Now, before you scoff, allow me to elaborate. I don't buy HF stuff,
and generally consider it one step below worthless. With that said,
however, I was pleasantly surprised by this set of tools. This is NOT
the Pittsburgh or the Windsor tool sets listed in the HF catalog.

I was in need of a 1/2" round nose scraper, and ran across an 8 piece
set of tools at a local Harbor Freight store. I went there purely out
of desperation after finding the only other tools available locally
were carbon steel / alloy AND vastly overpriced for their quality.

This set does not appear in the HF catalog, and appears to be the same
set sold by The Woodworkers Choice as Item 3494.
The handles are well contoured, and dyed a dark rosewood color.
(Presumably to emulate a Crown or Sorby handle.)
They blades are marked HSS and are, of course, made in China.
The blades are securely mounted, and there is a tight fitting, thick
brass ring around the shank/handle junction.
The 8 individual tools are sold in a lined, finger jointed wooden box.
The set includes 3 gouges, 1 round scraper, 2 skews, 1 flat parting
tool and 1 half-diamond parting tool.
The business end of the tools were well shaped and smoothly ground.

I took these things home, expecting the worst, but after using them
for a few hours, found that they held their edge well, the handles
were comfortable, and they were sufficiently well ground that they
required no sharpening before use. Out of the box, I could shave a
nice ribbon of green cherry from a mounted blank.

Whether they are truly HSS remains to be seen, but they are
considerably higher quality than the Buck Brothers tools I picked up
on closeout at the BORG for $10.

I can find no mention of a brand name, or another source for these
tools. Only a similarity to the aforementioned TWC tools.

The box is labeled:
HSS Chisel Set Wood Turning 8PC
High-Grade Quality
Professional Quality Lathe Chisels

SKU P35444
Wood Turning Set-HSS 8PC
Made in China
UPC 7 92363 35444 8

The set sold for $39.95.
A winner in my book - and I'm a skeptic!

FWIW,

Greg G.

This set does not appear in the HF catalog, and appears to be the same
set sold by The Woodworkers Choice as Item 3494.
The handles are well contoured, and dyed a dark rosewood color.
(Presumably to emulate a Crown or Sorby handle.)
They blades are marked HSS and are, of course, made in China.
The blades are securely mounted, and there is a tight fitting, thick
brass ring around the shank/handle junction.
The 8 individual tools are sold in a lined, finger jointed wooden box.
The set includes 3 gouges, 1 round scraper, 2 skews, 1 flat parting
tool and 1 half-diamond parting tool.
The business end of the tools were well shaped and smoothly ground.

I couldn't get any pages of the woodworker's choice to work other than the
main page, but the HF chisel set that I've used for about a year and a half
sounds nearly identical - the only variation being the variety of chisels, I
got one skew and two scrapers. Because the two scrapers were identical, I
ground one to a different profile. Overall, I've considered them to be
perfectly adequate for my needs. Harbor Freight isn't completely useless,
just mostly so.

steve

I am also a HF skeptic and I too bought the same set of turning tools.
Being new to turning, and not having much spare cash after buying the lathe,
I thought these would be a great cheap starter set to learn how to turn and
sharpen without fear of destroying an expensive set. Although I have
nothing to compare them to, I really have no complaints about them thus far.
They are sized well, comfortable to use and they seem to hold an edge well.
On the other hand, whenever I decide to purchase a good set, I have a cheap
set to regrind into other profiles. While I was at HF I also grabbed
several 50 yd. rolls of 1" emery cloth in assorted grits for I think $3or$4
a roll. This cloth is nice for finish sanding spindles while still in the
lathe. -dave




Greg G. wrote in message
...

Now, before you scoff, allow me to elaborate. I don't buy HF stuff,
and generally consider it one step below worthless. With that said,
however, I was pleasantly surprised by this set of tools. This is NOT
the Pittsburgh or the Windsor tool sets listed in the HF catalog.

I was in need of a 1/2" round nose scraper, and ran across an 8 piece
set of tools at a local Harbor Freight store. I went there purely out
of desperation after finding the only other tools available locally
were carbon steel / alloy AND vastly overpriced for their quality.

This set does not appear in the HF catalog, and appears to be the same
set sold by The Woodworkers Choice as Item 3494.
The handles are well contoured, and dyed a dark rosewood color.
(Presumably to emulate a Crown or Sorby handle.)
They blades are marked HSS and are, of course, made in China.
The blades are securely mounted, and there is a tight fitting, thick
brass ring around the shank/handle junction.
The 8 individual tools are sold in a lined, finger jointed wooden box.
The set includes 3 gouges, 1 round scraper, 2 skews, 1 flat parting
tool and 1 half-diamond parting tool.
The business end of the tools were well shaped and smoothly ground.

I took these things home, expecting the worst, but after using them
for a few hours, found that they held their edge well, the handles
were comfortable, and they were sufficiently well ground that they
required no sharpening before use. Out of the box, I could shave a
nice ribbon of green cherry from a mounted blank.

Whether they are truly HSS remains to be seen, but they are
considerably higher quality than the Buck Brothers tools I picked up
on closeout at the BORG for $10.

I can find no mention of a brand name, or another source for these
tools. Only a similarity to the aforementioned TWC tools.

The box is labeled:
HSS Chisel Set Wood Turning 8PC
High-Grade Quality
Professional Quality Lathe Chisels

SKU P35444
Wood Turning Set-HSS 8PC
Made in China
UPC 7 92363 35444 8

The set sold for $39.95.
A winner in my book - and I'm a skeptic!

FWIW,

Greg G.

On Fri, 08 Oct 2004 22:12:03 -0400, Greg G. wrote:

I have a completely different view of HF.. I love it...
IMHO, you get what you pay for, and a lot of the stuff I buy doesn't
need to be 1st class...
Though I agree that I wouldn't buy lathe chisels, precision tools, or
things like that there, I'm often online ordering their sanding disks
and belts, bench clamps, etc.....
If you are looking for supplies of seldom used stuff, and expect to
get what you pay for (there ARE no free lunches *g*) it's a great
place to shop and they ship free if you spend $50... and it's hard NOT
to spend $50 there.. YMMV (and probably will)


Now, before you scoff, allow me to elaborate. I don't buy HF stuff,
and generally consider it one step below worthless. With that said,
however, I was pleasantly surprised by this set of tools. This is NOT
the Pittsburgh or the Windsor tool sets listed in the HF catalog.

I was in need of a 1/2" round nose scraper, and ran across an 8 piece
set of tools at a local Harbor Freight store. I went there purely out
of desperation after finding the only other tools available locally
were carbon steel / alloy AND vastly overpriced for their quality.

This set does not appear in the HF catalog, and appears to be the same
set sold by The Woodworkers Choice as Item 3494.
The handles are well contoured, and dyed a dark rosewood color.
(Presumably to emulate a Crown or Sorby handle.)
They blades are marked HSS and are, of course, made in China.
The blades are securely mounted, and there is a tight fitting, thick
brass ring around the shank/handle junction.
The 8 individual tools are sold in a lined, finger jointed wooden box.
The set includes 3 gouges, 1 round scraper, 2 skews, 1 flat parting
tool and 1 half-diamond parting tool.
The business end of the tools were well shaped and smoothly ground.

I took these things home, expecting the worst, but after using them
for a few hours, found that they held their edge well, the handles
were comfortable, and they were sufficiently well ground that they
required no sharpening before use. Out of the box, I could shave a
nice ribbon of green cherry from a mounted blank.

Whether they are truly HSS remains to be seen, but they are
considerably higher quality than the Buck Brothers tools I picked up
on closeout at the BORG for $10.

I can find no mention of a brand name, or another source for these
tools. Only a similarity to the aforementioned TWC tools.

The box is labeled:
HSS Chisel Set Wood Turning 8PC
High-Grade Quality
Professional Quality Lathe Chisels

SKU P35444
Wood Turning Set-HSS 8PC
Made in China
UPC 7 92363 35444 8

The set sold for $39.95.
A winner in my book - and I'm a skeptic!

FWIW,

Greg G.

Larry Blanchard said:

In article , Greg G. says...
This set does not appear in the HF catalog, and appears to be the same
set sold by The Woodworkers Choice as Item 3494.
The handles are well contoured, and dyed a dark rosewood color.
(Presumably to emulate a Crown or Sorby handle.)
They blades are marked HSS and are, of course, made in China.

When these appeared a few years ago, there was a discussion of them on
the woodturning newsgroup. The consensus was that they were well worth
the money, but experienced turners would probably want to turn a new set
of handles.

As mentioned in the OP, these are not the tools that appear in the HF
catalogs. The handles are these are almost identical to the crown
handles, albeit not real rosewood. I've seen the Windsor sets
previously discussed, and the handles are thick and natural colored.
These are profiled completely differently and stained a rosewood
color. Perhaps they read the wreck and altered the handle profiles?

I bought a set (on sale, when else) and am ashamed to admit I've never
gotten around to trying them. Too much other stuff to have time for
woodturning.

I understand completely. I'm getting to spend some time in the shop
because SWMBO is off visiting friends and family in CA. Last winter,
I didn't get a chance to do ANYTHING in the shop. This year is gonna
be different - yea right... ;-)


Greg G.

On Sat, 09 Oct 2004 18:03:43 -0400, Greg G. wrote:

Larry Blanchard said:

In article , Greg G. says...
This set does not appear in the HF catalog, and appears to be the same
set sold by The Woodworkers Choice as Item 3494.
The handles are well contoured, and dyed a dark rosewood color.
(Presumably to emulate a Crown or Sorby handle.)
They blades are marked HSS and are, of course, made in China.

When these appeared a few years ago, there was a discussion of them on
the woodturning newsgroup. The consensus was that they were well worth
the money, but experienced turners would probably want to turn a new set
of handles.

As mentioned in the OP, these are not the tools that appear in the HF
catalogs. The handles are these are almost identical to the crown
handles, albeit not real rosewood. I've seen the Windsor sets
previously discussed, and the handles are thick and natural colored.

the windsor turning tools come in clear finished handles and dark
reddish brown finished handles. mine are the dark ones.


These are profiled completely differently and stained a rosewood
color. Perhaps they read the wreck and altered the handle profiles?

I bought a set (on sale, when else) and am ashamed to admit I've never
gotten around to trying them. Too much other stuff to have time for
woodturning.

I understand completely. I'm getting to spend some time in the shop
because SWMBO is off visiting friends and family in CA. Last winter,
I didn't get a chance to do ANYTHING in the shop. This year is gonna
be different - yea right... ;-)


Greg G.

Steve Wolfe said:

I couldn't get any pages of the woodworker's choice to work other than the
main page, but the HF chisel set that I've used for about a year and a half
sounds nearly identical - the only variation being the variety of chisels, I
got one skew and two scrapers. Because the two scrapers were identical, I
ground one to a different profile. Overall, I've considered them to be
perfectly adequate for my needs. Harbor Freight isn't completely useless,
just mostly so.

Mostly... ;-)

Actually, I went back and bought another set so I would have spares
and could practice/experiment with regrinding different profiles on
something that didn't cost me $95.00. I turned a lidded vessel
yesterday, and I am quite pleased with their performance - especially
for the price! I can fill in the holes with better/pricier units. My
biggest disappointment was the lack of a bowl gouge. I was thinking
of altering the 3/8" gouge in the set with a steep side bevel and
other mods for this purpose. But from what I now understand, most
bowl gouges are apparently made from rod steel and flex more than the
hard, brittle HSS used in these gouges. I'm no expert, however...


Greg G.

Dave jackson said:

I am also a HF skeptic and I too bought the same set of turning tools.
Being new to turning, and not having much spare cash after buying the lathe,
I thought these would be a great cheap starter set to learn how to turn and
sharpen without fear of destroying an expensive set. Although I have
nothing to compare them to, I really have no complaints about them thus far.
They are sized well, comfortable to use and they seem to hold an edge well.
On the other hand, whenever I decide to purchase a good set, I have a cheap
set to regrind into other profiles. While I was at HF I also grabbed
several 50 yd. rolls of 1" emery cloth in assorted grits for I think $3or$4
a roll. This cloth is nice for finish sanding spindles while still in the
lathe. -dave

My sentiments exactly.


Greg G.

mac davis said:

I have a completely different view of HF.. I love it...
IMHO, you get what you pay for, and a lot of the stuff I buy doesn't
need to be 1st class...
Though I agree that I wouldn't buy lathe chisels, precision tools, or
things like that there, I'm often online ordering their sanding disks
and belts, bench clamps, etc.....
If you are looking for supplies of seldom used stuff, and expect to
get what you pay for (there ARE no free lunches *g*) it's a great
place to shop and they ship free if you spend $50... and it's hard NOT
to spend $50 there.. YMMV (and probably will)

I am a little leery of their motorized things that spin at high RPM.
I did see a set of electric "haircutting" shears that I almost bought
to shave the dog with... I was afraid they would just entangle the
hair and stall, leaving us with a dog with a huge bald spot from where
we had to cut the Chinese POS from her coat... ;-)

What bothers me the most about the place is that almost everything is
"imported". As it getting to be in Wal-Mart, Target, and insert
vendor's name here. WTF is happening to our economy?

I have a box of marbles. I trade some to your for your slingshot.
You trade some to me for fixing your bicycle. Millions of other
people do this same thing - everybody's happy, and the marbles stay
here, being swapped around for various things.

Enter country X. I give X some marbles for a bike tire. Country X
hoards the marbles and doesn't ever trade them back. Millions of
other people do the same and you lose your job at the bike tire plant.
Eventually we have no more marbles to trade with. Making more marbles
simply devalues the value of our remaining marbles. They take our
marbles and buy land and invest in banking ventures - and eventually
have a controlling interest in every facet of our lives - including
the production of ALL of our goods. We are losing control of out own
destinies.

Anyway... Enough OT ramblings... ;-)


Greg G.

Larry Blanchard said:

You're right. AFAIK, they've never been in the catalog. The original
appearance I was talking about was on their web site and the handles
were "rosewood" even then.

Gee, and I thought I was getting something special... ;-)

IIRC, I got them at the local HF store, not the web site. But I'm not
sure, it's been several years.

I've looked for them anywhere else. I've not found them on the HF web
site or in their catalog. Whatever - they do work, and seem a pretty
good deal. I can't quite justify $350 for Sorby tools just yet...


Greg G.

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 07:37:32 -0400, Greg G. wrote:

mac davis said:

I have a completely different view of HF.. I love it...
IMHO, you get what you pay for, and a lot of the stuff I buy doesn't
need to be 1st class...
Though I agree that I wouldn't buy lathe chisels, precision tools, or
things like that there, I'm often online ordering their sanding disks
and belts, bench clamps, etc.....
If you are looking for supplies of seldom used stuff, and expect to
get what you pay for (there ARE no free lunches *g*) it's a great
place to shop and they ship free if you spend $50... and it's hard NOT
to spend $50 there.. YMMV (and probably will)

I am a little leery of their motorized things that spin at high RPM.
I did see a set of electric "haircutting" shears that I almost bought
to shave the dog with... I was afraid they would just entangle the
hair and stall, leaving us with a dog with a huge bald spot from where
we had to cut the Chinese POS from her coat... ;-)

snip rant.. you're preaching to the choir)

I've used and abused my sander for almost 3 years now... never had a
problem, especially with the motor..
I've sanded things that were too big and/or heavy for it several times
and it seems to have lots of power..

My budget was small and my sanding not precision, so at the time (and
I'd do it again) the choice was a craftsman 4" belt/6" disk bench
model or the HF 6" x 48" belt/9" disk with floor stand...
The HF sander was $10 more than the Sears one, so it was "bang for the
buck"..

I've had to made a better table support for the sander, but I might
have had to for the sears one, too.. the idea of maintaining a 90
degree level with a set screw on a rod just doesn't cut it..

Larry Blanchard said:

Out of curiosity, I Googled rec.crafts.woodturning and found a mention
of the HSS set from Harbor Freight in 1999. So they've been around at
least that long.

BTW, they were $39 then. What are they now?

Same thing - $39.95. No inflation here...


Greg G.

mac davis said:

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 07:37:32 -0400, Greg G. wrote:

snip rant.. you're preaching to the choir)

Sorry about that - had a few minutes of time to blow and you were the
graceful recipient. I was rather annoyed because the USA made
Shop-Vac with 1 hours use released it's magic smoke earlier that day,
but the Chinese stuff is still working.

I've used and abused my sander for almost 3 years now... never had a
problem, especially with the motor..
I've sanded things that were too big and/or heavy for it several times
and it seems to have lots of power..

My budget was small and my sanding not precision, so at the time (and
I'd do it again) the choice was a craftsman 4" belt/6" disk bench
model or the HF 6" x 48" belt/9" disk with floor stand...
The HF sander was $10 more than the Sears one, so it was "bang for the
buck"..

I understand - I have some "cheap" tools myself. I just don't talk
about them in public. ;-) Several are rather crude - but they did
the job I bought them for.

I've had to made a better table support for the sander, but I might
have had to for the sears one, too.. the idea of maintaining a 90
degree level with a set screw on a rod just doesn't cut it..

I used to own a lot of Sears tools, bought in the seventies - they
were made pretty well, and the one lone survivor of a fire still works
great. But I generally avoid them anymore.


Greg G.

I, as many previous posters, have not been a big HF fan. This is especially
true of their heavier machinery. However, I have had a couple of things
come up that have swayed me (a little).

1) A couple of years ago I purchased one of their mortisers just because I
needed one for a job, and it was on sale at what seemed a rediculous price.
I had just returned a Delta drill press kit because it didn't fit my older
drill press. The HF machine came with a set of 4 mortise cutters that
looked almost identical to the returned Delta cutters, the machine was
quiet, had good power, some of the metal seems a bit soft and the hold down
mechanism sucked. After getting over the hold down shortcoming I gave it
some test runs and lo-and-behold it cut square holes! It fact it does so
quite well. I have used the machine on quite a few projects and have more
than gotten my $99 worth. I am planning a future project that will improve
the hold down capability with home-made hardware but for now we are gettting
along fairly well.

2) An acquaintance, laid off from aircraft manufacturing 2-3 years ago, was
getting himself into finish carpentry. Short of cash, he purchased a couple
of HF's nailers: a finish nailer and a brad nailer. Both were bought at
VERY low prices. He told me he always intended to upgrade after he got on
his feet and the "cheap" HF nailers wore out. He told me a couple of months
ago that he is doing well with his business but those ^&#)@ nailers won't
wear out. He also said if they do, he'll probably replace them with the
same tools, if available. He also said he is surprised at the number of
old-timer's using the same tools. They keep their Delta and PC nailer cases
in the back of their trailers for folks to see and beat the HF machines up
on the job.

Further proof that brand snobbery is probably a bad thing - You need to
research your purchases and touch each tool before you buy.

RonB

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 13:54:33 -0500, "RonB" wrote:

I, as many previous posters, have not been a big HF fan. This is especially
true of their heavier machinery. However, I have had a couple of things
come up that have swayed me (a little).

1) A couple of years ago I purchased one of their mortisers just because I
needed one for a job, and it was on sale at what seemed a rediculous price.
I had just returned a Delta drill press kit because it didn't fit my older
drill press. The HF machine came with a set of 4 mortise cutters that
looked almost identical to the returned Delta cutters, the machine was
quiet, had good power, some of the metal seems a bit soft and the hold down
mechanism sucked. After getting over the hold down shortcoming I gave it
some test runs and lo-and-behold it cut square holes! It fact it does so
quite well. I have used the machine on quite a few projects and have more
than gotten my $99 worth. I am planning a future project that will improve
the hold down capability with home-made hardware but for now we are gettting
along fairly well.

2) An acquaintance, laid off from aircraft manufacturing 2-3 years ago, was
getting himself into finish carpentry. Short of cash, he purchased a couple
of HF's nailers: a finish nailer and a brad nailer. Both were bought at
VERY low prices. He told me he always intended to upgrade after he got on
his feet and the "cheap" HF nailers wore out. He told me a couple of months
ago that he is doing well with his business but those ^&#)@ nailers won't
wear out. He also said if they do, he'll probably replace them with the
same tools, if available. He also said he is surprised at the number of
old-timer's using the same tools. They keep their Delta and PC nailer cases
in the back of their trailers for folks to see and beat the HF machines up
on the job.

Further proof that brand snobbery is probably a bad thing - You need to
research your purchases and touch each tool before you buy.

RonB

my wife reminded me last night of the meat slicer that we bought at HF
a few years ago... (how's that for OT?)

We thought that e might use one, but didn't want a $75 - $100
appliance laying around if we ended up not liking it..

Bought the HF cheapie for $19.95 (magic tv number!!!) and us the hell
out if it... no need to replace it, as it does a great job..

snip


Further proof that brand snobbery is probably a bad thing - You need to
research your purchases and touch each tool before you buy.

RonB

If you look closely at many name brand tools, you will find they are just
about twins of each other, with a few cosmetic changes. It seems that these
days a lot of tools are made to the same design, probably in the same
overseas factory. I have a hard time believing that having a specific brand
name on a product makes it work any better.

OTOH, there are times when you get what you pay for.

Bob Peterson woke up and had the following to say....:


snip


Further proof that brand snobbery is probably a bad thing - You need to
research your purchases and touch each tool before you buy.

RonB

If you look closely at many name brand tools, you will find they are just
about twins of each other, with a few cosmetic changes. It seems that
these days a lot of tools are made to the same design, probably in the
same
overseas factory. I have a hard time believing that having a specific
brand name on a product makes it work any better.

OTOH, there are times when you get what you pay for.

I am a big fan of their Pitsburg 6,12, and 18" clamps. I proably have 2
dozen in the shop and will buy more once they go on sale.

If you look closely at many name brand tools, you will find they are just
about twins of each other, with a few cosmetic changes. It seems that these
days a lot of tools are made to the same design, probably in the same
overseas factory. I have a hard time believing that having a specific brand
name on a product makes it work any better.
OTOH, there are times when you get what you pay for.


Oh yeah? Take a look through these links of tools made by Oneway.
With the steel grain structure they profess... awesome. Snobbery not
intended, just impression. http://www.oneway.on.ca/tools/index.htm
But if I were beginning turning and at my financial level I would go
to HF, even for the lathe.

Alex

I am a big fan of their Pitsburg 6,12, and 18" clamps. I proably have 2
dozen in the shop and will buy more once they go on sale.

Irony. I bought 14 1/2" Pittsburg pipe clamp fixtures recently @$2.99 each
to help with building my 1st bench, and last tuesday just bought 14 34" black
pipes. These things work really well too! Hard to imagine that many clamps
for only $120. HF is great for some things.

Alex

Oddly, it's grain size in the castings which gave us fits with Grizzly stuff
at school. Castings were apparently quick-cooled versus properly annealed,
and they broke in _huge_ crystals.

Maybe that's one of the shortcuts that makes apparent clones different?

"AAvK" wrote in message
news:%subd.3949$bk1.823@fed1read05...

If you look closely at many name brand tools, you will find they are
just
about twins of each other, with a few cosmetic changes. It seems that
these
days a lot of tools are made to the same design, probably in the same
overseas factory. I have a hard time believing that having a specific
brand
name on a product makes it work any better.
OTOH, there are times when you get what you pay for.


Oh yeah? Take a look through these links of tools made by Oneway.
With the steel grain structure they profess... awesome. Snobbery not
intended, just impression. http://www.oneway.on.ca/tools/index.htm
But if I were beginning turning and at my financial level I would go
to HF, even for the lathe.

Alex

Anyone notice that running into a neighbor or fellow woodworker at Harbor
Freight is probably like running into them at an adult theater or bookstore?

"Well.......I don't come here very much. Just curious." (sheepish)