Harbor Freight Testing Facility

They are popping up all over.
I’ve had good luck on some of their stuff and bad luck on other stuff.
I don’t think I’d buy a precision tool from there, but for basic, basic stuff, it’s hard to beat the price.

The biggest thing I’ve gotten from H/F is that dust collector and it works great.
(That was thanks to a bunch of favorable reviews from guys on this site).
After discounts and coupons and sale specials, they almost gave it to me.

PS: your profile picture could be my cousin Ray !

-- Eric

I have a bunch of Harbor Freight stuff. Most of it has been very serviceable. No it’s not top of the line stuff, but it works very well, and is affordable. I have the 14” band saw, 12×36 lathe, dust collector, 12” sliding miter saw, 2HP 8gal air compressor, collection of nailers, hole saws, sanding sponges etc… The sanding sponges and hole saws are pretty awful, but every single machine I have gotten from them has been spot on. The vise grip clones are great, and I have been very pleased with the clamps. In all honesty, Harbor Freight is one major reason I could afford to have a reasonably well equipped shop.

-- Manufacturer of fine quality sawdust since 1984. Comments and advice on my shop welcome. Check it out at http://lumberjocks.com/dbhost/workshop. Gladly accepting shop build donations!

I can certainly appreciate a top-quality tool, and am lucky enough to own a few. However, sometimes a “good nuff” tool is…......good enough. Thats where HF steps in. For example, I don’t need an angle grinder that can take the rigors of daily, commercial use. I need an angle grinder that works well on the 3-4 occasions per year that I need one. The $12 HF model meets this need just fine.

Well said Tedstor. I’m not too fond of tool snobs. Funny thing a metalworker guy told me. It seems the metalworkers don’t often have this snobbery like the woodworkers do. A reasoning for this might be enlightening. I sure don’t know what it is.

I also hear of woodworkers suggesting that they buy tools that they can pass down to their children. I for one wouldn’t want to have to use most of the tools my dad had. I think I’ve embraced technology. I don’t mind keeping a few around for sentimental reasons but not the whole set.

-- Backer boards, stop blocks, build oversized, and never buy a hand plane--

Rance,

Tool snobs? I’ll have you know I lift my pinkie finger whenever I flip a switch on any of my HF power tools. Like DB I have a shop mostly because I have HF and I’ll will put my tool’s capabilities (notice I DIDN’T say MINE) up against any on the market. I am a HF snob and proud of it.

As to why woodworkers have more snobs than metal workers, marketing. Car mechanics fall prey to the same marketing pressures as woodworkers. How many 6’ tall 8’ wide toolboxes owned by mechanics $20,000 in debt to Mac, Snapon, Cornwall, et al have you seen? Woodworking tool suppliers and magazines thrive on selling high profit “next big thing” tools with more bells and whistles and they create the myth that one HAS to have this stuff in order to make something. Most amature woodworkers have day jobs, quite a few well paying, and their tools are their toys. Some people define their self image by their toys. Want to talk about car snobs? Cadillac pickups to haul poodles to the groomer anyone?

Metalworkers don’t have the marketing pressure and as they make their living with their tools must seek out the best tool at the lowest price to reduce costs.

Marketing is a funny world. The first principle of salesmanship is to find a need and fill it. The second principle is if you can’t find a need, CREATE ONE and fill it. We each make our own choices. We can swallow the hype and buy more tool or more features than we would ever need and make others rich or buy sensibly and give companies like HF a fair look, save money, and while maybe not becoming rich, not buy our way into the poorhouse or worse, not have the tools we need and crave to do the things we love because we blew the budget on an overpriced tool.

Steve

-- Steve in KY. 44 years so far with my lovely bride. Think I'll keep her.

I learned my lesson on cheap tools breaking 40+ years ago. I had no idea HF tested their tools, nor did I know they have a lifetime warranty on their hand tools. WE closed over 50,000 manufactuing plants in this country in the last decade. If it is coming from the far east, may as well pay a far east price ;-))

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence

I found the reader comment at the dirtrider website to be amusing: ”I thought putting wenches under water fell out of favor after the Salem witch trials.’” Haw!!!

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

I am an HF fan and I believe there tools are getting better all the time. I have a ton of them in my shop and will continue to add them as I need. It’s good to see a testing facility and life time guarentees on hand tools can’t beat that.

-- Ray