On 23 Nov 2004 07:09:14 -0800, (Childfree
Scott) scribbled this interesting note:

Most of their tools are OK for occasional home use.

I have one of their:
Heat gun kit, and I use it a lot and think it's great and recommend.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=47269

I bought one of these once. Paid $12.00 for it brand new from Harbor
Freight. The first one did not work at all so I returned it. The
second one worked for the length of the job and burned up. I then went
to a local surplus store that carries a lot of aircraft tools, router
bits, heat shrink (up to stuff that is three inches across and has
sealer inside), and bought a very good, used heat gun and paid three
times that much. This gun will give years of service, as opposed to
the H.F. heat gun.

HVLP Paint gun, use it a lot and love it.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=46719

I did once buy one of the HVLP paint guns with the two quart cup. This
one, to be specific:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...temnumber=7902
It was stolen out of a house I was working on...along with about a
thousand dollars of other tools. But while I was using it I was happy
with the results.


Air Compressor, use it a lot and like it.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=90385

The problem with this kind of Made in China compressor is, if it ever
needs any kind of servicing you may as well toss it on the curb as no
one seems to carry the parts for them. This tool, like most of the
H.F. Made in China tools are disposable.

This kind of air compressor, while much more expensive, will not only
give decades of good, daily service (and in fact, I've been told, are
rated to last 10,000 hours of use before needing service-that's eight
hours a day, five days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, for five years)
but are inexpensive to have serviced and usually only need a new
piston and cylinder, which costs about a hundred dollars.
http://www.bobstools.net/Store/Thomas.html
We recently took in a small collection of these compressors, including
one that is an antique (or at least about 25 years old) for service.
Each of them were repaired and the average cost per unit for repairs
was indeed about one hundred dollars. That compares favorably against
the revenue generated by using this kind of dependable equipment. Even
the stuff sold by Home Depot isn't of a very high quality when
compared to this kind of compressor. We did a kind of experiment one
time wherein we bought a Stanley-Bostich compressor. It lasted a month
or two before beginning to fail. Thomas compressors give years of
service. This is why we went back to Thomas. I still have a
Stanley-Bostich compressor. I keep it at home and use it to air up car
tires. It leaks down fast, leaks oil, has poor cfm, and really is kind
of useless for anything but airing up car tires!:~)

Oh, and why did we have a small collection of Thomas compressors to
have repaired? Because we've been using them for decades and
oftentimes didn't have time to take one in for repair and instead just
bought one or two new ones. When we had a good amount of slack time
after the damage from some unusually heavy hail storms had been
cleared away, we took all of them in for service. Now it is like we
have lots of new compressors to choose from.

It is up to the end user to decide which is more inexpensive...I know
which direction I incline to...


I also have one or two big wrenches from them that I use on really
rare occasions. I agree with previous posters to get better hand
tools (I buy Craftsman for that).

The best hand tool for the job depends on the job. Sometimes a
disposable wrench or other tool is exactly what the job calls for.

My mantra these days...You have to know which pennies to pinch!:~)


--
John Willis
(Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)