On Sun, 10 Jun 2018 15:08:29 -0600, rbowman
wrote:

On 06/10/2018 12:44 PM, Kenny wrote:
I have a chaigo electric Sawzall that I've had for 6 years znd it still
works
flawlessly, the first one I bought from HD lasted 5 minutes, lesson
learned..... Do not buy the lowest priced one get the next one up, I
bought a
set of ratchet wrenches from hf the 1/2" was stolen at my former job so
I got
a replacement single from Lowe's at $21 lesson learned.... For $6 more j
could
have gotten a whole set of wrenches again and the Pittsburg ones still work
flawlessly while the koblat has been replaced twice I now have a hf
welder, so
far so good 26 exhaust systems 10 lawnmower trailers and one floor pan,
lesson
learned... Follow thd instructions in the operators manual


My latest Harbor Freight experience was on Thursday. I've had an a 3
gallon pancake oil-less compressor for about a year and it proved to be
handy. I plugged it in and when it got to about 40 pounds there was a
pop and it lost pressure.

After removing the cover against the dire warnings printed on it, I
found the o-ring on the regulator had extruded. The regulator is a slush
metal casting with two gauges and the outlet. I got a new o-ring but
found the threads where the regulator body screws into the casting were
so poor they wouldn't hold. Fortunately I didn't need the regulator so I
removed the entire assembly and replaced it with a quick disconnect. I
salvaged one of the gauges and put together a 1/4" tee with male and
female disconnects and the gauge. So far, so good.

I'd gotten the disconnects and a tire chuck with their air compressor
parts kit. The disconnects work. The tire chuck was crap that I couldn't
get working so I bought a real one.

That wasn't as dramatic as the HF floor jack that had a rivet fail on
the first use. I replace the rivet with a bolt.

Some of their stuff works, some is crap. Caveat emptor.


To get right down to it, most of it IS crap - even if it works - for
a while. Will it do the job? If it isn't total crap, sure - as long
as you don't need to use it a lot, and your standards are not too
high.
Their small hand-held power tools are aften pretty reasonable crap and
worth buying if you ever only use them for relatively light duty use -
for example if you only use the 4.5 inch angle grinder for sharpening
your lawn mower or cutting off a few stubborn bolts - running for only
a few minutes at a time.
Not for grinding 45 feet of weld at a time.

Same with their drills. Drilling a few holes here and there - up to
about 5/16 in 1/4 inch mild steel? - OK. A few 1 inch holes in SPF
lumber? sure.

Drill 30 3/8 inch holes in 1 inch alloy steel??? Not so good -
especially if you plan on doing it every day for a month - - - -

As far as their hand tools - wrenches and sockets etc???
Some are pretty clunky - but then so are some "industrial quality"
tools like Gedore.

The precision on some of their ratchets is actually pretty decent -
but others have WAY too much backlash. This is critical even in light
duty service.
Some are REALLY tough and take a lot of abuse, while others are either
too hnard (and brittle) and others way too soft.

You can check the precision of the ratchets, and can see the quality
of the forging - but you can't see the quality of the steel and it's
heat treatment. For light duty use they are often more than adequate
but I'd be a bit wary of using them near the "design limits" in an
application that put my knuckles or other body parts in jeopardy.