My sentiments exactly

 

I bought this auto darkening helmet at the store the other day, so far works great http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=91212

 

I bought the same thing Saturday...works great.

 

I usually just buy Craftsman. I use cheap tools at work and hate it. Here in MI we have MIT (Michigan Industrial Tool) and GRIP (Grand Rapids Industrial Products). Both are exculsively chinese tools. The MIT impact sockets we have seem to be pretty good but the ratchets aren't anything to right home about. I haven't broken anything yet but I haven't done any really hard as in needing a breaker bar hard with them yet but I do have some craftman stuff for when I need it. I figure if I'm going to buy a tool I might as well get something thats going to last me or if it breaks I can go get a new one no questions asked and I have done that a few times.

 

someone once told me that you can "cry once or cry everytime"

you can be upset at the inital upfront cost of buying something good, or you can get cheap and be upset everytime you use it.

 

Amen! Cheap tools are okay for the once in awhile jobs, but if you have a career and use them everyday I highly recommend biting the bullet and get quality tools such as Snap On or Mac. The problem with it though is not everyone has a Snap On truck stop by their work every week, so as an alternative I highly recommend Craftsman tools. I'm still cursing HF for buying their cheap creeper in which I had to buy another set of caster wheels and well nuts that would fit in it.

 

I bought one of their 40 piece Tap and die kits, works great considering that at home depot they wanted $35 for a 12 piece kit.

 

I just got there air brush compressor, and 3" die grinder/cut off tool, and an air body saw.

all for like $80

 

I got a torque wrench, a couple breaker bars, and a drill bit set from them.

It has been a couple months and I have been using the stuff constantly and have no complaints at all. Very pleased, I will be ordering more from them for sure.

 

Rather than start a new thread, I thought I'd latch on to this one:

Now that you all have been talking about HF quality, I'm worried that I might be making a bad decision. I wanted to get my dad an Air compressor, but none of the ones that had enough CFM from Sears or Home Depot are affordable enough for me. At HF, there's a Central Pneumatic one on sale that has pretty good specs.

BTW, I have a HF about 15 miles from me, so I won't be getting it shipped.

Anyone have an air compressor specific experience here??

Thanks for any help!!

 

yep, i do, bought this one, http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=38898

after my crapsman went out when i was unenployed and doing side work in my shop for $$ so i NEEDED a compressor.

I used the old 25 gallon tank from the crapsman as an addtional air tank. Its been great for the past 3 years. I would like to upgrade to a larger compressor, but just havnt had a reason to because its working fine.

 

Cool, thanks for the quick response.

 

It works pretty well but if you need a LOT of torque it may be a little hurting there.
We used a HF to try to get the flywheel bolts out when we were working on the clutch and they would not budge. We just couldn't get enough pressure built up to remove them.

Still, I think they're cool and would get it if I had the $

 

While HF tools are inexpensive it makes the quite tempting, but I've been disatisfied with them. Their ratchets are horrible. I bent a 3/8 ratchet square part by just pushing on it. I'm pretty small. I wised up and bought a 190 piece craftsman set. My Dad has pieces to a large Snap-on set he once had, they are nice but the prices on them make you cringe.

 

I have a bunch of thier tools. The sell a lot of stuff that isn't on thier web site. I picked up a Puma 30gal compressor from them and it hasn't failed me in over 4 years. It was a special order but HF was cheaper than anyone else. I havea had pullers break but they were $5 a piece. Just keep in mind that you get what you pay for. My main set is all craftsman...I have replaced my favoriate ratchet three times...can't beat that.

 

yea, some stuff is ok. expendables ill get there, screwdrivers and such. i dont like their sockets, they seem ok, i dont know, just dont like them though. alot of times it can be something like how a tool feels when your using it, good control, does it feel right in your hand. i actually have one of their cheap chicago pnuematic compressors, so far so good, i got it supper cheap(3hp 20gallon) figure it the compressor gives out, replace it with a good one. i dont trust their precision stuff, that torque wrench they sell is not very accurate compared to my other one, then again the other one is a stahlwille manoskop, probably one of the best non digital tq wrenches made, so maybe not a fair comparison.

 

Just got a similar one to snap-on,

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=42321

Only used it for a few hours sunday, but I like it pretty well. The oil lubrication seems to make it run a lot quieter. Doesn't come with a regulator though, so you get whatever PSI the tank is at which could be too high for some tools. Cheap enough to add one on though. My local HF was out of compressor oil, so I ended up going to Sears for that.

 

Hypothetically i wouldnt buy the Electronic Hair Clippers on sale right now for $4.99... you'll get one pass into a hair cut and then they will break, and then cause you to have to go running around your fraternity house at midngiht trying to find someone wiht another trimmer, then they wont have the correct size plastic gaurd and tehn you'll end up having to shave your head with no gaurd even though you have a presentation tomorrow morning and 7 intern interviews next week.... all of this is Hypothetical cuz that would really suck if that happend. besides who would trust hair clippers from HARBOR FREIGHT

 

Like most of you, I wouldn't get precision tools or anything I would use frequently. All my stuff like ball joint/tie rod forks, pulley pullers, etc. come from there because they are CHEAP. The only power tool I have from there is a reciprocating saw. I bought it and discovered it had variable speed. It hasn't broken after a few years, and it's used moderately.

 

After several years of losing/selling/breaking most of my hand tools I found myself almost without. I needed a big wrench to take a bolt off my camper. I use to have one that size. I decided to restock my mechanics tools, not a cheap deal.
I found if you watch Sears ads you can find stuff fairly reasonably ie: set of 3/8 drive deep sockets both SAE and metric (18 sockets in all) for $20, regular depth $10 for either metric or SAE set, bought a 1/4" drive set with ratchet recently for $9. But you must be patient for every thing you want to go on sale.
I had just a few combination wrenches left but after pricing them else where (3/8-1 1/4 set) I figured the $10 price tag at HF was worth the gamble. Although made in India the finish on the wrenches is good, nice chrome plateing, can't find anything wrong with the looks.
I have used 3-4 of these wrenches and put some decent pressure on them without a problem. Time will tell.

Nice site