DIYbanter - View Single Post

Mike Marlow[_2_]

wrote:

There are certain circumstances that I have found HF to be quite
handy. For years I sneered at their quality, the origin of their
tools, and the lack of support for their products. What a difference
a few years make. Now nearly every tool I see anywhere is made in
China, or from sourced parts from there so I am buying Chinese whether
I like it or not.

To me, it's really not so much whether something is made in China or not,
but to what standard. For a long time now, China has been manufacturing a
lot of things in our lives, and has produced the quality that we expected
from reliable brands of products. It's about the specifications provided by
the host company, it's about the host company's involvement in the process
(QA, QC), and whether the host company is committed to quality or simply
looking for cheap manufacturing and does not care about quality. The
Chinese will and do manufacture to specifications if required to do so - and
they take every shortcut if allowed to do so.

Their 4 1/2" grinder. This tool was bought as an emergency to replace
a Bosch grind that crapped out on the job. This one can't be killed.
I have had it for about 6-8 years now, and use it to grind metal for
finishing, grind off bolts and screws on burglar bars when painting,
and use the masonry blades on it to cut bricks, pavers, stone, and to
inlet flashings into masonry chimneys. Paid $13 for this tool.

I have a couple of these in the garage at all times. I first thought of
them as throw aways too, and in fact they are at those prices, but I have
gotten a lot more life out of them than I ever expected when I bought them.
I roached a SnapOn grinder and had to get a quick replacement - that's how I
got into using the HF grinder. Now I won't ever spend the crazy amounts of
money that SnapOn or anyone else wants for their grinder. Just no good
reason to do so. For those who would say "just wait until that cheap
grinder fails just when you need it most, or that repair parts are not
available"... that's exactly what happened with my expensive SnapOn grinder.
Repair? Warranty? Sure - hand over $175 and they'll put a new grinder in
my hand to replace it.

Halogen light bulbs for my stand lights. Everywhere else, these bulbs
are 6 - 10 bucks each. When they have a door buster, I buy them for
99 cents. Last better in the lamps than the more expensive
offerings.

Never noticed these - I'm going to have to look for them.

Nitrile gloves. You can get 100 5 mil gloves for what you pay for a
set or two from the paint store. I use 3 mil, 5 mil, and for using
caustic materials (like MEK, etc.) I use their 7 mil. I mix and
spray, take the gloves off and toss them. I may use ten sets of
gloves a day, which means it costs me a little over a buck. Best of
all, the gloves work great for me. And if I tear one from material
handling, I have so many in the box I just get another. It isn't a
tragedy as it is when using the paint store gloves that are sold as
two to three pairs in a $10 pack.

I use the crap out of these too. Absolutely no reason to pay any more than
this for them.

HVLP guns. I only used these to try out new finishes and experiment
with mixes, but after I screwed up my expensive finish gun I was
forced to use my practice guns on the job. What a bone head... if it
was good enough for me to determine my mixes and be satisfied with the
end results, why wouldn't I like it on the job? I have had several of
these guns, and the only thing to consider is the build quality can be
spotty.

Yup! My good guns are all reliable brand name guns, but I do have HF guns
as well. The only time they have not performed well was when I used the
wrong gun for the task at hand. You just can't throw a heavy build primer
through a little touch up gun and expect a mirror finish out of the gun...

Paint gun stuff. They have great prices on HVLP gun filters, material
filters, inline moisture removal filters and cup liners. Literally,
their prices are about 1/10 of Sherwin Williams. This is a big deal
for me because as is he case with sand paper, these are all
consumables for the guys that do it for a living. Being extremely
affordable means I am in the habit of changing gun filters every job,
changing line filters every job and always having cup liner on hand at
a whopping ten cents a piece.

About all I use for supplies from them is gun cleaning kits, and in-line
(gun attach) water filters. Both are dirt cheap, and work as they should.
In both cases, these are 10% or less, of the amount that other retailers or
paint supply houses charge for the very same items.

Bulk drill bits. NOT the crap in the indexes, not in the special
sets.

I have one of their indexes and I kinda like it. The sharpness is
inconsistent, and the first time you use a particular bit, it may work like
a top, or you may have to take it to the grinder and put a good edge on it.
I can sharpen drill bits by hand just fine, so it really does not bother me
to have to do so, considering the price of the index. Once sharpened, they
work just fine, and hold their edge as well as any other drill bit I've ever
owned.

Bought the 16 ga at HF on sale for $39, and it wasn't worth 39
cents. It jammed up solid after about 1/2 clip of nails. The guns
are junk and they cost me a lot of down time.

I don't know which one you bought, but my pin nailer has worked just fine
for years now - though I do not put the volume of nails through it that you
do.

Squeeze clamps. At $2 for a 12" clamp, I couldn't resist. I bought
four. Two work and two don't. They wouldn't clamp a sock on the
clothesline. HF told me they had problems with them and they were
changing manufacturers.\

Just looked at these a couple of days ago. I tried a couple in the store -
clamped them down on the shelves, and over squeezed them to see if they
would slip, or fail in some other way. Both clamped well. Might be one of
those hit or miss items that is worth checking in the store before walking
up front to pay for.

Screwdrivers. Forget it.

I have a lot of screwdrivers. I have a couple of HF sets, and a mismatched
selection of what are supposed to be very good screwdrivers. I have never
found any difference in any of them. I am fanatic about not using my
screwdrivers as chisels, or pry bars, or any other similar tool, but I'm not
otherwise delicate with them. Just never had any problem with them.

Hand saws. Nope.

The only hand saw I have from them is the Japanese flush cut saw. Very
sharp, cuts like a hot knife through butter, and leaves no mark on the wood.

Measuring tapes. No way, they break in minutes.

I bought a couple of these when they had 30' tapes for $2.99. Figured it
was worth the time to check them out. Again - I don't put mine to the use
that you do, but I've not had any problem. The one thing I did discover is
that they don't extend out without flexing as well as some tapes do.
Thinner blade or something. As long as I don't try to get more than about
6' (or so...) out of them unsupported, they work just fine for me.

Any thoughts?

None that I can think of...

--

-Mike-