What Harbor freight tools do you give 5 stars?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Originally Posted by Fawteen
None. It's cheap chinese garbage that has no place in my garage.


There are some happy mediums like Gearwrench and SK tools and a lot of decent affordable Taiwanese hand tools like Teckton and Sunnex.

Snap-on Will readily tell you your paying those prices for the service and not the tools so unless your a mechanic who is going to lose money if you have to run back and forth from stores when tools break or send stuff back you are paying inflated prices for absolutely NOTHING, that goes for all tool truck tools like snap-on and MAC.
 
Fiberglass shovel. $8 with coupon.

Threadlocker and RTV.

It's not five stars, mainly because the swivel part can be annoying, but, for the price, you can get a lot of mileage out of the swivel head laser level.
It doesn't self-level and isn't a motorized rotary, but the cheap self-leveling ones and motorized rotary ones break a lot faster than the manual one will. And cheaper rotaries aren't bright enough to use outside anyway.

Use the manual one as a $23 laser transit for yard elevations, etc. Sure beats using a string line.
 
I love their ball joint splitter tool. Wish I had one years ago for ball joints and tie rod ends instead of the 'other' methods I was forced to use.


Yes its a knock-off, but isn't everything there?
 
I am told that their 20T hydraulic press, the silver-coloured one (not the orange-coloured one) is pretty darned good value. Comes with anvil plates (I think they're called). Good sale price of $129 or $139?
 
Last edited:
I don't post in here very often, but i bought the Holt Industries fluid extractor to do the drain and fills on some cars i have, and it worked great. There are others just like it on amazon, but with the 20 percent off coupon, it came out a little cheaper at the time.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Their cheapest corded reciprocating saw for under $20. Used it to cut up a Chevy Cruze before taking to a scrap yard, Thought I would sell the saw on Craigslist afterwards, but it did so good I'm keeping it.


This... I needed one to cut through a lifting eye rod on an old boat project and my good one was at the other house. Bought one of these as a potential throw away. Gearbox sounds like it is full of gravel, but its still going strong after a lot of heavy use.

Their impact driver, hammer type, is another keeper and their ~$150 wood work bench is also very good except for cheesy drawer slides which are easily substituted....OK that is a 4 star.

I am a tool snob, buying any tool as a disposable goes against my grain, and I won't do it for anything safety related, but sometimes you just cant beat HF bang for the buck.
 
As I said above, I've hit a lot of good tools at HF with no real clinkers. A couple months ago I bought one of the new Hercules 12V cordless screwdrivers, and have been using it pretty much daily. It's a keeper, I compared it to the Dewalt and it will run circles around the DW. I couldn't be happier with the build quality, and battery life. I wish it were brushless, but hey for $65, who cares. I looked at the 18v drills and I'm not ready to give up my Milwaukee Fuel 18v hammer drill, which is a beast of a drill, but the Hercules drills do look good. I know you're not getting the power, brushless motor, etc that the Fuel has, but it's not going to cost nearly $300 either. For the bulk of what we do, I think it would work fine until we needed to drill 4" holes in a rooftop, or thru concrete, but not bad.
 
Originally Posted by zjtins
big [censored] long flat screwdriver to use as pry bar. clear plastic handle about 20".



Hope you are using eye protection when you do that. Screwdrivers used for that purpose will break..

Use a pry bar here which is designed and hardened for that use.

They come in all sizes.
 
Forgot I have a floor jack from HF, one of the new aluminum low profile ones, that is wonderful.
 
Great thread guys.I use their heat shrink tubing,inexpensive compared to everyone else's I've seen.Pittsburg ratcheting wrenches seem well made and function well.
 
3 ton steel floor jack ðŸ‘
1/2 Pittsburgh TQ Wrench ðŸ‘
6 ton floor jacks ðŸ‘
6" angle grinderðŸ‘
1/2 electric impact ðŸ‘
Assortment of Pittsburg ratchet wrench's ðŸ‘

Everything I've bought works just fine for the money
 
>The black 3 piece lug nut impact socket set- durable black finish, easy to read numbers. A 17mm, 19 mm sized socket and an SAE sized socket. Both double sided with a handy extension that puts it just the right distance to clear the tire with my torque wrench.
> The air tool oil that is made in USA
> I have an older extendable lug wrench that is easily stored in the car
> I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the hamburger press. Better than my Williams of Sonoma one.
 
Originally Posted by Stag
>The black 3 piece lug nut impact socket set- durable black finish, easy to read numbers. A 17mm, 19 mm sized socket and an SAE sized socket. Both double sided with a handy extension that puts it just the right distance to clear the tire with my torque wrench.
> The air tool oil that is made in USA
> I have an older extendable lug wrench that is easily stored in the car
> I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the hamburger press. Better than my Williams of Sonoma one.



Oh yea that lug nut set ROCKS. I've been beating mine to death for years now. Saves you a lot of time screwing around looking for the right size socket when you can just flip that thing around on the extension....
 
Originally Posted by user52165
Originally Posted by zjtins
big [censored] long flat screwdriver to use as pry bar. clear plastic handle about 20".



Hope you are using eye protection when you do that. Screwdrivers used for that purpose will break..

Use a pry bar here which is designed and hardened for that use.

They come in all sizes.

Ironically, they're available at...

*

I like my 1/2" drive Earthquake impact, does what I need, along with some cheapo impact sockets (not sure they were from HF but I'm guessing all the cheapo sockets are likely made in that area). The 1.5T jack is nice, small size for small jobs. Moving blankets and gloves, hard to go wrong there. Their wrenches are good enough for me, but might fail the 5 star test, better ones would be thinner and I should enable me to see my ugly mug in their finish--then again, maybe I should take a star off if I could do that.
 
Originally Posted by Driz
Originally Posted by Stag
>The black 3 piece lug nut impact socket set- durable black finish, easy to read numbers. A 17mm, 19 mm sized socket and an SAE sized socket. Both double sided with a handy extension that puts it just the right distance to clear the tire with my torque wrench.
> The air tool oil that is made in USA
> I have an older extendable lug wrench that is easily stored in the car
> I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the hamburger press. Better than my Williams of Sonoma one.



Oh yea that lug nut set ROCKS. I've been beating mine to death for years now. Saves you a lot of time screwing around looking for the right size socket when you can just flip that thing around on the extension....

I just checked them out on their website. What I found odd was they only offer a 90 day warranty on them.
 
I only have a few tools from Harbor Freight, but the black oxide impact sockets have been rock solid for me. I also have the Hercules 4.5" angle grinder that has been good. On another note, two years ago I bought my nephew the Pittsburgh Pro ratchets and socket sets for his auto mechanics classes. While I've never used them, he said they work great and hasn't had any issues with them using them in class.

Oh, just remembered. I have the large pry bar that looks like a bent screwdriver, and the yellow plastic handled hatchet. No trouble with those either.


L8R,
Matt
 
Some of the Pittsburgh Pro ratchets have very decent quality even when compared to tools costing 10X times more, the price for for you get makes them a great value.
I am no fan of HF but lets be honest, a good tool is a good tool.
I have some Sunex impact torx inside/outside bits (made in Taiwan) that were throw away cheap (I am not taking an impact to nice chrome torx tools), surprisingly they take everything I can throw at them and come back for more and I don't baby them..
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Kruse
1/2" battery "bigguns" impact wrenches. Harbor Freight (Hercules) vs. Milwaukee. (long)
Replies
14
Views
9K
wtd
JeffKeryk
What tools do you carry in your vehicle?
2 3
Replies
51
Views
3K
Al
W
Re-powering a 3 HP 1987 MTD edger with Lifan 4 HP engine ( LF160F-AQ)
Replies
11
Views
4K
slomo
Gokhan
Wheel-stud installation/removal -- ball-joint tool
2
Replies
26
Views
39K
wtd
E
  • Locked
Harbor Freight Tools
2 3 4
Replies
78
Views
60K
sciphi
Back
Top