Official Harbor Freight win or lose thread

[TheAutumnWind]

I'm looking @ the older earthquake 3/8's or 1/2" impact. This would be my first pneumatic impact wrench, and I'm powering it with a small porter cable compressor. Kind of leaning towards the 3/8's now.

 

[mals]

This weekend's HF 20% off and Freebie Coupons

 

[eohat]

Tittsburg 1/2 in. Drive 18 in. Ratcheting Breaker Bar Item #67957 - WIN

Mine’s the older design but worth its weight in gold.

 

[Erik G]

I love this thread

The air pump in my initial post has problems. The cigarette jack gets hot. I cut and spliced big clamps so I could go straight to the battery

To be honest, they do sell this thing, same compressor but alligators instead of the cigarette jack. It's a lot extra. Just buy this one and cut the wires and add the alligators. Save $20

 

[JKmotorsports]

Most of my tool collection is Snap-on and Craftsman since I use and abuse my tools on a daily basis, but HF does have a few things that I just can't see spending tons of money on from Snap-On, or tools that I just won't use thst often and wear out. But here's what I do have:

Creeper (item 61916), low profile 300lb capacity - WIN, mostly due to the $19.99 price point and the fact that its a decent creeper for the price.

Welding helmet (63122), auto-darkening - WIN. Works like it should and fairly cheap compared to other brands.

Digital Caliper (47257) - WIN. Can't beat the on sale price for $9.99. And it's accurate.

Step bits (60379) 3-pc set, - LOSE. I lost one of my unibits and needed one right away to finish a job I was working on. I ran over to HF to grab one real quick as a temporary replacement. What a POS. Tip broke on one of them and all 3 bits had a hard time starting on their own. I had to drill a pilot hole so the unibit could start drilling away.

6-pc screwdriver set (62570), WIN, because it was free with any purchase.

 

[eohat]

More Harbor Freight goodness.

Haul-Master 30 In. x 18 In. 1000 lb. Capacity Polypropylene Dolly item#61167 - WIN

I needed a cheap dolly to store a 4L80E transmission on and $18.99 sounded about right. I placed a few 2x4 boards under an old drip pan and presto. It’s been on there for a few months now and hasn’t developed any flat spots on the wheels. I’m not sure that I would want to put 1000 lbs. on there but it works well for this.

 

[Kpwweb]

Daytona floor jack -- the yellow 3 ton one = WIN.

Nice floor jack I bought when my Craftsman started to act up. Probably the best floor jack I have ever owned.


Polyurethane jack stand pads = WIN.

They only peel half the undercoating off the frame when using jack stands instead of all of it!

 

[mals]

Daytona floor jack -- the yellow 3 ton one = WIN.

This week the Daytona 3-Ton HF Snap-on clone is on sale for $179 with the linked coupon.

I might finally pull the trigger an buy one. I went with the intent of buying one a few months ago with a 25% off coupon, but the cashier pointed out in the fine print that jacks (and basically any big ticket items) were excluded from the coupon.

 

[Smrtss1]

HF electric impact started smoking and actually started on fire in my hands while I was taking the hub nut off my TBSS a few years ago, impact gun still works just as good as the day I took it out of the box and I never even inspected what damage was done to the gun.

HF 2.5 ton aluminum floor jack still going strong after years of use.

Pittsburgh jackstands held up my Silverado for 2 days without a wimper.

Had a Chicago Electric dual action polisher for about 3 weeks while waiting for my new FLEX buffer to show up. Chicago Electric buffer got extremely hot to the point of not being able to hold it while doing paint correction on a car then it would randomly stop working until I unplugged it for a few minutes. At week 3 I just finished a hood and fender on a car, set the buffer on the floor and it started smoking while off, spit out a few sparks and died.

Just about any chrome socket I've bought from them has cracked or broken within a day, I've had their impact sockets shatter and their socket wrenches are hit or miss. They either work great for years or you can't switch the selector after 2 uses.

 

[W8TVI]

Heavy Duty Variable Speed Rotary Tool Kit 31 Pc item #68696/#60713

I've used it for several jobs on both my truck and my dads truck for trimming plastic, among other things.
So far, it hasn't given me any trouble. But for the price, if it fails, I could just get another.

 

[GMCDAC]

Good thread! I don't know where to start on HF tools, as half of all my stuff probably came from them. I've got a few of the tools mentioned previously like the stud gun (great tool) floor jacks etc. The only thing so far I'm not real big on are the metal recip saw blades and drill bits.

I had one tire pressure gauge I tossed out that wasn't accurate, I think it was six bucks. One other fail but a GOOD fail was a 90* pneumatic die grinder ($9.99). I bought the grinder to cut factory tack welds on all the body mount bolts on my 1970 GMC Jimmy. I used a good cutting burr from a local welding shop for the bit. The grinder cut every weld I needed then when I wrenched the bit out of it the head just fell off of it! The threads where the head screws onto the main body stripped out. I did not feel bad at all about throwing that 10 buck tool away as it completed the job I bought it for!

About 2 years ago I even re-powered my 1975 Massey-Ferguson garden tractor with a HF Predator 13 HP Honda clone engine. It has been pushing snow, mowing grass and pulling the garden trailer just fine on a lot less gas (and oil) than the 12 HP Tecumseh I removed. It wasn't a real easy swap but was well worth the effort.

DAC

 

[iamdub]

Good thread! I don't know where to start on HF tools, as half of all my stuff probably came from them. I've got a few of the tools mentioned previously like the stud gun (great tool) floor jacks etc. The only thing so far I'm not real big on are the metal recip saw blades and drill bits.

I had one tire pressure gauge I tossed out that wasn't accurate, I think it was six bucks. One other fail but a GOOD fail was a 90* pneumatic die grinder ($9.99). I bought the grinder to cut factory tack welds on all the body mount bolts on my 1970 GMC Jimmy. I used a good cutting burr from a local welding shop for the bit. The grinder cut every weld I needed then when I wrenched the bit out of it the head just fell off of it! The threads where the head screws onto the main body stripped out. I did not feel bad at all about throwing that 10 buck tool away as it completed the job I bought it for!

About 2 years ago I even re-powered my 1975 Massey-Ferguson garden tractor with a HF Predator 13 HP Honda clone engine. It has been pushing snow, mowing grass and pulling the garden trailer just fine on a lot less gas (and oil) than the 12 HP Tecumseh I removed. It wasn't a real easy swap but was well worth the effort.

DAC

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That tractor is cool! I like what you did with the air filter. I've bought a handful of Honda clones from HF and they've all been great.

 

[GMCDAC]

That tractor is cool! I like what you did with the air filter. I've bought a handful of Honda clones from HF and they've all been great.

Thanks Chris, glad you like the tractor! The air filter is the stock element for this tractor's original engine, an HH120 Tecumseh. I have a bunch of new ones so I decided to try to use them on the new engine. That little chunk of sponge on the Predator engine wasn't a very impressive air filter for rough service.

They really seem like good engines.

DAC

 

[crazycrew]

I'm waiting for someone to buy and review the new 3/8 cordless ratchet

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

 

[PNWMuseumman]

This has been one of the best brithday presents I've ever gotten!

WIN for sure.
1250 lb. Capacity Low Profile Motorcycle Dolly
Item#95896

 

[iamdub]

10" pneumatic wheel/tire/hub for $4. Grabbed a pair a while back for my generator and another pair today for my cracker box welder so I don't have to use a dolly to move it around.

https://www.harborfreight.com/mater...0-in-pneumatic-tire-with-white-hub-62388.html

 

[PG01]

This has been one of the best brithday presents I've evr gotten!

WIN for sure.
1250 lb. Capacity Low Profile Motorcycle Dolly
Item#95896

Yes... i need this x3

 

[dantheman]

im not gunna front about it, almost all of my tools are HF. I had a mix of a few different brands before but i have never broken a HF socket, i have never broken a HF ratchet wrench. their cutting implements are crap (drill bits, cut off wheels etc) but the tools they go on are great. jacks, jack stands, tool boxes, impact, compressor, sockets, wrenches, air hoses, everything.

ive built a lot of stuff in my garage using these tools successfully. the best part is even if i do break something, it doesnt cost me an arm and a leg to replace.

the stuff i have that ISNT HF is a shorter list.

 

[Nash]

I have used a lot of the harbor freight tools but one of the best I have is the 1250 lb Vehicle Positioning Dolly Item # 62234. They are normally $89 ea. but have them on sale for $64.99 ea. in the sale catalog they mail out until 9/30/17. I use them to easily move all my cars and trucks with no help. WIN

I have the old style also that is steel with the steel wheels and are about useless trying to move something by yourself. I finally bought a better set of wheels (non steel) and it helps,but you have to jack vehicle up to set it on the dollies .

 

[cardude2000]

Predator 212 engines are the bomb. Replaced a tecumsah in my sons go kart for, literally, $90. Thing starts on the first pull. Even in the spring after sitting outside all winter.


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