Harbor Freight Junk!!!!

HF are cheap but.....

I have the rotary: works great for me, replaced brushes, grease the gears every year. Work as good as a Makita? nope, but all I could afford at the time.

1"X30" little belt sander, works great for me, bought name brand belts, bought bearings from online source and works great. When done, I clean it out.

Belt Sander - same, use it, clean it.

Disk sander 10" - Same, use it clean it

Screwdrivers - beat the #$%^ out of them.

Socket rails are the bomb for $.99 each!

Gloves

6" Caliper works great, accurate, keep clean and in case.

Plier set - Orange handle one. Use, clean, oil, works great and I abuse them.

Metric/SAE tap and die set, work great they all break broke a couple.

I do have a lot of Craftsman, but read the reviews and take care of them.

They aren't terrible tools.
 
Wow a lot of haters in this thread. I doubt the people trashing HF have ever used any of their tools. I put all my detailing supplies on their three drawer utility cart. I'm a weekend warrior when it comes to mechanics and have their 21 gal air compressor, and a majority of their air tools. If you read reviews and shop smart you can get stuff on par, and cheaper than Craftsman, Kobalt, etc.
 
PeterPistol said:
This website if full of great talented and well informative people. If you plan on detailing and taking care of your vehicle why not buy your products from AGO!!! Harbor freight sells junk and it just cost you double in the long run!!! IMO!!!!!
Click to expand...

I have never purchased anything from them because they have no store where I live and they do not deliver to Canada.

On the other hand I have always seen only positive comments about what they sell. You can get Tools at 20% of the cost of other brands and from every single videos or comments I have seen the Tools work well.

So maybe they are not the best tool available on the market but in most cases the person doing the job has a much greater impact on the quality of the work than the tool itself. So I would not be so quick at dismissing what they sell.

When you start out detailing (or any other car related profession like painting or mechanical work) you are looking at probably 10,000$ to 20,000$ Worth of Tools and products. So if you can do it for a fifth of the price, I say go for it! Down the road when a tool is not cutting it anymore or you have outclassed what it can do in terms of skills, then sure, go buy that Rupes polisher or 5,000$ air compressor... but when you start out, you don't need it.
 
When I need that one weird tool I'll probably never use again in my life Harbor Freight is great for that! Their generators and small gas engines for very-occasional-light-duty-use aren't half bad either (And if that's all you're using it for; why pay thousands for a 'good' one?)

But if you intend to rely on it or do any serious work; I agree, go elsewhere!

Actually they have a small and inexpensive cargo trailer that's popular with motorcyclists. Very cheap, small, lightweight. Takes a beating and pulls well behind a motorcycle or small car. It's essentially one of those car-top-carriers like you see on top of mini-vans but with wheels on it.
 
I've done quite a few paint corrections with a HF DA. It's a pretty tough machine. Nowadays I usually run the Makita over the problems areas and clean up with the HF. For that purpose, its a great machine. Once it explodes, I'll upgrade to a higher end DA. I just haven't had a good reason to replace it yet.

HF equipment can be divided into two sections almost: Use once and replace or beat it up till it dies like everything else. You just have to read the reviews and see which ones you can beat up :)
 
Vengenz said:
Wow a lot of haters in this thread. I doubt the people trashing HF have ever used any of their tools. I put all my detailing supplies on their three drawer utility cart. I'm a weekend warrior when it comes to mechanics and have their 21 gal air compressor, and a majority of their air tools. If you read reviews and shop smart you can get stuff on par, and cheaper than Craftsman, Kobalt, etc.
Click to expand...


I WAS one of those haters and I realized what a douche bag I am. I have never used or bought anything from Harbor Freight and what I did was give my $.02 cents worth. My opinion IS really worth less than that.

The next time I open my mouth and eat shoe leather....I should have some facts or at least tried their products....so to all the HF users that have had decent experiences with them....I humbly apologize. :bash:
 
Nice and thanks, and ill tell ya the HF DA will beat out the PC, it has more torque. like was said more Tq than the PC and a bit less than the GG. I have never tried a GG so I can not comment on that.
 
ezriderga said:
Sounds like you have an axe to grind. Did you work there and get fired? As others have said, there are some good products there you just have to be smart enough to know what they are.
Click to expand...

OP troll?

Sent from my SCH-i705 using AG Online
 
Ah, the internet...

I've been playing guitar semi-professionally for over 25 years. During that time I've had the honor of sharing the stage with some amazing talent. Skilled musicians can pick up a $250 piece of junk and make beautiful music. I've seen it happen many times.

I've also seen total hacks with way too much money to spend plunk down $3000 on a custom-made instrument, only to make it sound like total crap.

In other words >>> It's the artist, not the paintbrush.

I have personally witnessed a skilled tradesman use the HF DA polisher to produce incredible results. So, to each his/her own.
 
mightypudge said:
Ah, the internet...

I've been playing guitar semi-professionally for over 25 years. During that time I've had the honor of sharing the stage with some amazing talent. Skilled musicians can pick up a $250 piece of junk and make beautiful music. I've seen it happen many times.

I've also seen total hacks with way too much money to spend plunk down $3000 on a custom-made instrument, only to make it sound like total crap.

In other words >>> It's the artist, not the paintbrush.

I have personally witnessed a skilled tradesman use the HF DA polisher to produce incredible results. So, to each his/her own.
Click to expand...

So very true in many areas of life... Someone who really knows what they are doing will find a way with the tools at hand. You see it many times with children's activities. Some parents will go out and blow mega-bucks on the most expensive gear possible only to be outperformed by the kid who has gear that is simply adequate to get the job done.

Personally, I've been able to get some great results with the HF DA and the results got even better when I moved to a better backing plate and pads. For the weekend warrior or someone working their personal fleet a couple of times a year it's perfect in my opinion.

Someday, I may move up to a better tool. My approach was to stay cheap and learn the process and techniques on a "beater" tool. Once I feel I'm proficient I may move up to something else IF, and only if, I can justify the expense. Right now, based on the results I get, I can't justify moving up since I'm not a full time pro.
 
PeterPistol said:
This website if full of great talented and well informative people. If you plan on detailing and taking care of your vehicle why not buy your products from AGO!!! Harbor freight sells junk and it just cost you double in the long run!!! IMO!!!!!
Click to expand...

twad·dle
ˈtwädl/Submit
informal
noun
1.
trivial or foolish speech or writing; nonsense.
"he dismissed the novel as self-indulgent twaddle"
verbarchaic
1.
talk or write in a trivial or foolish way.
"what is that old fellow twaddling about?"
 
Romans5.8 said:
When I need that one weird tool I'll probably never use again in my life Harbor Freight is great for that! Their generators and small gas engines for very-occasional-light-duty-use aren't half bad either (And if that's all you're using it for; why pay thousands for a 'good' one?
Click to expand...

So true. My dad loves that store. He's always raving about it. Right before Hurricane Sandy hit he bought a little 3200/4000 watt generator for around $350. We had that thing running nearly 24 hours a day for 8 days straight. It started to go a little bit towards the end but once the power came back on we returned it for a full REFUND. Not bad if you ask me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top