HF Predator Engines

great to begin with.

Bitch all they want..but Craftsman were pretty damned good tools.

And a goodly number of them were made in the same factories that made Snap-on, Williams and other equally good brands

Exactly my case as well.

i

The $7 open end wrench set I bought a couple months ago to keep in the shed for changing sparkplugs & tightening loose handle bolts, etc so I don't have to track mud into the basement to get the good wrenches are fine, but the 6" crescent wrench I also got has more slop in the jaw out of the box than my 30-rear old Craftsman. You do get what you pay for but the are serviceable.

MikeB

great to begin with.

My recollection of Sears stuff was from the 1970s and experience with them selling oddball stuff, I'm not talking socket sets but items made to their spec which wasn't standard. My dad gave me a fret saw and the following year I needed new blades and Sears didn't stock them, obsolete we were told, as the saw used 4.5" blades and the standard was 5" and Sears no longer sold the blades at all. The solution was simple a 1/2" packer under the upper blade holder but it showed what Sears could do as no one else did 4.5" blades as far as we could tell. My dad later had a electric hand drill and the chuck failed and the replacement from Sears was more than a new drill would cost as the mounting thread was a real odd ball so the drill got tossed and my dad didn't buy from Sears much anymore.

My experience is that the HF tools are almost always worth at least as much as they cost. And sometimes are a real bargain. I recently balked at buying a speed wrench at Sears as the price seemed too high, and later got one at HF for about 1/3 the price. On the other hand scroll saw blades are much cheaper at Sears.

Dan

What you say is true about hand tools. I agree with someone who said, do not buy anything at HF that has a sharp cutting edge or a motor of any kind.,

i

I have had Horrible Frights too.

There was the 2-lb fist maul with the balsa wood handle & the c-clamps that the swivel pads fell off 1st use then they snapped in half with only moderate force applied.

Read the reviews on there website before buying!

MikeB

I have had good luck with their circular saw blades. But the 4.5 inch disks for angle grinders made in china are worse than worthless. They are the exception that proves the rule. The ones made in Taiwan are useable, the ones made in Russia are really good.

The angle grinders have motors and the ones I have had are good. i also have a couple of Harbor Freight drill presses that are good. But the ones I have now were both bought second hand. So not sure of the current models.

Dan

Perhaps I'm easily confused, but I think it should be '>=' , the other way just looks like an arrow to me.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

"Ignoramus11949" wrote in message news:OtqdnbgI0eFt3eDMnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

The one I broke came from a local discount store, not Harbor Freight. I have good tools to use around the house and cheap toolkits in vehicles and to loan out or use elsewhere, where they can be lost in the dirt or mixed up with someone else's tools. I broke the drive adapter on a neighbor's friend's car lugnuts.

On the same project we were breaking tools trying to disassemble a (Chevy?) U joint. He found out that they are glued together and come apart easily when heated. jsw

Why so big? My average home electricity demand is under 200W, about 4 KWH/day. I loaned a 1600W generator to an off-gridder so he could run a refrigerator in the summer and use power tools to finish his house and IIRC he went through less than two gallons of gas per day. jsw

Your loss.

I have electric tools from HF which have performed well for years. Angle grinders, 12" compound miter saw, multifunction tool, etc.

That's just like GM engineering.

"And where is this heat-removable U-joint located, sir?"

"Oh, it's downwind of the radiator, situated directly between the two exhaust pipes."

It takes quite a bit of heat to melt the injected plastic.

Not saying everyone needs 20 KW, but that's the only generator HF sells through the website that is rated for continuous duty.

I used to hear that Onan RV generators were a good choice but I haven't tripped over any cheap used ones. Is there anything else decent in the 3-5 KW range?

These are ridiculously expensive for my needs:

I have tripped over cheap used Coleman Powermates with repairable (by me if not the seller) problems. jsw

Check Ebay for gensets.

Etc etc etc

There are some caviats. Some..some older military generators put out

400 cycle power. Great for lightbulbs..not so good for electronics

Propane gennies can be easily converted to natural gas. If you have natural gas...this is probably the best type to purchase. If you dont have natural gas...take a good long look at the price in your area of diesel, gasoline and propane. Gas goes bad over a relatively short period of time. It can be extended a year or two with additives. Same with diesel..but if you live in cold areas..it may get so thick that it wont flow and run the genset in the winter when you may need it the most. Propane powered devices run very clean, no freezing problems..but you will burn more propane than either gas or diesel...so you may need a big tank..check your pricing of both the tank, the propane itself and how much it will need to run.

Gasoline gennies are the simplist to feed and run, but they need regular oil changes and the fuel needs to be stablilized and then reused in other engines past a certain date.

1800 RPM gennies are what you should be looking for. Thats a high idle and at those rpms..they sip fuel. And last a very long time. The 3600 rpm gennies are very loud, suck fuel like a baby on the tit and wear out rather quickly.

When looking at a generator..like the very first one I listed...dont run away because it looks weathered. Its been set up on a foundation next to a cell tower out IN the weather..but it only has 1000 hours on it. A lot of these gennies were used as backup power...so they were tested regularly, then turned off and used when local power went out. So they spent their lives sitting. Period. Not running.

Thats the problem with a lot of the smaller gennies..they tend to be

3600 rpm and were run a lot. on job sites etc etc. Yah..you can maybe buy one for a couple hundred bucks..but they tended to be cheap units in the first place..and are running on the ass end of their service lives. It may sit in your garage for a year..never run..but when you call on it next winter or during the next tornado/hurricane season..will it run? Will you have fuel on hand?

You will also note that a lot of these gennies are :"pick up only"

So you will have to go get your new genset and haul it home. Saves on shipping..but may cost gas money.

Set up a search on Ebay..based on closest distance and refer to it once a week. Sooner or later you will find one or more gensets that fit your needs quite nicely.

Gunner

Same here.

Gunner

Mostly the same here; 1/2" drill motor, wet tile cutting saw, and 12" compound miter saw all worked great for my uses.

The 4x6 bandsaw and abrasive chop saw, however, didn't turn out to be very durable, and are more "projects" than tools.

Jon