Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[newbury]

Whatç—´ your thoughts on the rotary hammers? FYI I bought one several years back and it "never" worked right! Would not do any hammer action, just turned out to be nothing more than a drill. Serious disappointment for me. YMMV Greg

Look back a few posts, there were about a dozen responses when farmer asked that same question in post 10944.

 

[Gregster613]

Yes Oaktree, I know how to set the switches in the proper position. The hammer portion just never worked. Ultrarunner, I believe that was the style I had - 3 different positions and the hammer section was worthless. I was trying to set some bolts into cement and it just wouldn't work. I still have the drill and as just a drill it's fine but don't try to hammer with it. I used a different method to work around what I had bought this hammer/rotary drill for in the first place. An unwanted but not unexpected result of getting a harbor freight tool and expecting useful results. Doesen't always happen but this was once when it did!

 

[ultrarunner]

My small hammer drill did not have the chipping feature...

I bought a Bosch unit which does and have used it to drill through 24" of concrete foundation for seismic work...

Never had used one until I was working in Austria where concrete construction is the norm...

 

[Diggin It]

What痴 your thoughts on the rotary hammers? FYI I bought one several years back and it "never" worked right! Would not do any hammer action, just turned out to be nothing more than a drill. Serious disappointment for me. YMMV Greg

I'm not completely sure on the difference between a hammer drill and a rotary hammer, duty cycle perhaps?
I've found a hammer drill pretty much indispensable if you're trying to drill into concrete.

Most hammer drills I've used you can turn the "hammer" part off and just use it as a regular drill...maybe that was your problem?

I have a CE red one with just the opposite problem. It's stuck in Hammer and I can't get ir out. No longer useful as a regular drill.

 

[Diggin It]

The going price, full retail, on 5000 lumen, 4000k or 5000k, LED shop lights is $19 from when I've seen lately. Menards and Rural King both have them in stock and run sales or rebates getting the price down to $17 range. RK has them with blue tooth speakers built in for that price too.

I picked one up from RK for something like $15 or so. Seems OK so far, but it's over a workbench I don't use much. May try another one over a different bench later. I'm not sold on using them for area lighting in a large shop/garage/shed.

 

[California]

HF's new 4 Ft. LED Hanging Shop Light, $20 with coupon from 'HF Coupon Database' (online).

I compared these to Home Depot and Tractor Supply versions. (I don't have Walmart, Costco, RK available). HF's cost several dollars less, and the 5000 Lumens is brighter than the comparables.

I bought four. All work fine and they are bright!

1.1 amps was a typo in HF's description. Sticker on each light says 0.5 amps.

I like them!

 

[California]

HF's 588 Lumen LED Tactical Flashlight. I bought one today, after none of the flashlights at hand was sufficient to chase off a racoon that was making a mess of the bird feeder last night.

$10 with coupon from 'HF Coupon Database'. This thing is bright! Set wide-angle it lit up my back yard nicely. Focused to a point, it would be blinding to someone at considerable distance. The illumination reminded me of a 4 D-cell Maglite. LED's are amazing.

And it's small, pocketable.

I think these are generic. There are many on Ebay with a variety of trademarks for much cheaper, if a month from China isn't a problem. I think I'll order a couple of those for my cars.

Recommended.

 

[Alan W.]

HF's 588 Lumen LED Tactical Flashlight. I bought one today, after none of the flashlights at hand was sufficient to chase off a racoon that was making a mess of the bird feeder last night.

$10 with coupon from 'HF Coupon Database'. This thing is bright! Set wide-angle it lit up my back yard nicely. Focused to a point, it would be blinding to someone at considerable distance. The illumination reminded me of a 4 D-cell Maglite. LED's are amazing.

And it's small, pocketable.

I think these are generic. There are many on Ebay with a variety of trademarks for much cheaper, if a month from China isn't a problem. I think I'll order a couple of those for my cars.

Recommended.

Ive got those flashlights scattered throughout the house and in the vehicles. Excellent bang for the buck. I like the led headlamp it also has good light output. I find myself grabbing one of these two instead of my mag lights.

 

[John_Mc]

I'm not completely sure on the difference between a hammer drill and a rotary hammer, duty cycle perhaps?

They have different impact mechanisms, the rotary hammer has something more like a true hammer or piston action internally, giving it a lot stronger impact action. You can drill larger holes faster.

A Hammer Drill mechanism is less powerful. Think of two poker chips nesting against each other. The ridges sort of lock them together. It you twist them against each other, you get a "click-click-click" as the ridges unseat and then re-seat. The clutch in a Hammer drill is basically a heavier duty version of that. You do get some impact action, but it's not as strong as what you get with the piston action of a Rotary Hammer.

There is another difference between Rotary Hammers and Hammer Drills: Because of the design, you can't get hammering action out of a Hammer Drill unless you are also spinning the bit. Your choice are "Drill only" or "drill with hammering" (and the hammering is not all that strong). Since a Rotary Hammer does not rely on rotation to get the impact action, they generally offer 3 modes: "Drill only", "drill with hammering", and "hammer only" (No twisting action going on with the latter.)

 

[JNA]

I did it . Iwent to HF bought 2 sets of torx 1/2"drive sockets. One is impact one is not.My idler pully bearing wore out and I broke my dads cheap 47mm. fixxento check it out.