myself included sometimes misses the power of the iterative process

by that i mean and refer to making and selling things and improving
on past designs and past mistakes and making the quality go up

i avoided hf for years and years as the stuff used to be dangerous

but over time and by feedback from customers they have improved
upon the quality

due to their business model they gone slower than some
it is also due to the regulatory body that can enforce safety

compare tools to cars to airplanes to jet engines to rocket engines
for example

look at an old car and that straight steering column point right at
the driver

not trying to sell hf stuff but some of it is completely suitable for
the job and the price removes a lot of the risk and far as i know
they let you return stuff i usually will not bother unless it is a
high priced tool

On Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at 12:30:00 PM UTC-4, Electric Comet wrote:
myself included sometimes misses the power of the iterative process

by that i mean and refer to making and selling things and improving
on past designs and past mistakes and making the quality go up

i avoided hf for years and years as the stuff used to be dangerous

but over time and by feedback from customers they have improved
upon the quality

due to their business model they gone slower than some
it is also due to the regulatory body that can enforce safety

compare tools to cars to airplanes to jet engines to rocket engines
for example

look at an old car and that straight steering column point right at
the driver


Ask Sammy Davis Jr. about steering wheel design.

"Electric Comet" wrote in message news
myself included sometimes misses the power of the iterative process

by that i mean and refer to making and selling things and improving
on past designs and past mistakes and making the quality go up

i avoided hf for years and years as the stuff used to be dangerous

but over time and by feedback from customers they have improved
upon the quality

due to their business model they gone slower than some
it is also due to the regulatory body that can enforce safety

compare tools to cars to airplanes to jet engines to rocket engines
for example

look at an old car and that straight steering column point right at
the driver

not trying to sell hf stuff but some of it is completely suitable for
the job and the price removes a lot of the risk and far as i know
they let you return stuff i usually will not bother unless it is a
high priced tool


**********************

Some stuff is still a crap shoot. I went through five routers with them
only a couple years ago only to finally demand my money back. Every single
one had visible runout and two actually had spindles that felt loose in the
bearings. I bought an identical (except for the plastic color) import
router on Ebay and it was perfect. Its mounted in one of my small router
tables semi permanently.

I've got a 7x12 metal cutting bandsaw from them I now use every single day
that I think is a fantastic tool. Pair that with the price when using a 20%
off coupon and the value is huge. While my much older 4x6 HF bandsaw is
not in the same quality class as the 7x12 I did use it for several years in
my working shop every single day to break down aluminum and steel bar stock.
SuperCut blades (the more expensive bimetal blades) sold by Harbor Freight
for the 4x6 last and cut every bit as good as the Starrett blades I tried.

I've got two HF lathes. One is a modern 7x and it s barely a toy. It took
more work than it cost to make it into a good mini lathe. The other is a
30-40 years old 8.5x and its a tank. It has zero features, but its got
only a couple ten thousandths runout and I use it several times a week with
a 3C collet closer. Even with the collet adapter installed its got less
than half thou runout. If it had a quick change gear box it would be a
"good" lathe. I use it nearly as often as my bigger badder 14x40 from
Precision Mathews.

One of my absolute favorite T-handle hex key sets came from HF many years
ago. I would put them up against my Bohndus set of screw driver handle hex
keys. More recently two of the worst (nearly dead soft) t-handle hex key
sets came from HF too.

I've got a large tap and die set I bought when HF first opened here in Yuma.
Its been good. Sure I broke a few taps from ham handedness, and I just
plane wore out a couple dies. For somebody a little less professional who
used them with more care they might have lased a lifetime. More recently I
bought a set to carry in my service truck and after finding several common
sizes where just wrong I threw the set away.

When it comes to HF always keep your receipt and always check the tool out
thoroughly when you can still get your money back. Some are fantastic, and
some are turds.

On Thu, 7 Jun 2018 09:48:13 -0700 99 wrote:

Some stuff is still a crap shoot. I went through five routers with
them only a couple years ago only to finally demand my money back.
Every single one had visible runout and two actually had spindles
that felt loose in the bearings. I bought an identical (except for
the plastic color) import router on Ebay and it was perfect. Its
mounted in one of my small router tables semi permanently.

router probably takes more time per iteration so it will be longer
before they get it right

makes sense since higher rpms requires accuracy precision and
there is not much tolerance for lack of either

but meanwhile they still sell them and that funds future designs


One of my absolute favorite T-handle hex key sets came from HF many
years ago. I would put them up against my Bohndus set of screw
driver handle hex keys. More recently two of the worst (nearly dead
soft) t-handle hex key sets came from HF too.

they seem to source very similar tools from different factories in
china and then let the customer failure rate decide the winning
factory

would love to know the specifics of the arrangements hf makes
with the different factories

like who pays to ship the crap back and who pays for the customer
service to handle the crap and all that

hf might be one of few companies that actually sends ships back to
china full

is that considered an export