Northern Tool or Harbor Freight

[airbiscuit]

Back in the day, Northern Tool came onto the scene with a few stores, a killer catalog, and lots of good stuff for good prices. Then Harbor Freight started to appear - first on the web, then more and more stores and lots of catalogs. So, who do you buy from more, and why?

 

[dusty3030]

I probably buy more from Northern Tool. The local Harbor Freight and Northern Tool are right down the street from one another.
Prices believe it or not on like for like items NT are often cheaper or very close for what I have purchased. I have found the NT store brand stuff to be of good quality as well.

 

[Diggin It]

I don't have an NT store within 80 miles and the one isn't very easy to get to. I've been there once and it was somewhat 'better' than my HF store. That said, NT has a LOT of stuff that isn't in stores and they seem to focus more on industrial products than HF does.

Their website lists 3 point implements for example and then there are the various car lifts and auto shop tools. They also stock parts for their products. That's where I got blades for one of the 6' finish mowers I'm working on.

 

[chim]

We have 3 HF stores all within 30 minutes or less away from home, and one store is less than 15 minutes from work. For personal things it's HF because NT is internet order only in our area. At work we go through a lot of misc. stuff like rubber gloves, tyraps, etc. We sometimes stock up on their cheap spray guns when they're on sale and toss them when we're done shooting two-part coatings rather than clean them. I just picked up a couple carbide tipped circular saw blades last Friday to try out.

 

[radioman]

there is no northern tools around here - i seen outside of store once while driving by on a trip - no time to stop and look. i did get northern tool catalog long time ago but stopped getting them. Right now as a handyman - i have slowly stopped going to harbor freight and started buying home depot tools. for the stuff i do i need more specailized tools that harbor freight dont have and i already have alot of harbor freight stuff so i am probably saturated with hf non electrical tools. i have few power tools left from harbor freight and if it dies i get home depot stuff. for the reliability,ruggedness home depot and Milwaukee just beats harbor freight like night and day. Now home depot is carrying more and more milwaukee hand tools i started to switch over to them, but worry about leaving it behind at customers house or having it stolen. i just cant win in this dept.

 

[Roadworthy]

My cheap hand tools come from Harbor Freight. Anything electrical does NOT come from Harbor Freight - they don't sell repair parts. I don't shop Northern Tool because they're pretty distant. Harbor Freight is local. I do shop Lowe's, Home Depot, or Tacoma Screw for more serious tools.

 

[cdaigle430]

I skip them all and go Alibaba.com its where all Northern Tool and HF stuff comes from anyway.

 

[two_bit_score]

Neither are ideal. But between the two I prefer Northern Tool.

 

[RalphVa]

Last thing I bought was an oil extractor pump from Northern. Ruined the seals when I pumped the hot oil from the Mz3. Wouldn't work then on the Mx5. Northern refunded my money and said to keep the pump. I use it occasionally to pump diesel from a 5 gallon container rather than heft it onto the hood of the tractor. Lots of air pumped with the diesel. Hefted the container last time I did a refill. May just discard the pump.

They opened a new Harbor Freight here in Charlottesville. Have had one over the mountain in Waynesboro for about 5 years. Haven't been to the one here yet. They keep sending out "grand opening" stuff.

Ralph

 

[rangerfredbob]

I find it silly that all the Northern Tool stores are in the south... that said, we don't have any Northern Tool stores around here, I've been to some as well as Tractor Supply (again, none around here) and wish they were around here. Due to not having options I got to HFT...