On Aug 6, 6:07*pm, "Stuart & Kathryn Fields" wrote:
wrote in message

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Someone wrote: *'YOUR OUT OF YOUR F**KING MIND' *...with regard to
suggesting people buy ANYTHING from Harbor Freight.

I disagree.

I've come to see HF products as a kind of semi-finished kit, something
you have to take apart, clean up, align and re-assemble before you can
use it.

See those angle-head grinders over there? * Most wear out in a matter
of hours... unless you dismantle the gear-box, add a Zerk and fill the
thing with high-pressure moly lube. *Give it a shot of lube now &
then, the things last a good long time. *Ditto for their gear-head
bench mill. *I took about a tea-cup of SAND out of the thing, then
dressed the gears, stoned the ways, did all the usual stuff a
machinist does to ensure his tools run true... and it does.

The point here is that the odds of plugging in a tool from Harbor
Freight -- and having the thing actually work! -- are vanishingly
small. *But the difference between a usable tool and a piece of junk
is often no more than a bit of attention on your part.

Some insist this is kinda crazy -- buying a tool only to fix it. (Like
the ALL CAPS profanity fellow.) *But a fundamental part of having and
using tools is knowing how to maintain them, from simple sharpening
chores to periodic re-alignment & adjustments. *With HF tools you
simply start with the maintenance. *By the time you're ready to put
the tool to work you know it will do a good job.

-R.S.Hoover

I'll add to that. *I bought three of the small angle grinders. *Christ the
cost was so low the only fear I had was the possibility of damage to the
rotator cuff when I threw them away. *Guess what. *All three are still
working in spite of some heavy grinding. *3rd wheel, wire brushes, and more
on them now. *Didn't do a thing but plug in and use.
Now I could have bought one from Snap-On but I would have to have a clean
dirt proof storage and gloves to operate and a maintenance program.
Now the "Professional" grade drill drivers that I bought from Sears?? *Have
had a lot more trouble with them. *I've found some good value with HF tools
and continue to use them.
Stu- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Their bench grinder and sander are fine as are most of their air tools
and for the price, even better when on sale, why worry over it. Most
home shop tools aren't used to the level or degree that an industrial
tool might be used. So with this as a given why do you always need a
big name high dollar tool that spends more time in a tool box than its
ever used?
An entire sub culture of hobbiest and small scale machinest exhist
solely supporeted by lathes and mills from HF, these hobbiest have
taken the time to address minor issues and with a little extra effort
end up with a very good quality machine tool. Can you buy better
quality tools and such? Sure, but why? Just my $.02 worth.