Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[thepumpguysc]

WAY BACK [lol] in 1980 when I started turning wrenches for a living, I got a "tool list" from my employer.. tools I must have..
My first stop was HF.. spent $200.00 & had everything I needed..
I STILL HAVE a lot of those tools.. most are modified but I still have the impact sockets in near perfect condition.
& the wrench rack that holds wrenches..
Several years ago a coworker was in my tool box & helped themselves to acouple of wrenches for a quickie job..
HE was in the wrong drawer.. those wrenches were "back-ups".. He made the comment about the cheap old HF wrenches & it hurt my feelings..lol
I told him.. "those wrenches have made more money than you EVER will".. Lol

 

[sixdogs]

...

They still sell the $10 21 Piece Tap & Die set:

In my shop, I have and still occasionally use one of those die sets. It's all broken and bits but some dies remain. Very wide tolerances. I got it in the late 1970's or early 1980's when there was a shop in Maine where the guy would haul HF stuff in and sell it. Some was incredibly poor quality. I think that's where we all discovered the blue tarp because everyone for miles around suddenly had one. You could find an occasional gem in there every now and then so that kept the excitement up and kept people going in. Back in the late 1970's, no one had ever seen such an experience or store.

I still have a 50' x 50'heavy green tarp I bought for almost nothing ($20?) and while it hasn't been in the weather still is good and not much different from when new. Real quality. Earlier in this thread I posted pics of some early screwdrivers that were hand made of metal with inlaid wood handles. Very neat. On the downside, I have a large adjustable wrench that looks like a cartoon caricature of a real wrench. Except it's a real wrench. I have a huge vise that looks like a Fred Flintstone vise and is almost unusable. I've even bought some quality farm toys and other seemingly distress merchandise they must have picked up on the cheap.

So, for nearly 30 years I've been going in HF stores in search of the Holy Grail. Don't buy much, and never anything electrical, and it's been a good and improving experience overall. They are slowly becoming the elephant in the room for many hand tools and now some impact wrenches and tool chests. I feel like the godfather because every time I try to get away they keep pulling me back in. Love it and because I am a careful shopper, have never done me wrong.

 

[thepumpguysc]

OH YEA, I forgot about the screwdrivers.. big, long monsters w/ WOODEN handles.. still have some of them too..
I use them for "light" prying cuz they bend real easy.. LOL
& some I've ground the tips down for specialty tools.. You DO NOT want to hit them w/ a hammer.. LOL.. they'll split in a NY minute.
I guess they aren't to bad for being 37 years old??

 

[sixdogs]

Here you go for that walk down memory lane...

 

[4get gto]

Here you go for that walk down memory lane...

View attachment 539055

I think you can beat the heck out of them!

 

[thepumpguysc]

The ones I have are wooden all the way thru.. no metal rivets or caps.. real cheap. 1980
The shank is just "pressed" into the handle & if you "tap" on it, the shank drives up thru & splits the wooden handle.
I WISH I had a set of those pictured.. lol
but I opted for snap-on replacements.. & even at that, a tip snapped off the snap-on the 2nd week & I wasn't doing anything that they weren't meant to do. Just goes to show that even an $80.00 set of screwdrivers will/can break..

 

[daugen]

Haven't been on here in a while, would appreciate some recommendations from you HF experts.
I have a fairly small UTV battery powering a new DC fence charger. I would like to put a small solar charger on the battery
to extend the life of the charge.

Do you have any recommendations for HF solar chargers that work? Under a hundred bucks for sure.
I know there are varying grades of panel construction, different chemistries.
I see the ones in Northern Tools which frankly I would tend to trust more than HF. But maybe they are buying the same unit from China
and putting their label and paint job on it. Have seen that a bunch of times. Or maybe it's the knockoffs knocking off the knockoffs...

thanks Drew

 

[300UGUY]

Here you go for that walk down memory lane...

View attachment 539055

I have a bunch of Irwin screwdrivers that look just like that... wonder why?��

 

[300UGUY]

I think you can beat the heck out of them!

I’ve abused the Irwin ones for years, never broke one. They were the go to tool for our machine repair guys in the factory. I’ve got a couple with hex shanks, that let you put a wrench on it for more torque. Still never broke anything. Also used as pry bars on occasion!��

 

[reb]

Haven't been on here in a while, would appreciate some recommendations from you HF experts.
I have a fairly small UTV battery powering a new DC fence charger. I would like to put a small solar charger on the battery
to extend the life of the charge.

Do you have any recommendations for HF solar chargers that work? Under a hundred bucks for sure.
I know there are varying grades of panel construction, different chemistries.
I see the ones in Northern Tools which frankly I would tend to trust more than HF. But maybe they are buying the same unit from China
and putting their label and paint job on it. Have seen that a bunch of times. Or maybe it's the knockoffs knocking off the knockoffs...

thanks Drew

I bought one of their $15 solar panels and built a regulator to use on my emergency generator. Apparently some folks use them without the regulator on 12v batteries. The only problem I heard about was a case where an individual uses it on a vehicle that stood for several months unused. I imagine that for your application, where the battery is used daily you will have no problem.