I had never been to Harbor Freight until past week ..... What a blunder! I needed a new floor jack and friends directed me there. Wow, all those cheap (in both senses of the word, mostly) tools and gadgets. I spend $185 in an eye blink. I'm happy with the floor jack, and just as happy with the corded lug nut gun. So many toys, so little time and money!

 

Be careful, some of their stuff is total junk. You have to decide what you can afford to take the risk on, and what might hurt you.

 

this is something new??

as a retired mechanic i'm a snap-on guy with snap-on boxes full of snap-on tools, but have been going to the local harbor freight store all the time since i retired. while they are not snap-on but mostly cheap (and i mean cheap $ wise) the harbor freight stuff holds up very well. i get their fliers and always buy stuff on sale. you can biuld a profesional shop at your home on the cheap!!
two examples:
i bought one of their 60 gal. 7HP cambelhousfield compressors on sale for $399 5 years ago-220 volts. i have painted several cars with it, run air tools with it about 4 or 5 days a week, it runs my sanblaster (a real air hog-also from HF), it also runs my bead blaster (also from HF). in 5 years all i have touched is the petcock on the bottom af the tank to drain the water....
i did buy a quart of oil last year to do an oil change on the air pump, maybe i will do that next year...

i bought their 4 1/2 angle grinders

on sale for $14.99. i thought "note to self, if this grinder lasts for only 30 hours it only costed 50 cents an hour. this was 4 years ago, restored 3 old cars and it has about 200 hours on it and though i have worn several grinding wheels, the grinder works like the day i bought it.
we even used the 3" X21" belt sander i bought from HF on sale for $19.99 on astrodokks car (no, it was used on the stamp pad...)
later...

 

Don't bring more than that, and you'll be amazed how much krap you can fill up the bed of the truck. I just sweep thought there every couple of weeks and grab the stuff with the pink (on sale) tags. I usually stay away from their electrical stuff but buy a lot of tools like hydraulic based, clamps, misc. Just got a 1 ton engine folding crane after sale/coupon for $103 and it's pretty decent. I have a lot of their air tools, too with no problem. I can tell you that I would definitely not have a plenishing hammer or an english wheel in my shop if it weren't for HF. Next, a pipe bender for a buk two-ninety-five so I can fab exhaust systems.

 

Yes we all love HF but.... have you ever been to Northern Supply?

Much the same but bigger selection and appears to be a better quality of Chinese junk

BTW - just had an air tool quick connector fail from HF - running 100 PSI. Cracked across the Made in China stamp on the female nut.....

 

I, too, am a Harbor Freight fan. It's not the place for people who can afford the best of everything, but it's right for me. I've got a lot of HF tools that have lasted far longer than their prices would have predicted.

 

I have a fair amount of HF orange in my garage as well as some of their small miscellaneous stuff that gets used around the house and in the yard.

I have noticed that their hose clamps are worthless and just the smallest amount of pressure usually causes them to fail.

Doug

 

I've bought and still use several air tools from HF. Also, when they run the specials. I stock up on paint brushes for .50 cents, brass brushes, etc...lots of items. Some decent hangars for hoses/ladders/drop cords for around $1.50 vs. $7.00 at Home Depot.

I believe they have an additional 15% off your entire purchase this w/e.

They also have a battery tender knockoff for around $7.00...anyone tried one ? I'm thinking of it for the riding mower.

 

Its very hard to stay away from HF when you get their flyers in the mail and especially hard for me,,,,,,,, their store is two blocks away.
Ernie

 

They seen to be only in the SE part of the country, not in Calif. for sure.

 

I just bought one of their huge toolboxes. 18 deep, 33 tall and 42" wide. $400 bux on sale. If it said snap on, mac, matco, What would it be? $1500-2000??

 

They also have a battery tender knockoff for around $7.00...anyone tried one ? I'm thinking of it for the riding mower.[/QUOTE]

Believe it or not, I have used their trickle charger for over four years on my cars and they work just fine.The price is scarey cheap (on sale at times for $5) but todate no problems. Had one on a battery sitting on a shelf for over two years untouched. Car fired right up .

 

grey ghost, those battery tenders are regularly on sale for $4.50. they work great, my cars sit a lot (can't figure how to drive more that one at a time). i have one for every battery.
i used to have to buy a new battery for my harley and lawn tractor every spring, with those HF battery tenders i now have 3 years on the harley battery and 2 years on the lawn tractor battery, both start great.

 

Thanks. I was worried about them at that price. Looks like I will be adding a few on my next shopping trip too.

 

I have one of them on my riding mower. I keep it hooked up when I'm not using it. The battery is 6 years old and it still starts right up every time so it must be working.

Jim

 

The one in Bakersfield has been there for over 25 years. I used to go there when visiting my sister before HF came to the Pacific Northwest at least 15 years ago.

Jim

Go to their web site. There are 38 stores in Ca.

 

I have two HF battery tenders also. I guess at $5 I paid too much. They've been on our '64 three years and our '01 for two years. No problems at all.

Greg

 

Yeah HF isn't SNAPON for sure but I needed some of the 2" and larger impact sockets.. They have lasted for four years under my abuse.. I used them almost everyday for about 2 years with no problems.. It has made me rethink the $800 I spent on Crapsman impact sockets... I could have gotten the same sockets from HF for about 200 bucks.. The air tools have been a disappointment to me though. I bought a few air grinders and they don't last 20 hours..

 

Don't buy their Indian sandpaper. I think it's made out of old curry powder.

 

Yeah, I'm a regular at HF....my favorite store.

They have two web sits http://www.harborfreight.com/ and
http://www.harborfreightusa.com/ It pays to compare what's on sale because the sites have different prices. My local store will match the internet price so it it's worth doing the homework.