Jeffrey J. Kosowsky wrote:
Harbor Freight seems to have some very attractively priced power
tools, particularly those under the "Chicago Electric Power".
snip
Please share your experiences and advice from a hobbyist perspective
(I know that if you use your tools professionally 8+ hours/day then it
pays to buy the best).

I have a pair of HF14.4v cordless drills, which together cost less than a
new battery for my B&D FireStorm. ;-) They run out of "juice" quicker than
my B&D so I use them for drilling instead of screwing. But it's really
handy to chuck up three cordless drills, one straight bit to the desired
depth, one countersink, and one with a phillips or square drive. It's
quicker for me to pick up and set down three separate tools (with no cords
to get twisted & tangled g) than to use even my DW "Quick Flip"
Drill/Driver attachment.

Since the 14.4's are still on sale I may buy a couple more to be sure I have
a couple extra backup batteries (& chargers & drills g) that are all
interchangeable. When B&D "upgraded" my model drill to make the batteries
different the replacement battery price doubled.

IMO the HF 14.4's work ok for drilling & countersinking, but B&D / DW / ...
/ Milwaulkee / ... are needed for putting in screws.


--- Now for some philosophy --- g

I was in college 1977-82. I started as a mechanical engineering student but
switched to computer science my sophmore year.

(1) Increasing tooling allows greater precision.

One of the classes I had as an ME was "Intro. to Industrial Engineering." I
recall little from that class except this illustration from the very early
days of the "Industrial Revolution" that went more or less like this:

"I highly recommend Messer. _______ for the position of Chief Engineer
of your company. While in our employ Mr. _______ supervised and
directed the construction of a large steam engine. He did such a good
job that at no point could a worn shilling be inserted between the
piston and the cylinder wall."

The instructor then talked about current engine tolerances in small engines
such as model airplane engines being measured in thousandths of an inch.
"Engineering Excellence" of one era/application is a dismal failure in
another era/application.


(2) Tools reduce / negate human variation.

Once upon a time only *men* had the strength to swing the heavy sledge
hammers to drive railroad spikes and seat red-hot rivets. However men being
what men have always been, spent much of their time drinking and thinking
about sex, and the railroad spikes were not always driven in as deep as they
should have been and the rivets were not always seated. Structures failed
that *should* *not* have failed by the drawing board calculations. Failure
analysis found out the problems. Engineers strove to develop ways to take
the "human factor" out of these critical construction operations. (This
1910's-1940's information comes to me from my late father-in-law, Dr. R.F.
Branch, who ran Army aid stations in the Pacific in WWII and was the
physician who tied the dog tag on Earnie Pyle's toe. I really miss him
alot. We would BS for hours on end.)

The engineers developed a riveting gun that always completely seated the
rivets. In the personnel crunch of WWII it was discovered that "Rosie The
Riveter" could hold the tool just as well as any old Joe. ;-) Joe could go
get shot at and Rosie could build the equipment just as good a Joe could.
The machine took away the variability.


(3) *IF* the HF tools are primarily assembled by machines, they can be as
good as *anything* Sir Isaac Newton, Da Vinci, Einsten, DeWalt, ...., could
have possibly carved by hand. ;-)


I have my NOMEX undies on. Bring it on! g

-- Mark