Harbor Fright tool

I have spent $20,000 at H.F. , the old 42204 4.5" grinder was the best deal , the mill-drill was the worst , but they're a bit better now . The first grinder had good bearings and a grey wear line perfectly centered on the pinion ! It had very hard heat treated gears .... all for $16 !! They lasted years !

________________________________________________- 38119/44506 drill press: Errors like a PSC motor on the $40 tabel drill press ... a small bit will totally stop the drill ! All drill presses have Cap start tools motors (CSR) . You can hear the switch take the start cap out of the start winding circuit . ____________Tile saw______________ Where do you get a 7" table tile saw for $60 ? Tile needs a table for the blade lasts longer cause you can't force the tile into the balde and knock diamonds off like a hand held .. _______________big grinders________________________________ 9/7 inch grinders are very good . The Bosch and makita will have much smoother motors cause China drills holes to balance the motor into the face !! That increases motor heat by increasing the "cores" reluctance or coupling gap .

________________________92632__polishers The polishers are much lower speed , ring gear has many more teeth than a grinder , but black head (model# 92632) is much better than the light colored head , both $30 on special _______________lathes_________________________________ I wonder if their 12" gear head lathe has a 1/2" wide bull gear like the ENCO bought around 1998 ? The belt drive 12" needs more room between the lead screw and feed rod for the proper gear for power feed . The gear head has the proper distance to handle that gear , but the worm on both lathes will eat that gear in 1 hour ! The $800 tiny lathe has a tiny thru hole , but for the price ?!! I love the t slots on cross slide ! I have owned 4 7 by 10 lthes at special price of $360 . Soft bed , nylon gears need molydisulphide grease , lead screw needs some bearings . Speed control is GREAT ! I always bore out the 3 jaw til it eats part of the tiny retainer screws and hog out the saddle for more travel , flip the body that holds the clock , over .....but you can no longer see the dial .. yeh , but ya get mo travel .... theres a 7 by 12" now , try Grizzly , they're better company to do business with . They know tools , HF doesnt know how to pour piss out of a boot ...cronies ... ___________MIG_______________________ MIG welders are crap . I will put 8 , 450 watt , $17 , PC power supplies together and change the output windings and get 100% duty cycle MIG ! and much lighter too .

_________________________________________ I buy HF small numatic wheels at $5 and put 6202 2RS bearings in . But housing is crap , trouble .... ______________Sawzal_______________________ I buy the $37 sawzall 42597 . The $17 is crap , will last 1 hour max ! $37 saw has the proper crankshaft , like PorteCable,Milwakee et al have .... I would like to see more than the 6 teeth on motor gear though . You can use the counter weight drive to maybe drive a "lifter" to raise the blade as it goes out stroke , cut on in stroke . ________1/2" electric impact _____________________ 1/2" electric impact is very good , 3/4" i dont know , maybe it can stand a larger motor .

I want motor gearboxes , looking looking ... A chop saw has not the power its amps say , windings are larger wire than the core can tolerate , so look for more core at that amperage . Maybe the 1/2" 550 RPM $40 drills ..... The mortar mixer wont work ( it loks like a large paint mixer !) it has far to high an RPM ! You need 50 RPM to mix cement .

Im looking for a motor + gear box with several speeds plus Light dimmer ( var speed ) control . I have the motor off the 7 by 10 lathe , but its not very powerful , id like at least 12 amps / 117vac .

________________tin snips______________________________________ Look at the new Tin snips ( lefts and Rights ) ha hah hahhah hard steel and bad angles ! To reduce effort , cut easy , they have bad angles

Look close , they could have made them throatless , but put a bit of metal in the way . Not like the best ....Wiss . _____________digital calipers_________________________________ 6 and 12" Digital calipers are OK but not as accurate as Mitutoyo. One 12" a long time ago was dropped on a long , 26" PCboard and the HF caliper head read plus and minus 99" ! almost

200 inch range ! I used it on HF mill drill . _____________winch_________________________________________ Has anyone tested the gears on the $50 , 12vdc winch ? Maybe i can use those planetary gears in my project .. __________weld helmit___________________________________ $40 weld helmit seems to work OK , its darker in center so maybe to see on all sides of the arc spot ( darker in center so you can put dark center on the spot and actually see around the edge of the arc spot .... _________IR thermometers____________________________________ $30 IR thermometer works OK , you use to cook with . _________________________________________ $140 tool grinder .....CRAP , i sold it back !

______________jacks__________________________________ All their hydraulic jacks are soft steel , wear out quickly , i polish

the ram to help a bit . The 10 Ton porta power is no better , soft ram . _________rotary hammer______________________________ 1" SDS rotary hammer is OK , i was in a hurry , he handed me a box from back room , i was home when i saw it contained 2 units . Thanks HF .... They couldnt figure , so they just grabbed a common rubber O ring and slipped it on the piston ! It must be plastic . Great for working in hard ground like caliche .. or knocking holes in your house . _____________Dial indicator_________________________________ The 1" D.I. is good , at $6 i got 10 . But notice the Digital has not the indictaion of the analog ! Its easier to read changes in an analog . You need a DTI with 1 tenth hash marks !! Notice ENCO dont show them much , only the 5 tenths marks ... ____________Spot welder_______________________________________

230vac Spot welder needs twice the amps , wont do Alum and Galvy needs to be cleaned with pool acid ( alias HCL , muriatic) The factor is 120,000 time metal thickness = amps minimum Keep the tips down to 3/16 spot or it will simply heat the metal ! You get an electrical 'jerk" if it does a good weld . If it dont weld in 1 second , it will never weld . 2 or 3 seconds will NOT weld , only heat the metal . _____________________________________________________ 94101 pipe threader has bad guides , so tubes wont line up . I got a cheap set with adjustable guides , much better ! But the teeth are hard in both .. They "alloy" taps and dies are good if you inspect the dies ( you cant fix them but taps can be sharpened ) , carbon steel are crap ... ____________bearing separator____________________________

Notice the new 93980 bearing separater set ! long ago they ony had 2 sizes and poor finish .....

___________________________________________ Cast iron wheels that look serious ? Bearing is soft ! ________________________________________________

92079 Flour drop light . All compact flour must use an old heavy ballast as they have built in starters , the longer 8" ordinary flour' tubes can be modern Switch mode ballasts called "Electronic ballasts " runs cooler .

__________drill__________________________________

93632 1/2" drill has been changed . I had many of the old style . Gears appear to be hardened ( file bounced off ) and the gears are MUCH wider . I dont get excited about their needle bearings , but they will maybe last a few years . All ball bearing 1/2" drill for $40 !! it will last for years ! At HF , every 10th tool will be bad , inspect close . all hand held grinders , rotate backwards , feel for smoothness of gears .. ________________drill bits__________________________

You can see the diff between HSS and forged bits . Forged shatter HSS is far more shatter resistant , stamped HSS . The 115 bit Forgery ( forged) set is worth the $40 .. ___________socket set _______________________________

93150 'GO-THRU" socket set is coooool , got a nut thats in a hole ? Put socket on nut , use a 19mm combo on the socket !!! No , the wild offset Box wrenches WONT drop in that much . ________Cresent wrench_______________________________ Cresent wrench with slider ? It slips !!!! Its only a bevel gear !! trash ..... ________________________________________________ Why would anyone buy a worn drive boat winch !!!! stupid .. heavy , very heavy friction and for what ? backhaul ... bad engineering .. never use for transmitting power , only for precision . ____________________________________ 49891 air chuck/ Tire inflator gage will surprize you ! gage was so good i bought many and used / calibarted one for my engine compression tester ( using Propane and an oven ) _________7" elect hand saw____________________________________ 7 1/4" Skill saw blades are under 7" !!!! and warped so bad you need to true them . Both elect skill saws wont keep blade from wobble , go buy a Makita / Milwakee . I tried several from Walmart like "SKIL" junk ! .. SKIL USED BUSHINGS !! No tools use bushings !!! ______________________________________ compression testers or fuel pump testers ... BUY EM for the fittings , not the gage , pay big for a quality gage and you are ahead of the game ..
Reply to
werty
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Reply to
JR North

Interesting report nonetheless

- - Rex B Fort Worth TX

JR North wrote:

Reply to
Rex B

The 4 1/2 ' Angle grinder rocks, wore one out a few years back, I'd suggest buying 2 1 with hard wheel, one with cutoff wheel. Should one fail, swap wheels. The Drill Bit Sharpener bites the rat Total junk, barely runs. The TI Drill bits were a good bet, Big assortment, good quality, low price.

The worst drill bits I've ever seen are Buffalo Tool Ti Coated [ coated what ? ] These are so bad, I wore out 2 trying to drill a hole in a lawnmower deck. The Store gave me crap, wouldn't make good. I don't care, was saving up for big mega assortment, figured, try the small set, glad I did !

Reply to
Paul

well as they say there's always enough money to do it right the second time!

Harbor Freight has it's place, but I wouldn't drop $20k on cheap import tools.

Reply to
Tony

The problem with Ti coated drills is simply it is the outside coating. So many people just look at that as quality. Look for cobalt and Ti.

Maybe HSS Ti coated. So many are A36 hardened on a bet.

Martin - some time we win them some time we loose.

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

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Paul wrote:

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

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