Central Pneumatic

[Mosey]

I know a lot of you buy products from Harbor Freight. I never have, but may give them a try on the Central Pneumatic air tools. Are Central Pneumatic tools any good?

 

[Bird]

I know a lot of you buy products from Harbor Freight. I never have, but may give them a try on the Central Pneumatic air tools. Are Central Pneumatic tools any good?

I bought a number of Central Pneumatic air tools many years ago, and in fact, I currently have a Central Pneumatic 3/8" air ratchet and an angle die grinder. They're cheap tools, but quite adequate for many homeowners. The thing to be careful about is to read the specs. For instance, I used to have one of their half-inch impact wrenches. It was much like a Chicago Pneumatic CP-734. The CP-734 was rated for 425 ft. lbs. and is a very popular tool with professional mechanics, while the Central Pneumatic impact that looked almost the same had only 210-250 ft. lbs. of torque. If you should break one of their tools after it's out of warranty, it won't be worth the cost to fix it, but chances are that they'll last for many years. In addition to the half-inch impact in the past, and a couple of 3/8" ratchets, and an angle die grinder, I also had a 3/8" butterfly impact for many years. I almost forgot, I also currently have one of their staple/brad guns.

 

[cowboy357]

I know a lot of you buy products from Harbor Freight. I never have, but may give them a try on the Central Pneumatic air tools. Are Central Pneumatic tools any good?

Maybe for hobby use Danny , But I dont like them at all . I have a lot of Older Chicago Pneumatic That I,ve never had any issues . Most folks confuse the CP on both brands as being the same, But no wheres close to the quality IMHO . I know others thats bought them & they would work for a little while. not my idea of a good air tool though. Bob

 

[MossRoad]

I bought an impact wrench, ratchet, die grinder and d/a sander from them about 30 years ago. All of them died with very little use except for the impact wrench. I was disappointed but not out very much cash. Lesson learned. You get what you pay for most of the time. If you use it minimally, or figure it into the cost of the current project, you can get by with them. Just my opinion, of course.

 

[Soundguy]

I've got a 3/8 and 1/2" air impact gun.. both are good working units.. the 1/2" gun help me spin some pretty large nuts off old implements and tractors.

have a die grinder and some paint tools... all are cheap.. but work.

soundguy

 

[George2615]

I have a Chicago Pneumatic 1/2" drive CP-744 I bought reconditioned from a Snap on tool guy who came to the garage back in the 70's that still works great. At the time I was told it was rated for 450-500 ft lb. and he gave me a one year guarantee. I've never had a problem with it. I also have a 3/8" drive Chicago Pneumatic as well.

Three years ago I was going to do a brake job on a friends car and he had just had new tires put on. The CP744 would not loosen about half of the lug nuts. I figured the 744 was getting tired after 30 plus years so 3 years ago I bought a Central Pneumatic Earthquake at HF for a little more torque (625 ft lb.). It had no problem loosening the remaining nuts. (They must have been put on with a similar gun) I bought it with the set of double sided impact sockets mainly used for lug nuts. I sent my CP744 to a local shop to have it checked and they said it tested at 425 ft lb. They were surprised it was over 30 years old and still had that power.
By the way, when I completed the brake job I manually torqued the lug nuts to proper specs and didn't use the gun like the tire stores do.