Harbor Freight is great

On Sat, 31 Jan 2009 05:09:48 GMT, the infamous "Ivan Vegvary" scrawled the following:

How accurate is the alignment, both for straight and 45° cuts?

That's great news. How quicky does it cut a tile in half, Ivan?

Indeed!

-- Even with the best of maps and instruments, we can never fully chart our journeys. -- Gail Pool

If someone is good at examining and evaluating a tool by visual inspection only,

or has a need for limited use tools where top quality does not save them money in the long run,

or has a need for disposable tools. They are terrific!

Seems the only people unsatisfied with importers are the people that are either looking for something for nothing, or unskilled at evaluating tools, their needs or their budget.

Because even at their best, many of the items in an import store are junk, and you have to know how and when to avoid them.

Harbor Freight makes serviceable power tools that will handle the average DIY job - the problem is that they aren't built for any abuse or daily Nine To Five duty. Lots of stuff that's sleeve bearings where you would use ball on a true heavy duty tool. And the repair parts situation can be extremely variable.

I have several HF items, but for 'mission critical' things you either need two (or three...) on hand, or a Real Tool.

I use DeWalt 18V drills, not HF - I don't want the damn thing crapping out on me after I've crawled 100' back into the corner of the attic - because then I have to crawl out, find a replacement, and crawl back in again, and it'll be another 20 degrees hotter up there by the time I do that...

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I quit using those Black & Decker er... DeWalt drills for that reason. For me it was the chuck. Unless they have changed them in the last several years they have a non standard chuck, and replacement parts were not as close as my local equipment store. I'm a communications contractor and all drills will get dropped. Its how many times before they break and if they can be be repaired that makes the difference for me. I pretty much use only the Milwaukee 18s now, and have for several years.

I cut straight pieces to within a 32nd of an inch. 1/16th would have been good enough. The 45° were very close. On a full tile (4 inch) they were spot on. On my trim tile pieces (two inch wide band) you had to hold the tile really tight against the plastic slide. Not a problem.

I wasn't pushing it. About three seconds to make a 4 inch long cut, full depth.

Ivan Vegvary

to elaborate on above - I just returned a batch of bar clamps - made with an aluminum extensible square channel - seemed like a good idea, but the ratchet that allows adjusting the clamp was pot metal of some kind and sheared off on one clamp the first time I used it. Another one (out of 4) jammed so I couldn't turn the screw to tighten (this is for furniture work), and the other two left such deep impressions in teh alumunum from the ratchet (no, I didn't overtighten) that it was clear they wouldn't last long. So, some HF stuff is good, some is great, and some is just plain junk.

I have two bathrooms to tile, would you like to come and visit for a while? ...and bring your tile saw?

On Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:42:38 GMT, the infamous "Ivan Vegvary" scrawled the following:

Great.

Buttery Goodness! That's good. Diamond blade life?

-- Even with the best of maps and instruments, we can never fully chart our journeys. -- Gail Pool

On Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:51:06 -0500, the infamous "Buerste" scrawled the following:

If you didn't live in Cleavage and it wasn't in the middle of icy winter, someone might take you up on that, Tawm.

-- Even with the best of maps and instruments, we can never fully chart our journeys. -- Gail Pool

Go get your own, they aren't that much. Then you'll start looking at trhe kitchen counters and seeing all the mess-ups and stupid shortcuts and corners they filled in with a big wad of grout instead of making the coves meet...

I like the "bridge" style saw with the larger diamond blade and the sliding table, easier to cut 12" floor sized tiles.

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"Bill Noble" wrote

So, some HF stuff is good, some is great, and some is just plain

I needed a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeely long tape measure to mark some property. I looked at some, and they were spendy, and that is putting it lightly. I was at HF on some other mission, and found one that was about 165' long, made of fiberglass, and had a plastic reel. I think I paid $15, or less. I used the thing, figuring it would last as long as the job, and that would be worth it. I have had it for years now, occasionally using it for long measuring jobs. If I had it in the truck and used it every day, I'm sure it wouldn't last for as long, but there are those items where a cheap one is as good as an expensive one for the job one is going to do. I have gone to the Borg stores, and bought nice specialized tools, and paid the price, and have some from HF that work as well, and some from garage sales that are from another era that will outlive them both, and cost pennies on the dollar of what they want new.

Steve

On Sun, 1 Feb 2009 09:57:10 -0700, the infamous "SteveB" scrawled the following:

I have one of those, too, and have used it for years. I recently bought one of the wheeled jobbers which doesn't have the limitations of the tape. I use it to measure out fenceline lengths. It's somewhat cheaply made but should be good enough for years of use.

I had to return the HF 91201 (Greenlee-knockoff) knockout punch set. The bolt was made with SAE thread tolerances, the dies with metrics, but it stripped the second I got more than ten pounds on the wrench. 'Twas a real POS. I got my money back rather than trying another set.

-- Even with the best of maps and instruments, we can never fully chart our journeys. -- Gail Pool

--OTOH sometimes they totally suck! I've been waiting for an item that's been displayed in the last THREE sales catalog but they still don't seem to stock the item! Have back-ordered and had it lapse twice now! Object in question: the ring roller. Sigh..

Hey Ed,

I wasn't interested, but I know they had them in stock in the retail store at their warehouse/shipping operation in South Carolina.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario.