Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[DrBill]

You gotta pick your battles with horror freight.. I bought the biggest tile saw they have, on sale.. it has been as good a saw as I've ever owned.. Then, I bought a grease gun from them and the only place it put grease was on me.

 

[dragoneggs]

You gotta pick your battles with horror freight.. I bought the biggest tile saw they have, on sale.. it has been as good a saw as I've ever owned.. Then, I bought a grease gun from them and the only place it put grease was on me.

Been very happy with my wet tile saw from HF as well. For the occasional use, it does great. I bought it for one job as almost a throw away... and it has now served me very well for several indoor tile and outdoor paver jobs. If it craps out tomorrow I will still be happy with it, other than having the hassle of disposing it. I bought the roller stand once I realized it was going to last more than one job.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

You gotta pick your battles with horror freight..

I picked the wrong one with the table saw and the DADO blade set. I am taking both back when current project is done. Table saw is really cheap and it sure is. Will not hold any setting for more than a couple cuts, the arbor elevation setting creeps down at any setting, as no way to lock it, the saw vibrates a lot, and shaft is too short to take a full dado pack even though it has a table insert for it. The dado set; none of the blades in the pack are the same diameter including the two outer ones and it is hopelessly out of balance which makes the cheap saw dance all over. Really adds a lot of time to a project playing with the saw. Works great for quick ripping of dimension stock if you reset the width and angle often. Lowes has a Porter Cable on sale for $149. Might give that a whirl.

Ron

 

[California]

Don't replace the disappointing HF table saw with the Skil equivalent from Lowes. That's the same identical saw.

Maybe the ones that test out as balanced get labelled 'Skil'. Mine works ok.

My latest project was to rip the material for frames, for artist's canvas. There is a slight bevel on the face so that the canvas touches only along the outer edge.

The project previous to that was a couple of days ripping old hard lumber into orchard props. I dulled a blade hitting junk in the old lumber but the saw had adequate power and all that old dry lumber didn't seem to stress it.

Note the identical appearance to the HF saw. And the specs and dimensions match. Lowes' Skil comes with the base which made it cheaper overall than a HF saw and its base.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

TSC is putting some occasional gems in the "junk" bins at the front of the store. I just picked up a nice looking 3/4 drive swivel breaker bar for $10. I keep their big spud wrench ratchet in my tractor toolbox and I've gotten the best deals on F-style welding clamps there too.

 

[aczlan]

TSC is putting some occasional gems in the "junk" bins at the front of the store. I just picked up a nice looking 3/4 drive swivel breaker bar for $10. I keep their big spud wrench ratchet in my tractor toolbox and I've gotten the best deals on F-style welding clamps there too.

The most useful thing I have gotten in that section was a spud wrench (like: Barn Star 17 in. Adjustable Spud Wrench with Hammerhead at Tractor Supply Co. but the one I got didn't have the hammer). Its a great size for tractor stuff and the handle is great for lining things up.

Aaron Z

 

[PhysAssist]

You gotta pick your battles with horror freight.. I bought the biggest tile saw they have, on sale.. it has been as good a saw as I've ever owned.. Then, I bought a grease gun from them and the only place it put grease was on me.

To my cohorts, it's either Horror Fright- or more often- Hazard Fraught

 

[PhysAssist]

The most useful thing I have gotten in that section was a spud wrench (like: Barn Star 17 in. Adjustable Spud Wrench with Hammerhead at Tractor Supply Co. but the one I got didn't have the hammer). Its a great size for tractor stuff and the handle is great for lining things up.

Aaron Z

I shop those bins and the clearance areas preferentially there, because they often have deeply discounted tools which are hard to find anywhere else for anything close to the price.

Although most of them aren't even a bad price at retail, knowing that they are eventually going to get the deep discount makes paying retail hard to swallow- unless the tool in hand is scarce in the store otherwise [either the last one, or one of few].

That said, when those "vise-grip" knock-off welding clamps with the adjustable jaw were a hot topic here, I ordered 2 to be sent to my local store for pick-up, and they lost one- so the Asst Manager found another one in a store somewhere, and got it shipped here for for me- and then gave me the clearance price retroactively when they realized that the online price was still showing the clamps at the original retail price- even though I had already paid that online for them.

 

[Garandman]

To my cohorts, it's either Horror Fright- or more often- Hazard Fraught

Some forum I went to had a thread of Harbor Freight Haiku.

Another had slogans: Harbor Freight: smells like China.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Don't replace the disappointing HF table saw with the Skil equivalent from Lowes. That's the same identical saw.

Maybe the ones that test out as balanced get labelled 'Skil'. Mine works ok.

My latest project was to rip the material for frames, for artist's canvas. There is a slight bevel on the face so that the canvas touches only along the outer edge.



The project previous to that was a couple of days ripping old hard lumber into orchard props. I dulled a blade hitting junk in the old lumber but the saw had adequate power and all that old dry lumber didn't seem to stress it.

Note the identical appearance to the HF saw. And the specs and dimensions match. Lowes' Skil comes with the base which made it cheaper overall than a HF saw and its base.

The one I saw at Lowes was a Porter Cable, they did not have one on display just cartons stacked in the aisle. I know a lot of these are the same just different labels. Even your push stick is identical.

Thanks for the hint, If I bite I will demand they open a box.

Ron