Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[California]

Wow. Send in a product review including that photo. See if HF will add it.

 

[crazyal]

Buying any HF tool to use on a daily basis is always a risk.

 

[man00]

Since the coupons don't seem to be around anymore HF is just another store to me. At least around here their parking looks like many agree with me.

 

[daugen]

HF's Doyle brand of channellock pliers did exceptionally well in this test:

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has tried them.

 

[Diggin It]

that 3/4" Earthquake was just over 3 months old.

That needs to go back to the store. I'd think corporate would want to see it.

 

[Travelover]

Since the coupons don't seem to be around anymore HF is just another store to me. At least around here their parking looks like many agree with me.

Coupons are back. Coupons

 

[diesel85]

Buying any HF tool to use on a daily basis is always a risk.

It depends on what it is. The Pittsburg sockets and wrenches along with their US General tool chests are good. There are a lot of younger Pittsburgh fan guys/gals in my area in area making a decent living off their HF tools.

If I was working full time at a shop and they told me I had to BYOT, I wouldn't blink an eye to head for HF. Not to mention HF doesn't care what happened to their lifetime Pittsburg line of tools. I've seen some pretty rank stuff get swapped.

Worst I ever saw was someone used their 1" long-handle combo wrench with a 6 foot cheater pipe and it bent like a S. Had to been at least 1500+ ft lbs on that sucker. They said it took them several attempts before it ended up like that.

 

[daugen]

Coupons are back. Coupons

thanks
I had to chuckle at one of them, a power strip that's a blatant copy of the much more expensive Tripplite surge suppressor strip I use in my woodshop.
https://go.harborfreight.com/coupons/2021/10/178303-62437/ just a power strip but tell me it doesn't look like:

Amazon.com

 

[Diggin It]

Coupons never really fully went away. There have been item specific coupons all along, but far less than before. The 'free item' and generic 20-25% ones have been gone for quite a while.

I keep finding reasons NOT to go there. The place that supplies tractor and pets has a no name tool section for things like wrenches and clamps. The king of rural stuff has a mix of name and no name stuff. I just picked up a few individual 10MM sockets for about $2 each and HF doesn't even carry them any more.

I'm redoing a room and needed a dolly or two. Their small one is too small and their big one is almost too big. I have a big one but would need a second one, but the price has gone up and there are no coupons without being in the club. I decided I could add a chunk of 2 x 4 on top of the small ones I have to do what I need.

One thing I really do like and will buy another pair of sometime in the future is the Pittsburg dual ratchets.

1/4 in. , 3/8 in. , 1/2 in. Dual Drive Ratchet Set, 2 Pc.

 

[Oaktree]

One thing I really do like and will buy another pair of sometime in the future is the Pittsburg dual ratchets.

1/4 in. , 3/8 in. , 1/2 in. Dual Drive Ratchet Set, 2 Pc.

Well that's kind of cool, never noticed those before. I can see how they might be handy.

 

[Diggin It]

I need to surface sand a floor in a small room. It's only 9' x 13' and the floor is in fair shape with a few spots and stains, but it won't need an aggressive sand down. I don't have a rental yard close enough by to go for a floor sander. I have a very, very old belt sander (either Skil or B&D, labels are long gone) that keeps throwing belts. The C/E version is discontinued and they only have the Warrior and Bauer. Is the Bauer worth the extra $15?

8 Amp 3 in. x 21 in. Variable Speed Belt Sander

8 Amp 3 in. x 21 in. Variable Speed Belt Sander

www.harborfreight.com

$54.99

7 Amp 3 in. x 21 in. Variable Speed Belt Sander

Amp x Belt Sander

www.harborfreight.com

$39.99

Edit .....

Now I see a coupon for the Bauer at $49.99 and one for the Warrior at $29.99 which makes it a $20 difference.

 

[RoostersGarage]

I've had great luck with this grinder. The thought of spending $100+ on a grinder to suck in cutting wheel, flap disk, and grinding wheel debris just doesn't sit well with me and when I went through 2 expensive grinders within a month, I figured I'd give this a shot. It's been probably 4 years now and it's still going strong. I'm not exactly easy with my grinders, so it's probably been close to overheating several times but it doesn't seem to hurt it.

7 Amp 4-1/2 in. Slide Switch Angle Grinder

Amazing deals on this 7Amp 4-1/2In Angle Grinder at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

 

[Travelover]

I need to surface sand a floor in a small room. It's only 9' x 13' and the floor is in fair shape with a few spots and stains, but it won't need an aggressive sand down. I don't have a rental yard close enough by to go for a floor sander. I have a very, very old belt sander (either Skil or B&D, labels are long gone) that keeps throwing belts. The C/E version is discontinued and they only have the Warrior and Bauer. Is the Bauer worth the extra $15?

8 Amp 3 in. x 21 in. Variable Speed Belt Sander

8 Amp 3 in. x 21 in. Variable Speed Belt Sander

www.harborfreight.com

$54.99

7 Amp 3 in. x 21 in. Variable Speed Belt Sander

Amp x Belt Sander

www.harborfreight.com

$39.99

Edit .....

Now I see a coupon for the Bauer at $49.99 and one for the Warrior at $29.99 which makes it a $20 difference.

I'd go for the better, Bauer. I burned up a belt sander doing a floor like that and in my experience, the Warrior brand is just barely OK.

 

[rangerfredbob]

I might take back anything good I had said about the 1/2" drive Bauer 20V impact, For whatever reason I trusted it when I put the lugnuts on my F350 and almost lost a rear tire with the camper in the truck and towing about 7000lb... so like 18k pounds combined... could have went bad but stopped with 3 lug studs left on the rear drivers side tire... luckily I was paying attention and the auto parts store was open, I made it back home fine with only an hour and a half stopped...

 

[California]

Too loose or too tight?

 

[John_Mc]

Too loose or too tight?

Rechecking tightness after a wheel has been mounted is something I've gotten into the habit of always doing: I usually do it after 50 miles or so of driving. Most of the time, things are fine, but occasionally I'll find a couple that are not to spec. Worst case was when I got in a jam and had my winter tires put on by one of those "quick-lube" type places when my regular guy was too backed up to get to it. I'm not sure if they just did not tighten some nuts properly. I know they didn't bother to clean off the rust/dirt/crud that was on the mating surfaces prior to mounting.

Too tight is an issue that far too many people ignore. It's not difficult to do damage to a fastener by overtightening, and it's not always apparent by looking at it. This can happen with an impact wrench or when tightening by hand. Once a fastener has been over-stressed, it just can't be relied on.

I'm not saying either of these problems were Rangerfredbob's issue... just a word of warning to folks to remember to double check.

I used to use the "two grunts and a fart" method of estimating the proper torque on my lug nuts. Then for a while I switched to an impact wrench. I found I had real trouble assessing just how tight I was getting things. Now I might use the impact to spin the nut on, but on its lowest setting, and I don't keep hammering - I stop knowing I'm well short of the required torque (or I'll just spin them on by hand). Then I follow up with a torque wrench. When I'm on the road, I don't have a torque wrench, but using one has given me a better feel for how far to push things when using the lug wrench.

 

[Oaktree]

Rechecking tightness after a wheel has been mounted is something I've gotten into the habit of always doing: I usually do it after 50 miles or so of driving. Most of the time, things are fine, but occasionally I'll find a couple that are not to spec.

+1 on that! I had aftermarket wheels on an F-150 I had back in the 80s/90s, and those rims were notorious for needing to be re-torqued after 50 mi. or so. Always caught it in time, but still...

I need to surface sand a floor in a small room. It's only 9' x 13' and the floor is in fair shape with a few spots and stains, but it won't need an aggressive sand down. I don't have a rental yard close enough by to go for a floor sander. I have a very, very old belt sander (either Skil or B&D, labels are long gone) that keeps throwing belts. The C/E version is discontinued and they only have the Warrior and Bauer. Is the Bauer worth the extra $15?

I'd go with the better one. $50 isn't that much, and you're likely to minimize the chance of the smoke getting out before the job's complete, as well as probably less vibration, etc. I don't envy you in your project...I tried sanding a floor once with a hand belt sander. Once. Once was enough!

 

[Midniteoyl]

I might take back anything good I had said about the 1/2" drive Bauer 20V impact, For whatever reason I trusted it when I put the lugnuts on my F350 and almost lost a rear tire with the camper in the truck and towing about 7000lb... so like 18k pounds combined... could have went bad but stopped with 3 lug studs left on the rear drivers side tire... luckily I was paying attention and the auto parts store was open, I made it back home fine with only an hour and a half stopped...

How is any of that the impact's fault? If you trusted it to properly tighten your lugs and didn't follow up with a torque wrench, then that is entirely on you.

 

[rangerfredbob]

They were too loose...

Not blaming the impact on that, but if you put a wrench on anything after installing it with that impact it's surprisingly wimpy... It "sounds" impressive but it isn't... I could have gotten a dud, I might try to tinker with it at some point...

 

[John_Mc]

They were too loose...

Not blaming the impact on that, but if you put a wrench on anything after installing it with that impact it's surprisingly wimpy... It "sounds" impressive but it isn't... I could have gotten a dud, I might try to tinker with it at some point...

You should see if they rated your particular model on the Torque Test Channel on YouTube. They do some great testing of a wide variety of brands and models.

{EDIT}
Found what I think is your model in this test of 1/2" budget cordless impact wrenches (this review was focused on mid-torque models). The Bauer finished dead last. It was physically the largest of the tools tested (as big as many high torque models). In particular, they noted that Harbor Freight is know for "making particularly proud torque claims". In this case, it made only 66% of it's claimed torque.