher speed drills might make it smoke.

Thanks!

 

[Gem99ultra]

FELs don't fail catastrophically often however kids or animals might bump the FEL joystick or other unforeseen events can result in dropping the mower. I'm pretty comfortable with a simple 2x4 as a "safety chain" blocking the loader while working under the mower. If all I was doing was hosing the underside of the mower though I wouldn't use anything.

I too thought the FELs were infallible. That is until this past winter my son and I were clearing so downed trees for the burn pile, with the FEL set up at about waist high. After a few minutes he walked by the front of the FEL loaded with about 600# of logs already, and WHAM! The bucket w/forks and logs hit the ground. There was nothing wrong with the tractor though. Somehow when he parked and set the FEL at the height he wanted he didn't get it totally in either Up or Down. Then with the engine off, the hydraulic pressure neutralized some, releasing the FEL.

I had never before nor ever afterwards had that happen. But had either of us been near or under the FEL, there would have been funeral plans to make.

Two things that I've learned now, never work under a FEL without a support, and of course, never ever work under anything with a bumper jack or high-lift jack. You're right - FELs don't OFTEN fail, but the only need to do that once if you're working underneath one. Even a 2x4 would be a good safety chain, assuming the FEL was empty. As I get older, I think I'm getting more cautious. Perhaps seeing first hand that accidents do happen is making me that way.

 

[California]

That is until ...

Similar experience here but with older equipment. Loader hoses were aged, shabby, sweating (photo) when I bought the Yanmar. It needed cylinder seals also due to leakdown. I figured no problem if I fixed other stuff first.

But I unexpectedly snagged the front of the bucket moving at low speed, due to leakdown of the curl circuit, which curled the bucket forward and stopped me cold with the curl hose burst. No damage. But at higher speed it could have broken something or jammed me into the steering wheel. Don't Trust Old Hydraulics! I've replaced all the cylinder seals and most of the hoses since, no subsequent problems.

 

[California]

HF Needle Scaler:

I mentioned a few pages back this was ideal, the only tool that could do it, to clean around a pipe that entered a concrete septic tank but wasn't properly sealed there.

Here's my old post describing the project and with a larger photo. I definitely recommend this tool even though I've never used it since. It was the only thing that could do the job.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...ap-air-chisel-removing-tiles.html#post1746855

 

[PILOON]

FELs don't fail catastrophically often however kids or animals might bump the FEL joystick or other unforeseen events can result in dropping the mower. I'm pretty comfortable with a simple 2x4 as a "safety chain" blocking the loader while working under the mower. If all I was doing was hosing the underside of the mower though I wouldn't use anything.

I propped my empty FEL with a 2 x 4 as I have had a slow leaky valve for some time now.*
Well even with slow slow leak the 2 x 4 bent like a pretzel , OK it was slow and had I been under I could have slipped out had I been under.
And my tractor only has a 4 ft bucket.

*nothing I can't cope with under general working conditions.

 

[txdon]

I trust my FEL much more than I would one of those mower lifts AND my mower weighs 800# without any mud and grass debris underneath so I will continue to use the FEL to lift my mower.
I bolted on a chain loop on the front of my mower just for the FEL lift. I just hook my lift chain hook to the mower and the other end in my FEL chain hook and up it goes. I can lift it nearly vertical with ease so hosing out the mud and gunk is easy. It works just as well for changing the mower blades also.
I like to live dangerously, so no 2x4 blocking used either (Safety police jump on it if you like). After thinking about it and deciding that the possibility of the 4700# working load of the chain lifting partial weight of a 800# mower breaking is NIL and also the possibility of a hydraulic hose bursting is really low, I don't mess with 2x4 blocking (4x4 likely would work)which might not hold the load anyway should the impossible happen.
If I were really paranoid about the FEL failing, I would make some 2x2 angle blocks to use on the FEL cylinders as stops.

You do realize that we lost a member here - Mikim - doing exactly what you do. The chain slipped and his they found him dead under the mower. He left behind a very devastated and grieving family. And I lost a very good friend.

 

[TomSeller]

You do realize that we lost a member here - Mikim - doing exactly what you do. The chain slipped and his they found him dead under the mower. He left behind a very devastated and grieving family. And I lost a very good friend.

Very sad and a good reminder for those of us that work alone and on a time crunch most of the time. Did this happen recently?