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Very promising clamp edge system
Like many other woodworkers, I’ve done a dance around buying a track saw or making due with after market and/or shop made guides. Knowing that I’d be in the dog house if I splurged on a track saw (i.e. Festool) before I had a decent portfolio of sheet-goods based projects, I attempted to make due with two HF straight edge and a home-made guide. At shorter lengths (up to ~24-30”) that solution work fine. Any longer, and it becomes a pick your poison question of fighting de...
Where has this thing been my entire woodworking career?
The recent announcement of the Wood Peckers precision framing square sent me down a dangerous path of wondering where I can pull a few hundred bucks out of my budget for an impulse buy. After sanity checking myself, I decided that I need to bring myself back to reality and ask if there was an alternative to consider. Enter the Veritas Square Fence. If a framing square were Tom Cruise, it would say “you complete me” to this Veritas innovation. I spotted this innovation in the...
Simple and user friendly, just the way I like it
During a Woodworking Show, I saw the merit of ruler stops and cabinetmaker rulers for my layout. I impulse buy for a WoodPeckers Rule Stop-1 (the smaller brother of the Rule Stop-2 review that gave me the motivation to get to writing this review) and eventually decided that $30 was too much money to splurge. After waltzing over to the Lee Valley/Veritas booth, I spotted this Veritas Ruler Stop in their catalog and I figured it would be a good alternative. I picked this up and a 12”...
Better than nothing (for free), but you gotta wonder about the dye.
I picked up one pair of these red Harbor Freight split leather work gloves as a freebie, and use them on occasion for gardening. The gloves do the job to protect my hands, but as the HF site reviews say…the dye can run and get on your hands. If you’re wary of the dye being toxic, consider looking elsewhere. In my mind, they’re a last resort if I’m doing something dirty and don’t want to use my Mechanix gloves.
Single-purpose freebie: Paper cutter
Harbor Freight item 60274, 47877 is one of the many freebies I stock up on. I wouldn’t call it a multi-purpose tool. My family has one purpose for them: to cut paper, and usually coupon trimming. Call it a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I seem to only cut HF coupons with these scissors, sometimes for more scissor freebies. My wife uses them to trim coupons when we are on a long drive. The complaints I have for this too are: They may be relatively sharp at first but dull very qui...
Light duty freebie that I treat as a consumable
The smallest Harbor Freight tarp (item numbers 953, 69248, 69136, 69128) comes up as a freebie every now and then. I stock up on these whenever I see the freebie. The tarp is very thin and very light duty. I treat them as consumables and generally don’t expect them to last more than a couple of uses. I’ve had 2 of them tear on me after snagging a sharp corner of something. Usually they serve to line the minivan when picking up lumber (or an annual Christmas tree), or cover u...
Excellent but Elusive Freebie. Hard to get this wrong.
I have one of these magnetic parts holder and I have one more freebie coupon to use. Like the 6” counterpart, as a parts organizer, it does exactly what it’s supposed to do: keep the screws in place where I need it. My opinion is the same for this 4” parts organizer and the 6” parts organizer. At the current price of $3 (sans any coupon you might use), it’s hard to get it wrong, and it’s probably coming from the same factory line in China that other stores sell for more...
Great Freebie when the coupon appears. Hard to get this wrong.
I’ve been lucky to pick up 2 of these guys with HF freebie coupons in the last few months. As a parts organizer, it does exactly what it’s supposed to do: keep the screws in place where I need it. At the current price of $4 (sans any coupon you might use), it’s hard to get it wrong, and it’s probably coming from the same factory line in China that other stores sell for more. Would I pay for it? Well I got by without it before getting them as freebies. Now I have...
Broke in 15 minutes. Waste of a freebie. Get something else
Harbor Freight Items 61319 and 45807 look good in picture but don’t be fooled. It is not an LED light. It is not bright and gets hot when on. I highly doubt it would be comfortable to use. The kicker that made me really regret wasting a HF trip freebie, this thing broke within 15 minutes of getting it out of the package. Sure my daughter and I were swinging it (gently?) like a slingshot and (gently?) tossing it to each other, but I say it simulates being jostled around in a tool ...
Don't pay for it. It might be useful to spread around for convenience.
Harbor Freight item 47770 is a screw driver set I often see as a no-purchase freebie. The screw driver is a very hard plastic and highly uncomfortable to use for hand driving screws. I’ve only found 2 uses for them: Convenience – I scattered a few of the philips head screwdrivers around the house for the occasional battery change on one of my kids toys. Unconventional use – I keep the flat heads in my cars as it came in handy once to pop off the plastic tabs that ho...
