Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[5030]

Doing the free LED flashlight promo again. I find it amazing that they are free at HF and 7 bucks at Wally World.

 

[5030]

I have the older one that turns instead of pumping, and it has likewise been a reliable beast of a tool...

The one I have (12) ton is never on sale, ever (and I watch). I have never used a puller with that much balls. I had the front rotors frozen solid to the spindles on om Wife's Suburban and no amount of PBlaster or reasonable heat would make then let go and I didn't want to beat on them too much with a sledge for fear of screwing up the spindles and was watching a You-Tube vid about the puller so I bought one (3 years ago). Like I said, 3 pumps of the little foot long handle and the first one let go (with a bang) and the other side, the puller spit the rotor in 2 pieces and it fell off and those are big vented rotors too.

It's heavy and it really takes 2 people to get it set up and attached, but once it's attached to whatever you want to come off, it's coming off one way or another. Comes in a nice fitted case too. 24,000 pounds of straight line pull is a lot of power. Don't have a long adjustment stroke though, about 2".

If they ever came on sale (never seen them on sale), I'd buy the smaller one just to have in case.

 

[Threepoint]

A quick heads-up for anyone thinking of buying a big-ticket Central Machinery item like a vertical milling machine, mini metal lathe, stationary metal bandsaw, floor-mounted drill press, etc. HF has recently started excluding its Central Machinery brand from some of its 25% and 20% coupons. Example is the current 25% "Friends and Family" coupon. I suspect that's soon going to become a regular exclusion. However, I found this on the coupon data base site, good only for two days, Dec. 31, 2019 - Jan. 1, 2020:



I was half thinking about ordering their 9-speed vertical knee mill, but finally lay down til the feeling passed. :laughing:

 

[5030]

I have both, and the bigger one goes on sale for around $60 sometimes and is worth it. Some friends and I use them for offroading airing up the tires for the way home, takes about 20 minutes or so to air up 4 35" tires from under 10psi to around 25psi. The next size down compressor is probably almost twice that

Been looking at the metal one for a while now. Looks to be well made and a lot cheaper than a Viair. Don'ty see how the plastic ones would work. Compressed air get hot and plastic melts.

 

[Threepoint]

The one I have (12) ton is never on sale, ever (and I watch). I have never used a puller with that much balls. I had the front rotors frozen solid to the spindles on om Wife's Suburban and no amount of PBlaster or reasonable heat would make then let go and I didn't want to beat on them too much with a sledge for fear of screwing up the spindles and was watching a You-Tube vid about the puller so I bought one (3 years ago). Like I said, 3 pumps of the little foot long handle and the first one let go (with a bang) and the other side, the puller spit the rotor in 2 pieces and it fell off and those are big vented rotors too.

It's heavy and it really takes 2 people to get it set up and attached, but once it's attached to whatever you want to come off, it's coming off one way or another. Comes in a nice fitted case too. 24,000 pounds of straight line pull is a lot of power. Don't have a long adjustment stroke though, about 2".

If they ever came on sale (never seen them on sale), I'd buy the smaller one just to have in case.

5030, with one of the 25% coupons, the 5-ton 3-jaw puller is just $60, no? Or are you referring to a different puller?

 

[Diggin It]

A quick heads-up for anyone thinking of buying a big-ticket Central Machinery item like a vertical milling machine, mini metal lathe, stationary metal bandsaw, floor-mounted drill press, etc. HF has recently started excluding its Central Machinery brand from some of its 25% and 20% coupons. Example is the current 25% "Friends and Family" coupon. I suspect that's soon going to become a regular exclusion.

Posted that in the 'DO' thread.

 

[Imold]

I bought the trencher on a 20% off no exclusions coupon and saved 450.00 dollars, just finished putting it together this afternoon, picked it up yesterday in Fargo. Took me over ten years to buy one and could not pass up the deal being I have never seen it that cheap on sale.

 

[Threepoint]

I bought the trencher on a 20% off no exclusions coupon and saved 450.00 dollars, just finished putting it together this afternoon, picked it up yesterday in Fargo. Took me over ten years to buy one and could not pass up the deal being I have never seen it that cheap on sale.

Jim, well done! After ten years, you finally lit that candle! :laughing:

Looking forward to your review. :thumbsup:

 

[Threepoint]

Yesterday I had my first experience seeing the HF Earthquake impact wrench in action. I had a set of four new tires mounted on our horse trailer while I waited, still hitched up about 100 feet from the service bays. Couldn't run an air hose to it because folks would have been driving over it. The mechanic brought out a brand new Earthquake 20v 1/2" impact wrench. Said he'd just bought it to replace his Snap-On, which he'd finally wore out. The studs and lug nuts were pretty rusted up, so he used a lot of penetrating oil, waited a bit, then went to work.

Even with the penetrating oil, the lug nuts were smoking from the heat when he turned them off. The Earthquake was very impressive. He said it was less than half the cost of the Snap-On, and more powerful. He'd gotten it after watching the YouTube video comparing the two.

I also noticed that the floor jack that he used to lift the side of the trailer was a Daytona from HF.

 

[5030]

I bought the trencher on a 20% off no exclusions coupon and saved 450.00 dollars, just finished putting it together this afternoon, picked it up yesterday in Fargo. Took me over ten years to buy one and could not pass up the deal being I have never seen it that cheap on sale.

When you get accustomed to it, you going to upgrade the pump? Heck the engine will probably outlast you. I have 3 Preds, one on my industrial pressure washer that I wash down farm equipment with. That engine is always run hard as in wide open all the time. 5 years and still on the original plug. Amazing motors.