Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[Oaktree]

While I'm remembering, there's the free flashlights that used to suck... they aren't 9 LED anymore, they have one good one with a focusing reflector now... now they project a beam of light instead of just some random light going everywhere.. I think I'll start picking them up again...

Didn't realize they'd started using the COB LEDs in the flashlights, though I did notice them in the blue magnetic ones over the last 6 mo. or so. I never considered the old 9 LED ones to suck...not much good for distance, but fine for close or non-critical uses (like one to put next to the bed). LED flashlights have come a long way in the past few years!

 

[dragoneggs]

Ha, as you can see from the post after yours, Rock posted the coupon. I did validate that it works on the website.

Indeed it does! Just ordered it online. Thx. Will store it in my truck.

 

[Code54]

I'm what we at work used to call a "Butt Metallurgist" (as in "I'm not a metalurgist, but..." followed by some opinion on metallurgy). I worked in a steel wire mill for decades. We worked with high carbon steel and chrome vanadium. The chrome vanadium is definitely a tougher alloy: it can be heat treated it to higher tensile strengths without getting brittle (there are limits with any alloy, but the limit for most chrome vanadium alloys is higher than for most high carbon steel alloys: that's why you go to the extra expense of the chrome alloy). We used chrome vanadium when a customer needed higher strength, but didn't have the option of simply going to a larger part to get the strength (for example, when weight or space was at a premium).

Having said all of that, it's all in the quality of the steel and the heat treating. Chrome Vanadium is less forgiving of poor heat treating. So this will depend on how well these folks have control of their processing.

Now you have me wondering which ones I have (about 6 packs of them) - never had a problem with any of them in my Dewalt 20v impact. Handy little devices for the money.

 

[Threepoint]

Thanks Threepoint!

While I'm remembering, there's the free flashlights that used to suck... they aren't 9 LED anymore, they have one good one with a focusing reflector now... now they project a beam of light instead of just some random light going everywhere.. I think I'll start picking them up again... The blue magnetic ones are also improved with one of those strip LED's instead of the array of standard LED's, same if not more light and more focused. I've found they work good for a work light if you pull out the hook and hang it from your shirt neck or if you have a zipper jacket on you can adjust the beam height...

Interesting to hear this about the free flashlights. I probably still have a dozen or so of the 9-LED black ones, and nearly that many of the older-style blue magnetic ones, all still in their packages. In the last couple of months, I've been getting and using the newer style. My impression has actually been the opposite! I just haven't gotten around to posting about them here. Seems to me the newer designs run through the batteries faster and don't throw as much light over the immediate work area. I'll have to compare them again.

I like to give the little black ones away to kids that visit, after warning not to look into the beam or shine it in anyone else's eyes. They're a big hit.

 

[John_Mc]

Was looking at their welders today. I will be in the market for a new one this month (it's my birthday). Debating on the Titanium 200 Multi Processor, Vulcan 225 Stick, and Vulcan Omni Pro 220. Both the 200 Pro and the Omni Pro 225 would get me into MIG and TIG that I would, but don't have to, learn. My budget is $800 max.

Who in TBN land has experience with these products? The OMNI PRO has some reviews about the software not being accurate and manual adjustments are required. Problem there is if they update the software to fix; there is not input port to feed the data.

Ron

I have no experience with either, but came across this video which you may find interesting:
Titanium 200 vs Vulcan OmniPro 220 Welder

 

[dragoneggs]

I have no experience with either, but came across this video which you may find interesting:
Titanium 200 vs Vulcan OmniPro 220 Welder

Here is Chucke2009 review of the OmniPro 220... it is a loooong video. Only got through the first half. He doesn't turn it on until about the 20min mark. Have yet to get to his conclusions.

A Swing & A Miss From Harbor Freight?!? VULCAN OMNIPRO 22 REVIEW - YouTube

 

[dragoneggs]

Here is Chucke2009 review of the OmniPro 220... it is a loooong video. Only got through the first half. He doesn't turn it on until about the 20min mark. Have yet to get to his conclusions.

A Swing & A Miss From Harbor Freight?!? VULCAN OMNIPRO 22 REVIEW - YouTube

Finally got to the end of this video. Price is attractive but I guess I would feel more comfortable with an Everlast unit for a multipurpose unit. I'm still targeting Everlast when I step into the TIG world someday. That said, it sure seems HF is stepping up their game on power tools of all types!

 

[rangerfredbob]

Interesting to hear this about the free flashlights. I probably still have a dozen or so of the 9-LED black ones, and nearly that many of the older-style blue magnetic ones, all still in their packages. In the last couple of months, I've been getting and using the newer style. My impression has actually been the opposite! I just haven't gotten around to posting about them here. Seems to me the newer designs run through the batteries faster and don't throw as much light over the immediate work area. I'll have to compare them again.

I like to give the little black ones away to kids that visit, after warning not to look into the beam or shine it in anyone else's eyes. They're a big hit.

I can imagine the new ones use more juice, and I do agree with some statements, it just depends on what you are using the lights for, I have all sorts of flashlights around, grab different ones for different things. Sure the old style put out some general light if you are trying to just add some light in the general area within about 10', but the newer style project the light better if you are wanting to be somewhat focused. I had gotten one of the new style round ones for Christmas, didn't realize they had changed until then and that night had to help look for some Llamas unsuccessfully but the light projected out much further than I expected, some retroflective material on the side of some train cars about 1/4 mile away showed a fair amount of light, was looking for eyeballs so needed some focusing.

Anyway, as with everything it really depends on the application

On the Titanium welder, Mike Festiva's video's are part of what convinced me to give the Unlimited the chance, he had another video that was posted on Christmas on it, and there's another guy that went through I think it was 2.5lb of hard facing rod back to back seeing if the welder would do it and it did...

We have a fancy MIG at work, and a couple TIG's that I haven't played with, I have a nice AC/DC stick welder at home, a HFT 90A flux core welder I've used the heck out of (these get bad raps, but I've had good luck with mine...) so not my first goat rodeo. I will say that the Unlimited welder beat the heck out of the 90A welder for .030" flux core! I haven't had luck with the .030" wire on the 90A welder no matter what...

 

[California]

...I have a HFT 90A flux core welder I've used the heck out of (these get bad raps, but I've had good luck with mine...) ... I haven't had luck with the .030" wire on the 90A welder no matter what...

What size wire do you run to have good luck with the HF 90A? I once had one, a blue #94056 and after some frustration concluded it could do good work only in a narrow range of material thickness and settings, and must have been designed for shop fabrication or something where the application never changed. I've read that the more recent black ones are much better. I finally replaced mine with a Century 110v DC welder with similar specs, it was night and day better. What's your secret, to get good luck with the HF 90A?

 

[John_Mc]

Now you have me wondering which ones I have (about 6 packs of them) - never had a problem with any of them in my Dewalt 20v impact. Handy little devices for the money.

I'm not saying the carbon steel ones are bad. I'm just saying that the chrome vanadium ones have the potential to be better (given otherwise similar quality steel, and assuming they got the heat treatment right).

The Chrome Vanadium alloy we used most frequently was 6150 grade, which is basically high-carbon steel (roughly a 1050 grade) to which some Chromium and Vanadium has been added. This gives it a lot better toughness and shock resistance when properly heat treated.

6150 grade is hard to weld, however.

 

[rangerfredbob]

What size wire do you run to have good luck with the HF 90A? I once had one, a blue #94056 and after some frustration concluded it could do good work only in a narrow range of material thickness and settings, and must have been designed for shop fabrication or something where the application never changed. I've read that the more recent black ones are much better. I finally replaced mine with a Century 110v DC welder with similar specs, it was night and day better. What's your secret, to get good luck with the HF 90A?

I have the old blue 90A version that is hot all the time it is on. I run .035" wire with the best luck and most forgiveness... I've done a fair amount of welding 1/8" material with great success down to sheet metal, welded the 3" channel iron bumper on a small trailer and it's very attached...

 

[crazyal]

Was looking at their welders today. I will be in the market for a new one this month (it's my birthday). Debating on the Titanium 200 Multi Processor, Vulcan 225 Stick, and Vulcan Omni Pro 220. Both the 200 Pro and the Omni Pro 225 would get me into MIG and TIG that I would, but don't have to, learn. My budget is $800 max.

Who in TBN land has experience with these products? The OMNI PRO has some reviews about the software not being accurate and manual adjustments are required. Problem there is if they update the software to fix; there is not input port to feed the data.

Ron

I know it's a little beyond your budget but if you are thinking about TIG welding I would wait to see if a coupon comes along again for the Vulcan ProTIG 200. You give up MIG (unless you add a spool gun) so there's a trade off. I've seen it as low as just over $800 with a coupon. With it you get AC TIG. AC TIG is what you want for welding aluminum. I've got a great Lincoln MIG welder but keep looking at getting an inverter stick welder but every time I look I end up looking at the ProTIG 200. I don't think Everlast (I have one of their plasma cutters and love it) sells an AC TIG for anywhere near the price.

 

[California]

I have the old blue 90A version that is hot all the time it is on. I run .035" wire with the best luck and most forgiveness... I've done a fair amount of welding 1/8" material with great success down to sheet metal, welded the 3" channel iron bumper on a small trailer and it's very attached...

Thanks. That confirms my experience. There were two near-identical HF90's at the time and I chose the one where its two heat choices were near identical. That was a mistake. With .030 wire I characterized the two settings as Too Hot and Way Too Hot. Like you, I found it worked best with .035.

Come to think of it, this was the welder that came with unusable flux core wire. It would only spit globs and there was a flood of customer return 'near new in box' HF90's on Ebay at the time from a single resale vendor, until they cleared that batch of wire. I replaced the wire immediately, after reading about the wire issue. Big improvement, now it would weld beads. 'Some Assembly Required' to make a HF tool work per its specs was the norm back then.

 

[newbury]

I can imagine the new ones use more juice, and I do agree with some statements, it just depends on what you are using the lights for, I have all sorts of flashlights around, grab different ones for different things. Sure the old style put out some general light if you are trying to just add some light in the general area within about 10', but the newer style project the light better if you are wanting to be somewhat focused. I had gotten one of the new style round ones for Christmas, didn't realize they had changed until then and that night had to help look for some Llamas unsuccessfully but the light projected out much further than I expected, some retroflective material on the side of some train cars about 1/4 mile away showed a fair amount of light, was looking for eyeballs so needed some focusing.

Anyway, as with everything it really depends on the application
<snip>

I had been getting so many of the old 9 LED flashlights that my son thought they were giving them away at work and was disappointed when I retired. I am still finding them around the house and shops, and I'm surprised when the battery still works.
But I much prefer the blue oval freebies, with the magnet and hook. It's so darn handy. I've got them all over the houses and shops hooked on door and drawer handles. Most of my toolboxes have one in them. They are easy to hang on something when working on equipment. Could use a stronger magnet though.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Finally got to the end of this video. Price is attractive but I guess I would feel more comfortable with an Everlast unit for a multipurpose unit. I'm still targeting Everlast when I step into the TIG world someday. That said, it sure seems HF is stepping up their game on power tools of all types!

Mark, I am still waiting for our Everlast member to give me a sales pitch. Ron

 

[dragoneggs]

Mark, I am still waiting for our Everlast member to give me a sales pitch. Ron

Ha ha... I want to hear it too!

 

[KubotainNH]

Thanks. That confirms my experience. There were two near-identical HF90's at the time and I chose the one where its two heat choices were near identical. That was a mistake. With .030 wire I characterized the two settings as Too Hot and Way Too Hot. Like you, I found it worked best with .035.

Come to think of it, this was the welder that came with unusable flux core wire. It would only spit globs and there was a flood of customer return 'near new in box' HF90's on Ebay at the time from a single resale vendor, until they cleared that batch of wire. I replaced the wire immediately, after reading about the wire issue. Big improvement, now it would weld beads. 'Some Assembly Required' to make a HF tool work per its specs was the norm back then.

I beat the heck out of an HF blue unit. It did ok as long as I used good wire. I used it mostly for sheet metal and left the big stuff to my stick welder. Now I have the Everlast iMIG 140E and it is so much better. I don't have to use a grinder as much and it will weld the bigger stuff quite nicely. The 3 year warranty is also a plus. I gave old blue away.

 

[Code54]

I'm not saying the carbon steel ones are bad. I'm just saying that the chrome vanadium ones have the potential to be better (given otherwise similar quality steel, and assuming the got the heat treatment right).

The Chrome Vanadium alloy we used most frequently was 6150 grade, which is basically high-carbon steel (roughly a 1050 grade) to which some Chromium and Vanadium has been added. This gives it a lot better toughness and shock resistance when properly heat treated.

6150 grade is hard to weld, however.

Good info! Thank you for that as I don't know much about steel and "grades" so it was helpful and something I will pay more attention to!

 

[Diggin It]

I have a bunch of the old black round 9 LED flashlights and three or four of the old style blue hockey puck type. Picked up one of the new COB blue hockey pucks today.

Also one of the outdoor 'security' motion units for $15 on coupon.

Also grabbed one of the new 'ammo' boxes with the extra internal tray.

My 90A Blue welder is still on the original roll of wire that came with it. I only use it to do some quick tacks.

 

[Threepoint]

I had been getting so many of the old 9 LED flashlights that my son thought they were giving them away at work and was disappointed when I retired. I am still finding them around the house and shops, and I'm surprised when the battery still works.
But I much prefer the blue oval freebies, with the magnet and hook. It's so darn handy. I've got them all over the houses and shops hooked on door and drawer handles. Most of my toolboxes have one in them. They are easy to hang on something when working on equipment. Could use a stronger magnet though.

Funny, I reach for the black ones more often. They're easier to hold in my teeth when I need both hands and I'm fumbling around in the dark trying to make an emergency repair, or just trying to find which dang cable goes to what in the rat's nest behind some electronic equipment.