On Thursday, May 18, 2006 8:48:49 PM UTC-4, Rob Mills wrote:
"Shopdog" wrote in message
news:5RSag.3456$RY2.2155@trnddc02...

Central machinery is not the greatest and personally I wouldn't buy
anything electric made under that name.


wrote in message
...

harbor freight is considered low quality


You guys got it right, I'm a dab leary. I was hoping to find someone who had
bought one. For the money they are asking I would be happy with 4 or 5 years
out of it.
They have a store a mile or so from the house so I've bought quite a bit
(paint guns, multimeters and etc) from them over the years but nothing
really elect/mechanical so have had no problems so far.
Thanks for your input, Rob Mills


My experience with HF power tools has so far been, well, for the most part, I got what I expected.

The 10" bench sander works fine for what I bought it for. I was making and selling some parts made from 1/4" x 1" aluminum flat stock. I was spending way too much time rounding the corners of the pieces by hand, so I figured I'd give the bench sander a try. It saved me a ton of time and paid for itself very quickly.

On the other hand, I bought a variable speed hammer drill that I almost threw out the other day when I tried to use it as - ready for this? - a drill! You see, I have a rather old Skil hammer drill that I really like. Last summer I needed a drill powerful enough to mix a number of 5 gallon bucket loads of concrete resurfacer. I didn't want to destroy the Skil drill or my cordless DeWalt, so I bought a sacrificial HF drill for something like $30. It served it's purpose as a mixer, so I was happy. The problem with trying to use it as a drill is the design of the variable speed mechanism. You turn a little knob in the center of the trigger to adjust the speed, but all it does is adjust the drill to that single speed, meaning it won't go any faster - or slower - than the set speed. There's is no "soft start". The drill is either off or running at the speed set by the knob. I was using a 2.5" hole saw in some 1/4" plywood and needed true variable speed to do what I needed to do. After I completed the job with my cordless DeWalt, I almost threw the HF drill out. The only thing that stopped me was the realization that it still works as a mixer and I have other drills that I don't want to use as mixers, so I hung onto it for those "special occasions" where I won't give a crap if it breaks.

The air powered brad nailer works fine. In fact, it works better than the electric Craftsman nailer I bought many years ago.

And of course, there's the variable speed Multi-Function tool which I love.

Good luck with the pump and tell your wife Happy Gardening!