Air impact wrench (maybe Harbor Freight)

Ignoramus23953 wrote in article ...

Horrible Fright stuff is probably okay for the weekend warrior who occasionally changes a tire or two.

But, for the professional technician, they're junk.

They are NOT built of sturdy materials, and once they wear out, they are not rebuildable.

I have a Chicago Pneumatic CP-740 half-inch air wrench that I have owned for 35 years. It served me for two years of hard, daily use in a truck and car spring shop, and I still use it today. It has been rebuilt ONCE!

We bought one-inch air wrenches for the spring shop from Horrible Fright, and they lasted about a year, then we threw them away.

Snap-On and CP stuff needed rebuilding after a couple of years of abuse, but they did NOT need replacing.

That about sums it up, one year life in a commercial shop should equal a decade of personal shop use for most folks. So the HF air tools are a good value for non commercial workloads. Certainly the few HF air tools I have have performed flawlessly in my home shop.

Pete C.

That would describe me accurately.

Does this apply to all of their models, or to the cheapest ones?

I understand that there are no economic miracles in what HF does, so I do not have unrealistic expectations. I know that if I get an impact wrench that would fall apart after one year of heavy, professional daily use, such a wrench would last my lifetime under my use conditions.

What I do not want to buy is a wrench that would not hold up to actual use at all, as some super cheap tools seem to be doing a lot.

Very nice. I have a couple of broken air tools in my garage made by CP, if I recall correctly (military stuff), I will likely try to rebuild them.

Yes. HF has its share of bad tools, but their air tools performed flawlessly for my amateur use, so far.

So... Any suggestions on their actual impact wrenches?

I would STRONGLY advise you to make sure you have a bill of sale for the military stuff.

I hope you bought it at surplus......

A guy who worked next to me gave a military wrench back to Snap-On for a warranty. The military tools have certain marks that distinguish them.

The next week, a couple of uniformed guys with armbands saying "MP" showed up and escorted this guy away.

The following week, his toolbox simply wasn't there one morning when I came in.

I do buy them surplus by the pallet at Government liquidation. So I have their bills of sale, but they do not always list individual items. A typical entry in that bill of sale could be

(APPX 21) AUTOMOTIVE TOOLS, FILTERS, A/C ENGINE GENERATOR

I did not realize that they authority to make arrests in this fashion.

I actually sold a few broken Snap-On tools (former military) on ebay (fully disclosing that they are broken). People buy them, I think, to get them warranty serviced or something. Two of them were bought by someone from a army post office. I hope that he did not get in trouble.

Scary stuff.

I got one of the combos with the 1/2" impact wrench and 3/8" ratchet. Both have worked just fine. They seemed a little weak when I first tried them, but after a minute or so I guess the vanes seated or whatever and they had acceptable power. Certainly not enough to take off a truck lug nut, but I don't think even the best IR 1/2" impact wrench will do that.

Pete C.

The story sounds a little suspect to me as well. Unless the guy was military reserve, it seems likely that the MP's would be accompanied by civilian police. In any case it seems unlikely the military would get involved unless there was something much deeper going on.

OTOH, it it happened on a miltary base, it would be possible.

I've purchased surplus tools at the local air force base and not kept the receipts and I loose no sleep over it. With the massive demilitarization that's gone on in the US over the last few years, there must be thousands of tons of surplus tools in civilian's garages.

I got an import knockoff of this one at HF many years ago:

After two crummy 3/8" "ratchet" air wrenches, I finally bought an Ingersoll.

I wore out one little butterfly wrench, bought another import to replace it, still works fine.

I know of a couple shops that buy air and some power tools off HF with the policy that all the tools get beat up by the employees. As such they buy the lower priced ones and just replace them if they fail. They normally get 8-9 months out of them and then replace them (they do repair them if it is a part that they have from another unit). The owners have both told me that it works out to be cheaper to buy the tools, use them and replace them than it is to buy the high end tools and have them repaired when they are worn.

I generally own good tools (Snap-On mainly) and have a set of "loaners" for the neighbors.

I bought a set of airtools at Costco a few years ago. 1/2" gun, 3/8' ratchet style, air impact chisell with at least 4 tools, a bunch of sockets, metric and SAe some other fittins and stuff all in a plastic case. $49 out the door. They work fine. No problems yet.

Thanks Don. Your word seals it, I will buy a higher priced one from HF.

Perhaps the guy himself was the issue... He went AWOL and took stuff with him when he went over the fence? Possibly the serial numbers on the tools (or his name when Snap-on called to verify if these were legit) came up as wanted by the military? AFAIK until you get discharged, your ass is still property of Uncle, if he went over the fence, the MP's would have jurisdiction. Maybe the local law just sat in their car out front?

Stuart Wheaton wrote in article ...

This was during the Vietnam era....draft and all that stuff.

My understanding is that when one was discharged, one was considered to be on "Inactive Reserve" for a certain period of time, and subject to callup.

I cannot say for sure since I was called in for the physical, but four-effed out due to diabetes.

Got this one

It is a 1/2" torque wrench with three different torque settings. Seems to work so far. The US General Air Superiority sticker is not holding on well, it has a fat transparent layer of plastic, and this sticker is already becoming unglued from the wrench. The tool itself has a solid feel to it and seems to run fine so far.