Anything Good at Harbor Freight?

[Foxer]

My father would've bought the nail unbender!   

My father was a carpenter and he would have got me one for XMass if Harbor Freight was around then !

[Aaronw]

Harbor Freight has lots of neat little things you don't know you need until you see it. Rulers, protractors, compasses, calipers, marking tools, punches, organizers etc. Stuff that at $20-30+ dollars you would pass on, but at $5-10 you can find a use for.

You really do need to look things over though, some of the stuff is actually decent, some is pretty crummy. Most is lightweight, and would never hold up under professional use, but is fine for the occasional user or for our hobby uses.

I have a small set of 5 or 6 hollow punches, the whole set is about the price of one punch from a reputable maker, they work fine on plastic.

I have a set of 1-60 wire gauge drill bits hat cost $20, individual wire gauge bits run $2-5 at Ace Hardware or Home Depot. Probably nowhere near the same quality, but they work fine on the plastic, wood and soft metals we use. Wire gauge drill bits are nice for models because of the close spacing of sizes.

I have the mini-chop saw mentioned earlier, 2" blade, kind of flimsy but works fine for the light weight work we do. 

 

 

[The70judgeman]

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p595/photoguy70/IMAG0682_zps0jkl5skr.jpg

Don't waste your money on those mini drills! The really small ones don't have points on them and don't cut worth a carp! Get the tiny drills from micro mart instead! Cost a little more but work!?

Using a small cordless drill I really don't have any problems with the bits drilling into plastic.

[dartman]

I got a great deal on a set of cordless pliers last week....

[aurfalien]

The thing I like about HF is that it's all the cheap Chinese made fromage under 1 house/brand.

One stop shop of disposable tools and if they last a while, hey it's a bonus.

I've got some old SnapOn, Mac and Craftsman tools from 30 years ago for serious tasks.  But the HF stuff has a place.

[Miatatom]

One stop shop of disposable tools and if they last a while, hey it's a bonus.

A wise sage that taught me a lot about wrenching on race cars explained why it was a good place to buy tools. If you buy a set of "whatever" and one of them wears out from use, replace it with a really good one from SnapOn. Mac, Craftsman, etc. to . The rest will be good for occasional use.

[Ace-Garageguy]

A wise sage that taught me a lot about wrenching on race cars explained why it was a good place to buy tools. If you buy a set of "whatever" and one of them wears out from use, replace it with a really good one from SnapOn. Mac, Craftsman, etc. to . The rest will be good for occasional use.

Interesting philosophy. I've always used my top-line tools on any race car I've ever touched. The cheap screwdrivers, sockets and wrenches, besides "wearing out", also tend to damage hex-fasteners, and wallow-out screw slots and Philips, Allen-head or Torx fasteners. Nasty Chinese sockets can fail to give you an accurate torque-wrench reading, too. And don't even get me started on cheap torque-wrenches.

To insure my client's cars finished races, I always tried to give them top-line precision workmanship...always...with precision, quality tools made from good material. Different world-view, I guess.

Few things chap my wrinkly old rear more than going into some guys shop to work with HIS tools, and finding that he has a box full of cheap junk. 

I've yet to see a good mechanic who had garbage for tools. A lot who thought they were, though. 

Edited February 6, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[Mark]

I got a great deal on a set of cordless pliers last week....

Regular or metric?

[935k3]

Here are a few good things I have got. Hollow punches, diamond rotary grinding bits for the Dremel and diamond cut off wheels. They have allot of things that are useful and work for building models. I use there 3 gallon pancake compressor and love it.

 

Edited February 6, 2016 by 935k3

[Freeman Cars]

HF has a 5 minute epoxy that dries clear and works good. there jack stands are actually are real good, but the rest of the tools i have seen are junk. i bought one of there soldering irons in a pinch and it caught on fire.a friend of mine used to to work in there corporate offices and said they get sued daily for one thing or another. i use there hand tools at self serve junk yards. if i loose a tool in the dirt is no big deal, i chock it up the cost of the part.

[martinfan5]

 if i loose a tool in the dirt is no big deal, i chock it up the cost of the part.

AKA, throw away tools, thats what myself and a buddy call HF tools,  throw away tools.

[Lownslow]

bench for 100$

http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_4273.jpg

[dartman]

Regular or metric?

Whit-worth  (sp)....