Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[5030]

Off to HF tomorrow for my monthly tool infusion.... I see the Bauer 1/4" hex impact is on sale at the usual 20% off. I may bring one home...


....and pick up yet another free LED flashlight. I have enough to give them as Christmas presents. Good light too.

 

[5030]

Yesterday I got the Lynx pole saw out to do a little trimming and when I went to put it back in the tractor bucket I saw that the extension pole was bent right where it attaches to the saw.This is an engineered piece of tubing and probably the strongest part of the saw.I've only used this saw 5 or 6 times and always on limbs up to about 4" and never have dropped or banged it against anything that I know of but something smacked it pretty good.I started to just cut the end off and re- attach the saw end to good material but thought better of it and called H.F. customer service.After the usual long wait I finally got a lady to talk to and explained what had happened and asked if I could buy a replacement extension pole.She checked and said that the only serviceable parts were the battery and blade. She then asked when I had bought the saw and I told her it was 8/10/19 so she said it was under warranty for 90 days so I could take it back to the store for replacement.I took it in this morning fully expecting to be told it was abuse and not covered but ,to my surprise, the clerk called someone in the back to bring up a replacement.While waiting I asked her if the new saw would have a 90 day warranty so she checked the computer and found a deal where I not only got the 90 day but could buy the extended warranty for $6.00,giving me 15 months warranty.I jumped all over that and as we were finishing up I remembered that I had forgotten to bring in the battery and charger. She said not to worry about it just keep it for a spare.

That is what I call customer service and not the first time I have been treated great every time I've had a problem with any of their products.

Good deal. I find my store to be about the same but I deal with the same people all the time and they remember me.

My philosophy about HF and their 90 day return policy is, I run the heck out of the stuff, soon as I get it and if it don't break in 90 days, and if it gonna break, I break it in the time period and return it and they will replace it. if it does ok for 3 months of abuse, it will last a long time (I hope)....

 

[John_Mc]

....and pick up yet another free LED flashlight. I have enough to give them as Christmas presents. Good light too.

They are decent little lights to have around, but there are limits to how many of them I need. I wish they would bring back some of the other freebies they used to have. This little multimeters were handy, but I ended up giving most of mine to the local elementary school when I was helping out with their "maker space"... and then whenever I saw a kid who showed some real interest in the area, I'd give him/her one to keep. They aren't all that accurate (at least when measuring DC volts, which is where I've used it the most), but they can still be useful.

 

[5030]

My wife always like the free 'Thunderbolt' batteries. Not the best by a long shot but free is free and I know she'd like to see that come back as well as the free cheapo tarps. We use them to cover equipment in the barn to keep the dust off. Never tried the micro fiber towels, not something I need really.

HF today for the Bauer 20 volt 1/4" hex impact wrench, maybe the 20 volt drill driver too. My DeWalt was stinking yesterday while I was drilling some holes in a fence post. It's real close to expiring.

Maybe I should do like the vulgar Canuk did in the video and put it in a 'locked rotor' scenario and pour the juice to it. I bet it would smoke in less than 5 seconds. Pretty close to the BBQ right now.

 

[aczlan]

I've wondered if a better substitute to grind apples would be to buy a brand new garbage disposal, sterilize it with bleach, then core the apples and run them through that. Anybody ever try this?

(My attempt to hull walnuts in HF's junior cement mixer was a complete waste of time).

Why core them? They don't core apples at a commercial cider plant.

Aaron Z

 

[Threepoint]

I thought switching speed was how soon it returns to transparent. (And that's adjustable). Do you mean how quick it goes dark?

Good point. I'm only a DIY welder, but I know there are two very different types of "switching speeds" for auto-dark helmets: clear-to-dark state, and return-to-clear state!

On HF's website, they use "switching speed" in the first sense, clear-to-dark state. Their cheapest auto-dark helmet is 1/20,000 of a second, their Vulcan is 1/25,000. No way that we could consciously detect the difference!

That switching speed compares favorable with higher-end name brand helmets I've checked in a quick online search. I don't think the clear-to-dark state is adjustable on any of them, but I could be wrong.

The "return to clear" switching can be adjusted on some auto-dark helmets. I recently had to slow my Hobart down on a project because the "after glow" was actually giving me a mini-flash each time I stopped the arc.

 

[NTG]

HF got a bit of my money this week. 3 20 foot chains on sale and a garden cart with the 20% off coupon. Hoping they will all get the job done.

I've snatched a lot of stumps out with those HF $20 chains and haven't broken one yet. I've got 4 or 5 of them.

 

[PJSprog]

I've snatched a lot of stumps out with those HF $20 chains and haven't broken one yet. I've got 4 or 5 of them.

Same here. Used one over the weekend to pull railroad ties out of a pile and secure them to the bucket for sorting. They seem like well-made chains.

 

[California]

Why core them? They don't core apples at a commercial cider plant.

Aaron Z

They core the apples at the plant where my apples get trucked down to. It's the last apple processing plant in the region.

They have a mix of ancient mechanized equipment, and now modern, after the plant was bought by a big international corporation. Output is all cooked product - primarily applesauce and pasteurized apple juice. I see they are now adding pouch packaging, I suppose for kids juice boxes.

Processing plant description.

When I toured the plant 20 years ago they were still using old core/peeling machines similar to this but much faster with long lines of ladies turning apples upright and setting them on spikes for the machine to peel/core/quarter. It looked hazardous.

Modern equipment. The machinery I saw was nearly this fast. The factor limiting speed was how fast the ladies could turn the apples upright and feed them in.

 

[Travelover]

My wife always like the free 'Thunderbolt' batteries. Not the best by a long shot but free is free and I know she'd like to see that come back as well as the free cheapo tarps. We use them to cover equipment in the barn to keep the dust off. Never tried the micro fiber towels, not something I need really...........

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