Harbor Freight tools that DO suck

[4570Man]

Seems to me like the thin section would be a weak point and break under stress, but hey, I'll try (almost) anything once.


The HF Warrior ones I have are a round shank like this:

I hate those short bits and will only buy the longer ones but I’ve never broken one of the dewalt or other thin shank bits.

 

[Gary Fowler]

First off, I hate phillips head screws. It is almost impossible to drive a 2.5-3" screw in hard pine without stripping out the head if you dont predrill the hole. I have never had a phillips head driver with enough bite to break the shank. I prefer the torx head screws or the second choice is the square head (dont recall the official name of those). With torx head you can pop the head of the screw off before it will slip. Either those will hold the screw on the tip (torx head is best) so you dont need 2 hands to get the screw started, very handy when you have to hold something in place and start the screw.

 

[DMax82]

First off, I hate phillips head screws. It is almost impossible to drive a 2.5-3" screw in hard pine without stripping out the head if you dont predrill the hole. I have never had a phillips head driver with enough bite to break the shank. I prefer the torx head screws or the second choice is the square head (dont recall the official name of those). With torx head you can pop the head of the screw off before it will slip. Either those will hold the screw on the tip (torx head is best) so you dont need 2 hands to get the screw started, very handy when you have to hold something in place and start the screw.

I'm with you. I'll never buy deck screws with anything but torx heads again. I actually just ordered 100 pounds of them for an upcoming project.

 

[John_Mc]

Not real fond of the Warrior hex shank Phillips bits. I've shattered most of whatever is in the plastic pack, maybe 10? But then again, I'm using them in a 1/4" impact driver, so maybe they're not intended to handle that.

I have no experience with Warrior bits. However, in general, good quality bits not intended for impact use are heat treated for very high hardness. This helps avoid wear and deforming of the working edges of the bit. The down side is that the higher the hardness of steel the less ductility and the more brittle they are. That brittleness makes them more susceptible to shattering when used in an impact driver. Impact bits are heat treated differently so they are less brittle.

 

[dragoneggs]

The chisel/punch set sucks! I have lots of HF stuff and a fan of most of it, but stay away from these. Obviously not hardened steel.

 

[California]

The chisel/punch set sucks! I have lots of HF stuff and a fan of most of it, but stay away from these. Obviously not hardened steel.

Reminds me of a cheap HF drill bit from 25?? years ago.

It unwound into a flat ribbon!

 

[Oaktree]

First off, I hate phillips head screws. It is almost impossible to drive a 2.5-3" screw in hard pine without stripping out the head if you dont predrill the hole.

Never understood the hate on phillips screws. 40-odd years ago I had a friend who'd rant about how much he hated them for the reasons you mentioned. Dunno...I've never had many problems with them. Most of times I've stripped the heads have been sloppiness on my part with not having the bit square in the slot...can't blame the screw for operator error!
Yeah, torx are better, but either one is OK with me (and phillips are way easier to find). Don't have much experience with square.

Now slot-head screws, ugh.

 

[5030]

This thread seems like a good place to warn others - Not HF but Ebay:

I've ordered a lot of small purchases from China, mostly with good results, inexpensive stuff that was fairly priced.

Not this time.

80mm Mini Plastic Student Sliding Vernier Caliper Gauge

FREE Economy Int'l Shipping
Item location: Shanghai, China
Seller ships within 1 day after receiving cleared payment


Then an email

Ok, fine. Shanghai is civilized country, this shouldn't take any longer than other stuff I've receive from China.

Wrong. 2 months after the order, it finally arrives. Address label is on Philippines Post label, to me. Over that is pasted a near identical address label to me that indicates a China Customs declaration. Maybe a drop-ship, or the Shanghai guy orders from Phillippines after he has accumulated enough orders for a bulk purchase? WTF? 2 months from Shanghai means he didn't have in stock the items he listed.

That tracking number is meaningless. USPS shows such a # but only that 'label prepared'. # unknown at any other tracking site I can find. It is too long for China Post. I think this Ebay seller uses that USPS gimic to give the appearance an order is moving when it isn't.

The last straw was the items arrived after the 2-month (?) window to give feedback. So none of his visible feedback reflects his slow shipping.

One general lesson learned, aside from 'avoid this seller': Economy Shipping isn't the same thing as China Post, which is a government owned service intended to promote China's export capability, and relatively efficient. Shipping Carrier: FLYT. I can't find them but saw a couple of bad reviews that they are the slowest shipper that exits. Lesson: Avoid any Economy Shipping. In contrast, Express Shipping from China is fine.

Oh the 'vernier calipers'? I didn't expect much but these are just kids toys. The long marks every quarter inch are identical size so at a glance you can't recognize the unlabelled first inch mark. I thought these would be a short version of the usual 6 inch vernier caliper but instead they are miniatures of it. The metric markings are decent so these may be useful as intended, to leave with my socket and wrench sets to quickly judge a bolt head. For inch-designated wrenches, probably no better than just 'grab a few wrenches and try them all'.

Bah.

I got burned on Amazon the same way with a filter set for my Quad. Should have read the fine print and bought elsewhere. Pure Chinesium only mine never arrived. At least Amazon refunded my money. Lesson learned, sometimes cheaper isn't better.

My motto now is, if the price is too good to be true it probably isn't true.

 

[5030]

Never understood the hate on phillips screws. 40-odd years ago I had a friend who'd rant about how much he hated them for the reasons you mentioned. Dunno...I've never had many problems with them. Most of times I've stripped the heads have been sloppiness on my part with not having the bit square in the slot...can't blame the screw for operator error!
Yeah, torx are better, but either one is OK with me (and phillips are way easier to find). Don't have much experience with square.

Now slot-head screws, ugh.

Slotted heads are fine if you use the correct width screwdriver. I work on firearms a lot and most action screws are slotted. I have a set of slotted bits I use but I make sure the bit is the correct width (and length) for the screw. I prefer Torx over everything else but alas, action screws aren't.

 

[Alan W.]

Never understood the hate on phillips screws. 40-odd years ago I had a friend who'd rant about how much he hated them for the reasons you mentioned. Dunno...I've never had many problems with them. Most of times I've stripped the heads have been sloppiness on my part with not having the bit square in the slot...can't blame the screw for operator error!
Yeah, torx are better, but either one is OK with me (and phillips are way easier to find). Don't have much experience with square.

Now slot-head screws, ugh.

I agree with Gary. The phillips head design was and still is a scourge on mankind.
John P Thompson was the start of this madness.
Long live torx