Harbor Freight tools?

[Scootertrash]

I give you: Hazard Fraught

Check out the 8-function multi-tool, aw hell, they're all good ones!

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[El Camexican]

Gosh dang it, your post made me sad that there is no Harbor Freight in Laredo. The thing I love most about them is that once I’ve used a tool purchased there I can usually sell it for scrap metal and get almost all my money back. Seriously though, I know one of their Chinese suppliers. He and I were talking about some of the tools he sells them and another wholesale crap peddler in Canada and the conversation went something like this as we talked about a bad chop saw experience I had with one of his machines (add your own Chinese ascent to these words as you read this)

ME: “Hey I know that saw, you make those? Mine didn’t last an hour .
HIM: “Oh! You buy dat saw for using to cut steel?! Hahahaha! Dat funny! American like big garage, put tool on wall and make paint picture so he know where to put tool, but never use. This why I sell so much, all American want this for wall, but you try to use! Hahaha! These tools made for sell, not for use! Hahahaha! So funny you try this, hahaha.”

[aldochina]

quite hilarious when you add the accent!! crackin up!

[Angore]

JMO but Harbor freight has some "decent" stuff.
I get things like : Zip-ties , heat-shrink , wire ( the things with no moving parts )
I even went so far as to try a set of their ball-end Allen sockets & they work surprisingly well .

[remsandpets]

Sorry but they carry mostly very low quality, soft metal (plastic malability). Stick with American made! IMHO!!!!

[El Camexican]

JMO but Harbor freight has some "decent" stuff.
I get things like : Zip-ties , heat-shrink , wire ( the things with no moving parts )
I even went so far as to try a set of their ball-end Allen sockets & they work surprisingly well .

Agree. There are some items I will buy, especialy if they are for one time use. But, some suff is just scrap. The post made me laugh.

[El Camexican]

Sorry but they carry mostly very low quality, soft metal (plastic malability). Stick with American made! IMHO!!!!

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but "Made in America" decals are the main export of China. I turned my camera on at a tool makers once in China and recorded the guy offering to ship the tools with any COOL (Country Of Origin Label) I wanted. He said the USA and Germany were the most popular. Same for a rigging hardware company I visited. You know the stuff window washers and others trust their lives with??!! Said they don’t test the products, but will send you whatever mill cert specs you ask for (I’m not making this up). They sell to to big name hardware retailers through companies you’ll never hear of. By the time you buy them they say made in the USA and come with load rating certificates and are sold at large retail chains you have shopped at. If I told you what the odds are that CBP will pull a container for inspection and catch these MFers you'd be ill. There just isn't much made in the USA anymore. I hope Romney can change that, but until the playing field is leveled you can be sure a lot of Made in the USA stuff isn’t.

[Angore]

Stick with American made!

I've got one drawer in my chest that friends are allowed to rummage through for tools ( " The Harbor freight " drawer ) .
The rest is off limits ! lol.

[remsandpets]

Totally agree that the "cool" lable is up for sale. Just as any other lable is just as easy to slap on as any other. Such as Made in USA, organic, or any brand name. Thats why I have a Honda trike, a Ford made in Canida and Mexico, and shoot my own red meat, catch my own fish!

[kb0nly]

Awe come on, the pneumatic slide whistle could be fun.... Scare the dogs and the neighbors!!

I buy some stuff from them and Northern Tool, but generally as you guys have said, one time use items. Usually by the time the job is done the tool is toast. The only good thing i have bought from HF over the years is a small trailer frame kit, used it to make a lawn debris and work trailer that i pull behind Big Red. Actually surprisingly well built and plenty heavy gauge metal. Northern Tool and a few other big box stores sell the same exact trailer frame, made in china of course.

[wisconsinite]

meh, i've had some crap from harbor freight, but a better portion of the tools i've bought there have held up well to average home use. as far as being made in china, at least harbor freight isn't trying to pass their stuff off as american. how many formerly great u.s. based companies (black and decker, stanely, craftsman, poulan, etc etc) sell tools just as crappy as harbor freight, but people are more likely to buy from them because they're "american" companies. the stuff costs more, even though it's just as "china made".

disclaimer: i'm not defending china or harbor freight, just giving hf some credit for being cheap and honest:)

[Scootertrash]

I've also bought at HF and Northern, but the ad does hit home. You can also find alot of this type of stuff at "Gun Shows" along with beef jerky and beanie babies

[falloutboy]

That's a pretty funny read Scootertrash. I got a kick out of the Laser guided paint brush, maybe because I was playing the laser game earlier today with my cousin's cat. lol. "Warning: remove cats from room before use."

[ATC King]

Bring out your dead (threads).


I figured this was as good as any thread instead of starting a new one.


I bought the HF "Deluxe Manual Fluid Extractor and Dispenser" months back and have been using the heck out of it. I've used the MightyVac brand of one of these in a shop setting before so it's not a new tool to me, but I think this one is just a bit better constructed.

Among other things, I've used it to change engine oil around the house. On each engine I've used it on, I've pulled the drain plug out afterward to gauge how effective it was and there's nothing but a drip or two. On those, I now know for a fact I don't have to pull the plug.

Brake fluid changes and flush? Bam! Instead of that tiny handheld pump (y'all know the ones), I've got this large canister where I can do the entire brake system on multiple vehicles without stopping to empty it. I try to do brake system flushes once a year, two years max. Brake fluid is cheap, and it doesn't take much.

Overfilled a transmission? Bam! A couple minute job to pull some out and don't even have to get messy.


I've even used it to empty a toilet bowl to change the fill valve. The uses go way beyond just automotive. Just about anything with liquid that can be reached with a small diameter tube, this can be used on.


It's another HF tool that is well worth the cost and I'm happy to own. HF has really upped their game since this thread was started and their top tier tools rival many name brands, at a lower cost. If it's made in China, I'm not paying the American shill company tax for something similar.

[Scootertrash]

Bring out your dead (threads).

:lol:

She turned me into a newt......

[ATC King]

Yep. Monty Python are classics.

[Scootertrash]

Yep. Monty Python are classics.

:beer

Yes, yes they are.....

[ATC King]

I've been doing brake fluid changes on the vehicles and got three of them done so far. The HF fluid extractor isn't even 1/4 full yet and it made the work for one person easy and fast.

I used some of the rubber tips from my mini vac pump kits to attach it to the bleeder valves. On the car I was waiting to do because I thought I'd have to use a jack because it sat so low I was actually surprised I didn't even have to get under it because of the very open wheel design. I was able to reach through the wheel to do all the work and never had to touch a jack. Jamming out to the stereo in the shop and having fun changing brake fluid. It was a good day. Didn't spill a single drop anywhere.

They're good for the next two years. I'd like to do it every year, regardless of mileage, but that doesn't always happen.

Another one of those tools I should have bought sooner. HF didn't have them that long ago though.