I appreciate knowing the deals people find at HB so I thought I would share
my most recent experience which ended about 5 minutes ago.

I bought 3 packages of 300 W Halogen bulbs (2-packs) for $1.00 per package
(warning?).

2 of the bulbs glowed "dim" out of the package, and 2 of the bulbs made an
annoying vibrating noise (I replaced the 2nd one faster than the first,
after I determined where the noise was coming from--determining this was not
trivial due to the nature of the lamps--it's not like you can look at them
when they are turned on!). The other 2 bulbs worked just fine.

I just replaced one of the noisy bulbs with an "expensive" $2 bulb, and it
works just great. Even at "1/4th the price" the savings is not worth the
trouble unless you are indifferent to the level of brightness or the
vibrating noise. Since I use the lamps in my home, for me, these factors
weren't negotiable.

Well, you have been warned

Bill

In article , "Bill" wrote:

I appreciate knowing the deals people find at HB so I thought I would share
my most recent experience which ended about 5 minutes ago.

HB?

Did you mean HF (Harbor Freight aka Horrible Fright) or HD (Home Depot)? Or is
there some other chain I'm not aware of?

"Doug Miller" wrote in message
...
In article , "Bill"
wrote:

I appreciate knowing the deals people find at HB so I thought I would
share
my most recent experience which ended about 5 minutes ago.

HB?

Did you mean HF (Harbor Freight aka Horrible Fright) or HD (Home Depot)?


Yes, Harbor Freight.... Sorry about that.

Bill

On Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:35:50 GMT, (Doug Miller) wrote:

In article , "Bill" wrote:

I appreciate knowing the deals people find at HB so I thought I would share
my most recent experience which ended about 5 minutes ago.

HB?

Did you mean HF (Harbor Freight aka Horrible Fright) or HD (Home Depot)? Or is
there some other chain I'm not aware of?

I think that Bill meant Harbor "fright", Doug..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

"mac davis" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:35:50 GMT, (Doug Miller) wrote:

In article , "Bill"
wrote:

I appreciate knowing the deals people find at HB so I thought I would
share
my most recent experience which ended about 5 minutes ago.

HB?

Did you mean HF (Harbor Freight aka Horrible Fright) or HD (Home Depot)?
Or is
there some other chain I'm not aware of?

I think that Bill meant Harbor "fright", Doug..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

I have bought several items from them and have been well satisfied. Just be
aware of what you buy, there's a lot of junk and some good stuff too.

"Joe" wrote in message news:Z4LHk.3079
I have bought several items from them and have been well satisfied. Just
be aware of what you buy, there's a lot of junk and some good stuff too.

Yes, I was just sharing that the Halogen bulbs at HF were not among the
good stuff. Since only 2 of 6 bulbs worked well, using them was way more
aggravation than it was worth. I don't have anything against the store, but
I feel like I learned a lesson.

Bill

Subject

Don't think I'd be very comfortable with their Trojan knock offs.
grin

Lew

On Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:07:15 -0500, "Joe" wrote:

I think that Bill meant Harbor "fright", Doug..


mac

I have bought several items from them and have been well satisfied. Just be
aware of what you buy, there's a lot of junk and some good stuff too.

Hell, I've been helping support them for years ;-]

Imho, can't beat their bar clamps, for the money.. You just have to know that
you're not paying quality prices and you can't expect quality stuff..

I've been trying to kill my HF belt/disk sander for years and it won't die..
OTOH, their sandpaper really sucks..

Looking around the shop, I have a LOT of cheap, orange power tools from them..
grinders, drill/drivers, shop lights, etc... How bad can a 4" grinder for $20
be, if it lasts through a few years of abuse..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

"mac davis" wrote:

... How bad can a 4" grinder for $20
be, if it lasts through a few years of abuse..

Just for funzies, bought the $20, right angle grinder, put on a 24
grit sanding disk and went to work cleaning up some fiberglass.

POS didn't even make it thru the afternoon.

YMMV

Lew

On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:48:49 -0700, mac davis
wrote:

Hell, I've been helping support them for years ;-]

Imho, can't beat their bar clamps, for the money.. You just have to know that
you're not paying quality prices and you can't expect quality stuff..


We needed a bunch of 6" C-clamps to clamp up two bending rails. We
had about half as many as we needed and called the big box guys. Each
store had 3 or 4 each. We stopped at HF and bought a fifteen 6"
(all they had) and three more 8". The 6" were $5.99 and the 8" were
$7.99. They worked fine and were almost half the price of the ones at
the big box stores.
I also like their canvas drop cloths. They sell a 10 oz canvas 9x12
for about $17 and they seem to hold up well.

I've never tried any of their power tools.

Mike O.

In article ,
says...
On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:48:49 -0700, mac davis
wrote:

Hell, I've been helping support them for years ;-]

Imho, can't beat their bar clamps, for the money.. You just have to know that
you're not paying quality prices and you can't expect quality stuff..


We needed a bunch of 6" C-clamps to clamp up two bending rails. We
had about half as many as we needed and called the big box guys. Each
store had 3 or 4 each. We stopped at HF and bought a fifteen 6"
(all they had) and three more 8". The 6" were $5.99 and the 8" were
$7.99. They worked fine and were almost half the price of the ones at
the big box stores.

I bought a pile of C-clamps on sale for $1.99 to $3.99 each. I
decided that a HF C-clamp couldn't be any different than a BORG C-
Clamp so outfitted my shop. I also bought a bunch of their bar
clams (also at deep sales prices) to supplement my Irwins. I just
figured out that the HF 60" bar clamps are 60" long. :-(

I also like their canvas drop cloths. They sell a 10 oz canvas 9x12
for about $17 and they seem to hold up well.

Haven't tried them. I paid a bundle at the BORG for mine. I didn't
live in an area with an HF store front and wouldn't have bought that
sort of thing unseen.

I've never tried any of their power tools.

I bought a couple of their drills - complete garbage. I also have
their 10" sliding miter saw which is quite good for the price. I
have it on a stand (DeWalt) that cost significantly more than the
saw.

--
Keith

"Lew Hodgett" wrote in message
...

"mac davis" wrote:

... How bad can a 4" grinder for $20
be, if it lasts through a few years of abuse..

Just for funzies, bought the $20, right angle grinder, put on a 24 grit
sanding disk and went to work cleaning up some fiberglass.

POS didn't even make it thru the afternoon.


Well - I burned up a Snap-On grinder, grinding down some fiberglass. Needed
a new grinder immediately, so I bought a $19 HF grinder. I've been
merciless to this grinder since I bought it, thinking I didn't really care
at $19. It just keeps on grinding. Meanwhile, my Snap-On lies in a
landfill somewhere.

To be fair - my Snap-On served well for years. This story is not about how
poor a Snap-On grinder is. Rather, it's simply a different experience from
Lew's.


--

-Mike-

"Mike Marlow" wrote in
:


"Lew Hodgett" wrote in message
...

Just for funzies, bought the $20, right angle grinder, put on a 24
grit sanding disk and went to work cleaning up some fiberglass.

POS didn't even make it thru the afternoon.


Well - I burned up a Snap-On grinder, grinding down some fiberglass.
Needed a new grinder immediately, so I bought a $19 HF grinder. I've
been merciless to this grinder since I bought it, thinking I didn't
really care at $19. It just keeps on grinding. Meanwhile, my Snap-On
lies in a landfill somewhere.

To be fair - my Snap-On served well for years. This story is not
about how poor a Snap-On grinder is. Rather, it's simply a different
experience from Lew's.


Previous posts here have indicated HF's lack of Quality Assurance. In
other words, you are the QA department. If it doesn't work, take it
back.

Puckdropper
--
If you're quiet, your teeth never touch your ankles.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:53:50 GMT, "Lew Hodgett" wrote:


"mac davis" wrote:

... How bad can a 4" grinder for $20
be, if it lasts through a few years of abuse..

Just for funzies, bought the $20, right angle grinder, put on a 24
grit sanding disk and went to work cleaning up some fiberglass.

POS didn't even make it thru the afternoon.

YMMV

Lew

That's really surprising!
I recommended them to a friend that does swimming pool work a few years ago,
because he was going through Mikita grinders like they were disposable..
he bought a dozen of the HF cheapies and said that they lasted longer than
anything else he'd used..

I don't do a lot of grinding, but I've abused mine a lot, mostly with cutting
wheels, and it's been great...

OTOH, I have heard that sometimes with HF, you might have to return 1 or 2 to
get a good one?


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

"mac davis" wrote:

That's really surprising!
I recommended them to a friend that does swimming pool work a few
years ago,
because he was going through Mikita grinders like they were
disposable..
he bought a dozen of the HF cheapies and said that they lasted
longer than
anything else he'd used..

Basic fact of fiberglass boat building life;

Fiber glass dust destroys ALL wood working tools.

Some just last a little longer than others.

For me, Milwaukee had the best track record.

YMMV

Lew

I never had good luck with the HF halogen bulbs. I bought the $2 variety
and it's been good...

"Kevin" wrote in message
...
I never had good luck with the HF halogen bulbs. I bought the $2 variety
and it's been good...


That was the point of my post. The $.50 bulbs (on sale) on the average are
worth several dollars worth of aggravation. I'm not interested in driving
back to get a replacement. I just wanted to share my experience in this
forum as I appreciate it when others do the same.

I bought a digital caliper from them for less than $10 a few months back
that seems pretty good. I haven't had a chance to use it on a real project
yet.

Bill