Harbor Freight Recommendation

mdengraver

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Harbor Freight Recommendation

Highly recommend a visit to a Harbor Freight store near you, great tools at great prices, especially when you throw in the additional weekly customer coupons.
 

monk

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fwiw, their return policy is somewhat better than most of what they sell. true, there are some good buys, but this is no place for a tool noob to go shopping. i feel safe to say, most earning a living using tools don't linger there too much jmho
 

Leland Davis

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monk nailed it if you need tools for around the house for occasional use they are ok. The phrase you get what you pay for definitely applies.
 

mitch

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they're not called "Harbor Disposable Tools" for nothing. having said that, there is one near my house and i buy the occasional simple, basic items. for example, i'm pretty pleased with a pair of work gloves i picked up a few months ago. i can already tell they're not gonna last, but they fit well and will serve the purpose until a seam lets go.
 

JJ Roberts

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There a tool show in Damascus Maryland on March the 16 th.at the VFW Hall lots of older tools made in the U.S.indoors & outdoors and its free. J.J.If you live in the area try to get to this show.
 

Roger Bleile

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After my air compressor died, I recently purchased a 2 gal. Ultra Quiet FORTRESS air compressor from HF. It is truly ultra quiet and provides the amount of air I need for my Lindsay Palm Control. I paid less than $200. for it, so I can buy five of them for the price of one of the high end compressors. I've only had it for about two months so if it dies a premature death, I will report it here.
 

SamW

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As long as you are VERY selective in what you buy it can work out well. I bought a roll-around tool chest, 4 drawer, of heavy gauge steel. I liked it so much I later bought a second one when it was on sale for 99 bucks.
 
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Sam

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I might buy a crowbar or something but I wouldn't buy a lathe or anything like that.
Abigail bought a steel stand for her workshop and none of the parts fit and it was a royal PITA to assemble. I just don't understand how the manufacturer in China can't get it right on something as basic and simple as a tool stand.
 

thughes

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Bwahahaha! I bought a wood splitting maul from them once and it was unusable. As soon as you hit the log it just twisted and jumped out of my hands, leaving them tingling. I tried a few more swings and threw it in the truck. I sold firewood all through college and grad school, and still cut my own, so I've split a bit of wood. It's still fun to loan to the unsuspecting and watch their face.
 

dogcatcher

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I used one of their wood lathes making game calls, over the years that I had it, I probably made 7000 calls. it paid for itself a thousand times over. I also used their 3/8 angle head drill as a power sander, $20 on sale, it replaced a Milwaukee angle drill that cost about a $100 that lasted about 3 years. The first HF drill last the same 3 years, the second one is still working and about 5 years old, but doesn't get the same use and abuse. My metal lathe is 15 years old and still going strong, all of the 7x14 lathes are made in the same factory in China, you can buy it at HF or pay $200 more at more "reputable", but the major difference is the paint color.
 

DKanger

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If you get their email flyers, they seem to be introducing a lot of new, higher quality products recently. The compressor that Roger bought is one of them. I bought one of the red pancake compressors and the high limit shutoff went bad. Exchanged it for another and bought the extended warranty. After several months, it started leaking air internally. I took it back and exchanged it for one of the small hotdog compressors and so far it has worked OK. My advice is NOT to purchase any of the "red" ones.

Most of what I buy from them in smaller tools, I consider to be "one time use only" and if they last longer, so be it.

Larger items seem to be constructed a bit better. My bandsaw is 15 years old.
 
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