Harbor Freight. WOW! Steppin up.

[BaBaBooey]

For all you tool guys, mechanics, and whoever else. 

Harbor Freight has really stepped up there quality. Been watching this closely and now it became available this week. HF new line of tools. Icon. The boxes were the big story. Tool Truck quality, half the price. Even at half, its probably still out of my budget. But, these boxes are super nice and even nicer once in person. If had the means, I'd get this before any tool truck. 

I got to look at a few of the hand tools. My HF doesnt have a lot yet. Breaker bars, 1/2 and 3/8, 1/2 and 3/4 torque wrenches and snap ring pliers. What I've had my hands on, it's really nice. Quality and feel. With Craftsman going to garbage, I'm thinking I'm gonna buy Icon or Pittsburg Pro series stuff. Just my opinion. I really like the last pic. This box in green with black trim is something else.

 

Would love see what kind of discussion there is on tools. 

 

Here are some pics I got today of the Icon display box in store and the price sheets. Hold your hats when reading those. 

 

The drawer above the one with the drill storage is charging. It's got 7 or 8 outlets for chargers and the front of the bottom box has 2 outlets and 2 USB ports.

[Quick GMC]

If they're legit and built well, then that's about the going rate. Looks like my Matco box. I wonder if these are made by one of the bigger companies and rebranded

[Dave Van]

THE BEST item I have gotten at HF is two folding chairs I use at car shows. They are NOT those butterfly type that just spread out....more like a director chair with a side table!!! Comfortable, stable and the table is handy. I paid $20 with a coupon. Well worth it. 

As far as tools I have almost 100% Craftsman but I am not as loyal as I once was. I do have a 6 foot long low roll around tool box that has worked very well.  Just know what you are buying. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

I've bought some secondary rollarounds, engine stands, jack-stands, hammers, and other entirely adequate stuff from Harbor Freight.

Making a tool-box from steel sheet doesn't require any special or exotic technology, only the ability to fold sheet cleanly on a brake, and spot-weld it together. The drawer slides in my secondary boxes are just fine if they're not overloaded, the paint is as good as tool-truck boxes (in appearance, anyway; how well it lasts I probably won't live long enough to find out), and the casters and fasteners are appropriate for the application.

I'd expect the tool boxes shown here to be pretty much as good as anything off the tool truck, just lacking the SnapOn or Mac snob appeal...and the easy weekly payment plan that makes the tool truck operators a nice income while you pay about double for everything.

As far as other tools from HF, I've seen less-than-stellar quality on combination wrenches, air tools, screwdrivers, anything electronic, wire ties that disintegrate in a few months, etc.

Though I haven't bought any recently (already having three of pretty much everything I'll ever need), some of the best "no-name" tools I've found are the Husky brand. The combination wrenches I have, for example, are just about identical to SnapOn "flank-drive" wrenches that were top-line until their patents ran out.

[dmthamade]

Boxes look OK, prices look in line. I found that the non tool truck boxes aren't as deep as the 3 truck boxes. Small thing but it does matter. Have seen the non boxes have the sliders fall apart/wear out/break. In the 40+ years I've been a auto mechanic, I found that boxes by Snapon/MAC/Matco last. Sliders get cleaned/lubricated, boxes get wiped down, otherwise they last. Off brands are fine for home/light use, but daily hard use it's almost always the sliders that give out first. Casters are next if the boxes do any rolling. Bought a Snapon top box to go on my lower Snapon roll cabinet, waited for good prices on both. I did look at other makers, found lacking in areas. Also, the Snapon drawers could be moved and configured for what I needed, looks completely different from the brochures. As far as tools go, I do have a lot of S/M/Ma stuff, but I also have offbrand. Ratchets I get Snapon, stuff works esp. the older stuff and just as important, they "feel" right. Wrenches are the same, except for the bigger ones, they get off brand. Sockets can go either way, I did buy some off brands 3 years ago to see how they would hold up. These are 19mm/21/mm deep impact sockets, been working fine. Flex sockets esp. 3/8 or 1/4 drives are Snapon, they work, they fell right. Hammers,...it's a hammer..they are a mix of off brand and tool truck. Gear wrenches for racheting box ends. STAY AWAY FROM EZ RED ratcheting box ends esp. their new stuff. My electric impacts are DeWalt brushless, electric ratchets are Snapon. I've seen Milwaukee electrics esp. the Fuel range are fine. My experiences are from a lifetime of wrenchwork, what I need may be overkill for some. Be realistic about what you really need, go from there.

Don

[Ace-Garageguy]

27 minutes ago, dmthamade said:

...and just as important, they "feel" right... Hammers...it's a hammer...

Agreed. Tool "feel" is important to anyone who lives with them day-in-day-out. That's what I loved about SnapOn back in the '70s, but after I got robbed and cleaned out, I started replacing much of the really good stuff with adequate. Far as hammers go, one thing I forgot to mention is that, in my experience, the off-brand dead-blow hammers get brittle and crack after a few seasons, but my old top-line stuff is still going strong. Different resin. And occasionally, top-line tool-truck stuff goes bad too. I'm still waiting for a new set of hoses for the ones that turned to goo in a fuel-injection pressure test rig.

[TarheelRick]

Not familiar with the ICON brand but their U.S. General boxes are very good quality for the basement garage.  Many years ago I started with a Popular Mechanics  top box and bottom roller unit.  It sufficed, but as time passed my tool collection grew (I was a Craftsman snob).  Later I bought another middle section box from Sears, can't remember the brand right off hand.  Picked up some more battery-powered tools and needed more storage for them.  I had been shopping HF for many years so I broke down and bought a U.S. General side-mount drawer set.  What a difference.  The drawers are deeper front to rear, the slides have ball-bearings and the metal is heavier.  If I was not approaching my don't work on anything anymore years, I would go buy a complete set of U.S. General boxes to replace the others I now have.

On to their electric tools, that is hit or miss.  I bought a $19.99 (on sale) Saws-All and it has worked like a champ and I have had pretty good luck with their metal cutting blades.  Picked up one of their 8" table drill presses, kept it in my retirement home basement for more than a year before setting it up on my new workbench.  One thing I was really looking forward to using it for was sanding tire treads and slicks for my models.  I can choke down the motor to a complete standstill simply by putting a lot of pressure with a sanding stick against a spinning tire.  It will not drill a 1/4" hole through a 2X4.  There is more torque in a slot-car motor than in this 1/4 or 1/2 hp motor.  Of course I was well beyond the return and warranty dates before I set it up.

[dmthamade]

Hammers... yeah, ones that are specific like dead blow are from tool truck, as is the very small ball peen because it feels right. The big ball peens aren't no name offshore, are still quality hammers. Don't want the head coming off due to crappy wedge locking it in. Co worker had his cheap hammer come apart when doing ball joints on a caravan, head made a nice dent in the cavalier in the bay beside him. About tool feel, speed handles from Snapon feel and work right especially spinning one handed on say, an oil pan on an engine on a stand or a trans on the bench. Other speed handles, not so much.

Don

[restoman]

I'm one of those Snap-On snobs... except when it comes to their roll cabs and tool chests. I've never been able to justify to myself spending that obscene amount of money on tool storage.

The roll cabinet assembly that has served me well since the early 80s is two Craftsman cabinets - a 12 drawer and a 9 drawer - bolted together and sitting on a 2" angle iron chassis with HD Snap-On casters. A 12 drawer Craftsman top chest sits on the 9 drawer cab, and a 1/8" steel plate sits on top of the 12 drawer cab and the 2 end cabs that are bolted to the side of the 12 drawer. It's huge, even by today's standards. Drawers are sliders and they still work ok, though the lower ones are balky sometimes.

I don't think I have more than $1000 invested in the whole shebang, and have gotten 30+ year out of it.

I rolled the whole thing to be beside every car I was working on. Sometimes it might move 4 times a day, back in the day. Thought many times how I should put a motor and steering mechanism on it. It weighs a ton!

I looked at the General and Icon boxes at the Port Huron HF. They looked pretty decent to me... If I was in the market for a new storage system, they'd be a definite contender.

[dmthamade]

I bought the Snapon boxes for many reasons, one of them being how it could be configured. Facing it, I have the most used and needed tools in a 7 drawer area centered in the middle of the bottom and top. Don't have to bend down, I can look into the drawers to find the tool, see what's missing. I do have two cabinets as well, one is 72" tall two door metal cabinet. I use it for those tools in plastic boxes, pullers, scanners, lab scope...$100.00 used, lockable. Another is 48" tall two doors wall mounted, tools in plastic boxes, lubricants, chemicals, there when I started. Couldn't justify the $$$$ for Snapon kind of storage, it's cheap and secure, I likey. Have seen samples of the Box Condos, nice, but not spending that much. Old saying, not the boxes that make you the $$$, it's the tools inside and the guys skill that swings them that pays the rent. Have to say, those stainless tops look nice. Had one on my roll cab. When I bought the top box the stainless top came home, it's one of the benches in the model room.

Don

[OldTrucker]

For a "at home" mechanic cheaper tools are the way to go. They have the same warranty as the big brands and to mee have held up as well as my Craftsman and Snapon tools have.

I come from the days of "Buffalo Tools" which were what a hydraulics machine shop I worked at used. They had used high dollar tools and because of the nature of the work we did on mine equipment breakage was huge and waiting for the tool guy to come around to get replacements was an issue. So they went to the Buffalo store and bought tools and because of cost were able to stock replacements in the tool room and once a month sent the guy to get the broken tools replaced.

My tool box is a mix of Craftsman, Snapon, and what ever the brands is from Auto Zone and some Pittsburgh from HF!

[Dave Van]

I needed a deep well, thin wall, six point socket to use on my American Daisy wheels. I went to Sears, Lowe's and NAPA....none had what I needed in stock....I could not order it....needed it now. Tractor Supply has tools....looked there...they had it, I bought it and it has worked dine now for many uses.....at times you have to use what is available....in this case been a good buy. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

One point overlooked by a number of folks singing the praises of "the same warranty" on cheap tools is the way the tool fits the fastener it's intended for. The SnapOn "flank drive" line (that every decent manufacturer copies now that the patents have run out) contacted the bolt head or nut on the side faces, instead of the at-the-time common contact at the tips. The result was that a SnapOn wrench wouldn't round off stuck fasteners, and it would usually remove fasteners that had already been buggered by chimps.

Those of us who always worked commission appreciated the fact we'd waste less time getting things apart that had already been "worked on" somewhere else.

All the combination wrenches (only the box-end was "flank-drive", obviously) and sockets benefited from the same design, and while the patents were in force, SnapOn was really the only choice for better mechanics.

As I mentioned, every quality manufacturer uses a version of "flank-drive" today, but there are still a multitude of cheap wrenches out there that don't. The accuracy and method of broaching the hole in a box-end wrench is also critical, as is the accuracy of the opening and steel hardness in an open-end wrench. These important aspects of tool design are often lacking in the cheaper stuff. I've seen cheap wrenches spread and round off fasteners when a decent wrench would have turned them.

And to quote Don " Old saying, not the boxes that make you the $$$, it's the tools inside and the guys skill that swings them that pays the rent." Yup. There have been times I've been roundly ridiculed...and I mean seriously made fun of...when I've gone into shops with my crappiest boxes, looking like something I pulled from a dumpster. Funny how it always stops as soon as the time sheets go in. 

[restoman]

3 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

 

And to quote Don " Old saying, not the boxes that make you the $$$, it's the tools inside and the guys skill that swings them that pays the rent." Yup. There have been times I've been roundly ridiculed...and I mean seriously made fun of...when I've gone into shops with my crappiest boxes, looking like something I pulled from a dumpster. Funny how it always stops as soon as the time sheets go in. 

Yup. Same here.. and before you know it, those guys who looked down their noses at your tools, are asking to borrow them.

I've worked with more than a few guys who spent more time cleaning and beaming over their tools than actually using them...

I will say that I've got an old set of S-K SAE combo wrenches that have served me extremely well. I'd put them in the same league as my much-more-expensive Snap-On sets. A lot of the fault of rounded fasteners today lies with the quality of the fasteners themselves. That's where the flank drive excels.

[89AKurt]

I've bought a few tools, mostly woodworking related.  Decades ago HF was just a dumping ground for cheap Chinese knock-offs, was disappointed and didn't buy anything.  Recently have picked up good enough tools.  But the cross-cut saw with an American city name made in China with aluminum fence, toy quality. ?  But for how little I will use it and the price, good enough.

[Ace-Garageguy]

2 minutes ago, restoman said:

... I've got an old set of S-K SAE combo wrenches that have served me extremely well. I'd put them in the same league as my much-more-expensive Snap-On sets...

Me too. I really like the old SK stuff. Most of what I have in SK came from pawnshops after I got cleaned out (uninsured) back in '77. They're all still working just fine. 

12 minutes ago, restoman said:

... A lot of the fault of rounded fasteners today lies with the quality of the fasteners themselves...

Yeah...I started seeing that way back when I was working at a Datsun-Triumph-Fiat dealership (don't see those anymore). I'd have head bolts on new 240Z-cars snap before getting to 65 lb/ft during retorque. A lot of the Japanese fasteners were junk then. The English stuff was by far the best of the three. Now the stuff is all over the board.

Scary thing, some years back, we started getting lots of sub-standard "genuine" paper-trailed "aircraft" fasteners. They had all the right documentation and looked real pretty, but they were offshore fake crapp.

[dmthamade]

1 hour ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

One point overlooked by a number of folks singing the praises of "the same warranty" on cheap tools is the way the tool fits the fastener it's intended for. The SnapOn "flank drive" line (that every decent manufacturer copies now that the patents have run out) contacted the bolt head or nut on the side faces, instead of the at-the-time common contact at the tips. The result was that a SnapOn wrench wouldn't round off stuck fasteners, and it would usually remove fasteners that had already been buggered by chimps.

Those of us who always worked commission appreciated the fact we'd waste less time getting things apart that had already been "worked on" somewhere else.

All the combination wrenches (only the box-end was "flank-drive", obviously) and sockets benefited from the same design, and while the patents were in force, SnapOn was really the only choice for better mechanics.

 

Yup!! Bad enough you have to sometimes fight the car your working on(I live in the great rust belt), you don't want to fight the car AND the tools your using!! Cheap tools might be ok for light use, eg. 8mm/10mm/12mm sockets, Torx bits on Euro, I have these for home use, but for working on the bench where I've worn out high use Snapon sockets in 9 months, cheap tools are verboten. Think long and hard what you need the tools for, think clearly of your projects, don't get sucked into the "I only buy the best" thinking, you should be good.

Don

[dmthamade]

I remember reading about counterfeit fasteners and parts in the aerospace industry, scary reads they were. Understand this is a problem in our trade, too. I'm going to say I haven't seen it yet, probably because I haven't been looking. Scary about the fasteners, we do a lot of Euro stuff, they use a lot of one time inverted Torx aluminum bolts. Would really suk to have one of the fake ones go bad...we do dealer or World Pak for the parts and fasteners, so hopefully we should be good.

Don

[Jim N]

I bought a three box Craftsman set a number of years ago and finally out grew them.  I work around the house and do some work on our cars, so I am not a professional by any means.  A neighbor of mine suggested Harbor Freight when I mentioned I was going to buy another tool box.  I looked at them and then a Craftsman box at Lowe's .  I bought the Craftsman because it was made here in the States.  As I have seen all of the manufacturing jobs go over seas, I will support our own citizens any chance I get. 

[tbill]

 Not a snap on snob, but after 30 years of doing this for a paycheck , I like to use what works, and what holds value . As far as tool boxes go, I prefer snap on for work, I’ve found them to be a touch better than the competition, and hold value better. Luckily, I bought the last one I plan on buying a few years back, and if I have to stand in front of it 8 hours a day, I want something nice to look at, lol.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, tbill said:

 ...if I have to stand in front of it 8 hours a day, I want something nice to look at, lol.

^^^ Nice rig. More impressive than anything I've ever had. Last time I had a pretty new box was back in early '77.

Since then, I've bought smaller mostly clean-one-owners (but some real cheap dogs for bodywork and fab, as they tend to get beat), usually keep each set for just one particular kind of work; everything electrical in one set, fabrication tools in another, diagnostic and AC stuff in another, body tools all separate, composite stuff all by its lonesome, general hand tools in yet another, etc. Usually used to have different kinds of jobs in several bays going simultaneously, rolled the box I need to the job, usually had enough overlap so I wouldn't do much walking back and forth.

These days, I work out of two shops not-mine, have a limited set of just what I need at each, keep the big boxes, machine tools (except the mill) and most of the good stuff at home.

[tbill]

Thanks, I traded two boxes and a few bucks for that one, got a smoking deal on it, or I wouldn’t have done it. I have most of my stuff arranged by category, but the fast moving stuff is in the two top drawers ( sockets/ratchets/air/electric tools in top drawer, wrenches in second drawer), got more invested in that thing than what I payed for my house , haha.

[Ace-Garageguy]

5 minutes ago, tbill said:

... got more invested in that thing than what I payed for my house , haha.

Believe me sir, I understand. 

[BaBaBooey]

The big thing I've been noticing is that people are getting the tool truck boxes for about the same price as HF. But, once you factor in interest, its right back up to the full MSRP. HF having in house financing and "supposedly" offering interest free on purchases over a certain amount changes things also.

 

Then comes the warranty. Tool truck tools are original purchaser only. In some cases, depending on your tool truck buddy, the "original purchaser" thing is over looked. Yes, you can get the big names used at relatively average Joe prices. But again, the warranty comes into play. 

 

I've had my hands on a few of this Icon brand stuff. And to me, I'm no expert, but it feels just as good as the big names. Ive watch some YouTube videos of comparison tests and yes the big names faired a bit better, but, Icon held it's own. The Earthquake line of air tools, I've seen it with my own eyes. The Earthquake 1 inch drive worked right on past the Ingersoll Rand. We bought an Ingersoll Rand 3 months before the Earthquake. That was 2 years ago, or so. The Ingersoll has been rebuilt and replaced, while the Earthquake still works like a champ.

 

I'm gonna give them a shot. For what I do with my tools, I'm willing to try. 

[Deuces]

That new icon box goes for $9000.00 scheckles... Sorry! Way out of my league.... ?