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Harbor Freight power tools

TerryD

TerryD

Mildly demented...
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I was wondering how many of you own some of their stuff. I'm thinking about getting a 4" angle grinder, bench grinder, and possibly a drill press (table top or free standing I'm unsure yet). Is there alot of difference in quality between their stuff and the tools you buy at Lowes, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Sears, ect? Probably all made by the same bunch of Chinese kids, just different stickers....

What do you all think?
 
Huge quality difference. I only buy Harbor freight for stuff that doesn't matter.

I own their grinder, and its been fine, but doesn't get used hard. I like stuff like their grinders, can't beat the price, and you can afford to replace multiple times before buying a brand name one.

Bench grinder is debatable. I would NOT buy their drill press. Precision is something you want in a drill press, and nothing they make is accurate enough. I would search craigslist and repair/rebuild an old one.

Their stuff has its place, but not in any tool that needs to be accurate/precise.
 
TerryD said:
I was wondering how many of you own some of their stuff. I'm thinking about getting a 4" angle grinder, bench grinder, and possibly a drill press (table top or free standing I'm unsure yet). Is there alot of difference in quality between their stuff and the tools you buy at Lowes, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Sears, ect? Probably all made by the same bunch of Chinese kids, just different stickers....

What do you all think?
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I have all the above from HF and for the little amount of work I do with them I wouldn't even dream of owning anything more expensive to sit in my garage for years on end just to be available when I need it.
I have used every single item at least once and having used quality stuff before, I don't regret my decision.
If I had lots of money and no worries I would probably buy the better stuff, but they are good for what I do which is personnal projects.
I got the big drill press, I have the 4.5" angle grinder as well as the 9" and the 14" cut off.
I have the 20 ton press, and the bench grinder.
The one item I didn't like and had to return 3 times before I made them switch to another brand: the drill.
they had a problem with the chuck not tightening and holding the bit good enough, after 3 replacements and 4 drill bits destroyed I had them give me a Bosh, at the time they used to carry bosh, not anymore though.
I also only get their impact sockets, the regular ones aren't good enough quality for me.
 
dhcomp said:
Huge quality difference. I only buy Harbor freight for stuff that doesn't matter.

I own their grinder, and its been fine, but doesn't get used hard. I like stuff like their grinders, can't beat the price, and you can afford to replace multiple times before buying a brand name one.

Bench grinder is debatable. I would NOT buy their drill press. Precision is something you want in a drill press, and nothing they make is accurate enough. I would search craigslist and repair/rebuild an old one.

Their stuff has its place, but not in any tool that needs to be accurate/precise.
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I used to think that, but I got the table top drill press, and didn't like it returned it and got the biggest free standing they had, I like it a lot.
I could get a better vise for it, but the drill itself is pretty stout and tough enough for precision work
 
Thanks IceMan! I'm in the same boat. This stuff is just hobby work tools, nothing of great precision is needed. Heck, I'm doing most of it now with a hand drill and welding clamps, anything is an improvement!

I usually center punch the holes I drill and will not use a drill press as a mill (maybe :rolleyes: ) so I don't think the ones they sell will give me any problem, but I wanted some real world experience. I would like to get nicer stuff, but can't justify the cost. I'll keep scouring C-List while I save up the $$ for anything and if I can get a better product cheap there, then so be it.
 
You can't beat the pricing that's for sure and like Darren said you can replace an item multiple times and still be under the price of a quality name brand tool. I personally don't like any of their crap but the way I see it is if I only plan to use the item once and it survives that project then it did it's job.

With that said I had been keeping an eye open on craigslist for an old Delta/Rockwell drill press for a long time (didn't really have an immediate use for one) and eventually one day I thought to check E-bay and ended up finding a guy locally selling one with a "buy it now" price of $60.00 so you bet I quickly made arrangements and went to pick it up. Those are some good drill presses that can still be had for under $200.00 if you search long enough.
 
my grinder is Dewalt and holds up to concrete etc. Bench grinder is Rigid, also from HD. Good stuff. I only get cheap stuff from HF. Most expensive is air tools - polisher, jigsaw, chisel, and 90* drill. I hardly use them. But my impacts and ratches are craftsman (another joke) Simple hand tools and impact sockets are from HF, though their impact sockets are HUGE, lol.

Like said, the grinders should be ok, the press I'd look elsewhere.
 
i've have a HD dewalt w/ a grinder wheel on it for years. always works great. when i started doing some body work on my blazer i bought 2 hf grinders, one for a flap disk and one for a wire wheel, so i wouldn't have to constantly change disks for the different jobs. i figured i'd save and get by w/ the cheaper grinders, especially since they would see lighter duty than the dewalt. well the one w/ the flap wheel lasted all of 40 minutes. all of the grease started leaking out of the head and it just burned up. needless to say i now have two dewalts. if/ when the other hf dies, it will get replaced w/ a quality name brand grinder.
 
I have bought and continue to buy HF stuff - usually hand tools (like wrench and driver sets that I keep in my trucks for road/trail repairs).

I also have their bench-top drill press, and the thing is total garbage. It'll be on the auction block at the next neighborhood yard sale.
 
The HF stuff is hit and miss. My best friends grandpa has 2 cordless drills that were used everyday in his wood shop for at least 10 years that i know of. they dont even have removeable batteries. just a charge cord. now that he is gone, we still use them to this day when we are in his old shop. Thats 16 years now that i have seen them in action. but the angle grinder i bought died horribly. the portaband that i bought is wonderfull so far. just cant force it as it has plastic wheels in stead of rubber lined steel. my air stuff has all been fine too. but the hammer drill died as well.
Hit or miss:dunno:
 
I think you summed it up. Quality is hit or miss. The big drill press is (or was when I was looking) a good solid item. The large air compressors are also good. One grinder I've been running for years, another lasted a weekend. Impact sockets=good, chrome sockets=bad.
 
Thanks for the input guys. I still may try one of the drill presses if I can't find something similar to what I'm looking for on C-list or in the local trader papers by the time I have the $$ saved up for it. I probably won't be getting one of the angle grinders though. Money better spent on a Dewalt or other name brand since I'll likely only have the one.


michael0584 said:
Check out this site, I've checked items here before, just put in the item number.

http://hfreviews.com/
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That's pretty good man, but they don't have any of the 16 speed drill presses rated. Thanks!
 
I quit buying power tools from there. They kept burning up on me. I do own their 14" metal chop saw and I haven't had any issues, but I got it used for like $25. I do have the Tractor Supply Co. bench mount drill press and 6" bench grinder at home and I haven't had any issues with them. I do wish they had a little more power, but other than that they've worked pretty good so far.
 
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