tiredofspam wrote:
I paid $1.99 for that same clamp. A couple were no good and had to be
exchanged, but for a $1.99 I felt it was worth the risk.

Same here, except instead of exchanging the clamp, I took the handle
apart to see what broke.

One broke when the cheap ass plastic pin the trigger rotated on broke.
I drilled a hole through the handle and the trigger and put in a flat
head machine screw. Will not break now and works great.

Next, there is a cheesy plastic rocker that pushes the clamp along the
metal bar. This is not supported and will also break. I super glued it
back on, and piled up some glue behind the plastic tab to give it
additional support. This seems to have worked OK. I keep telling my
self to do this to my unbroken clamps to prevent it from breaking to
begin with... maybe tomorrow...

Both these issues are designed into the clamp and would have increased
the cost of the clamp by about two cents to do it right.
--
Jack
News Flash: Government Motors (GM) fines their top competitor $16 Mil.
http://jbstein.com

I have both porter cable and HF nailers and staplers. The porter cable
are good, but overpriced after using the HF. My HF have performed well.

I am glad I finally took the plunge on them. I kept buying the more
expensive nailers and staplers.

My only issue with the nailer is the thing works so well I'm turning
into a hack like Norm... It sure is easy to pin the **** out of
everything rather than screw it or clamp and glue it...

On 8/11/2010 2:08 PM, Jack Stein wrote:
Steve B wrote:

I'm a shopper. I don't buy cheap equipment, and then brag on just the
price. Cheap tools aren't good, and good tools aren't cheap. YMMV, and
sounds like it does. **** is ****, no matter the brand name.

I generally agree with you but there are a lot of exceptions. The HF air
nailer is one of them if you are a cabinet maker. Personally, I would
rather go to a bar and have a beer than nail the **** out of everything
like Norm does on TV. He pins everything after slopping on a bottle of
glue. I like to clamp things, using just enough glue. This means I don't
really NEED a pin nailer much and will not likely EVER wear out my HF
nailer, although it might rust some between uses.

Here is another exception, imo: http://tinyurl.com/2bul22m

This is a HF ratchet clamp. Is it junk, yep, but for a few bucks it's a
great deal, particularly since I know exactly what about it is junk,
(couple of plastic parts in the handle) and that I can quickly and
easily refurbish it so it is not junk, and for the cost of one machine
screw and some glue I have a clamp that does everything I expect for
next to nothing so I could buy 20 of them for the price of one or two
top dollar clamps.

Another exception, on the other end, is Festool stuff. Is it good, I
reckon it is, but at what a cost? Do I really need to spend $800 on a
Festool Router?

Lastly, if you don't own and use a HF nail gun, you probably shouldn't
argue with people that do own one.