What Harbor Freight tools/supplies, you would NOT recommend

upnover

upnover

Grumpy, decrepit Old Man
Moderator
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Morganton NC
This is about things you have bought there and they just don't work, or, won't last even a little while.
 
I wanted a cordless 1/2 drill to A. lower the feet on my slide in camper, and B. to lower the jack on my trailer.
I bought the Bauer drill. It worked for a few minutes, and stopped, worked again, then stopped. I took it back and exchanged it for the Hercules.
 
Bauer bandsaw (mediocre at best)
vice grips (they hold stuff, but buckle if asked to "clamp" anything)
Gloves (others have had good results, I have not, tear very quickly)
Drill bits and step drills
 
My experience with their battery powered stuff has been poor.

Their grinding wheels last a long time, but don't cut well.

Their flapdiscs cut ok, but don't hold up.
 
I bought a small air saw and it never worked. Took it back and got another one, it worked for about a minute.

That was a good 10 years ago, though. Their stuff has improved.

Bw4knSs.jpg
 
Nowadays they usually have 3 "levels" of quality/brands. Stuff like knock off vise grips or cordless tools or even any hand tools that I would have never bought from hf, if you get the icon brand or Doyle Klein knock offs, they are just as good. I bought a set of their Bauer 20v to compare to the 18v Milwaukee stuff I use daily and so far maybe not as much power but for half the price definitely as good.

So anyway, almost all of their new branded stuff is good, just stay away from old Pittsburg Stuff, compressors, welders or tools it's all dogshit. And anything in the dollar bin is going to be a disappointment.
 
Have had good luck with my 3/8's ratchet, used professionally for about a year now, and I've torqued on that sob

Have a 17/18 yr old 4.5 inch grinder that still works

Have a 10,000 lb winch that's 12 yrs old and still works. Been in the weather since for almost a decade, still pulls strong, just slow as it always has been

Have metric and standard deep impact sockets that are close to 20 yrs old, and never broke a single one used professionally for 13 yrs

Old style blue Chicago Electric branded mig/flux dual welder. Its probably 5-8 yrs old and I can plug it up and burn 1/4 inch steel today

12" double bevel, compound, sliding miter saw. 3yrs old, still works

Reciprocating saw also close to a decade old

The grinder and recip saw are the old style orange equipment.

Except for the sockets and ratchet, everything else is only hobby/occasional use.

*Really wanna try their new cordless 1/2" impact to see if it would be good for travel use and road side emergencies

Sent from my SM-A505U using Tapatalk
 
Chop saw.
I bought one and used it one day.
Came with two extra set of brushes for the motor.
Had to change brushes to use it the next day.
Had to change brushes to use it the next day.
It's gone now.
 
I had a Chicago 4.5" grinder that worked for several years, but then started getting noisy, then the head quit spinning. Took it apart, turns out the gears in the head chewed themselves apart. Could have been me? IDK...the motor still ran though.

Thought I would try an "airless paint sprayer" once. It squirted paint like a stream of p!ss.

Step drills rounded off in no time...I also got a set of "carbide" burrs, was going to do a port job on some old ass cast iron heads. It barely did anything to the heads, turned off the grinder and saw all the teeth on the burr were now gone. That was cool.

Drill bits will work for a short time, but they do lose their edge rather quickly (the cheap ones, anyway). Same with hole saws.

I have heard and read good thing about their new higher-end stuff, just haven't tried them yet. I haven't been able to set foot in my garage to do anything productive in a few years now...
 
Almost all of the Drill Master stuff, Makes the Central Electric stuff look like Milwaukee.
 
This thing was disappointing. It holds the saw fine, but the when I went to stand it up on the end for storage, the lower bracket broke. The metal is WAY to thin. The rest of it works fine. It would be fine if you didn't need to store it standing on end.

Heavy Duty Mobile Miter Saw Stand
 
Back
Top