rbertalotto

Most things available at Horrible Freight (Harbor Freight for those of you not in the know) are really pretty bad, but I love wandering around in their stores. I buy rubber gloves, a pack of 100 cheap paintbrushes for $5, 10 rolls of electrical tape for $3, and other commodities like that.

But every once in a while they just hit a freak'n home run on something. The motorcycle lift with a 20% off coupon was one of those hits. They had a 4" angle grinder for $15 that was a real winner. I bought a couple thinking they would be disposable and they are still going strong two years later!

Recently I decided to do some work on my little sports car. Change the front ball joints and the four shocks.

One of the problems with this car is it is extremely close to the ground. My big, 3 ton, heavy duty floor jack will not get under any of the lift points. So I happen to be in the Fall River area, with a 20% off coupon for HF in my shirt pocket.

They are having on sale a 3000 pound "Aluminum Racing Jack" for $59. It must be crap, right? Well I checked it out and decided to buy one. Heck, the aluminum is worth more than $59 at the scrap yard!

I'm here to tell you, this jack is great. Extremely smooth in operation. I've never owned a jack with such controllable "down".
So light weight that you might want to take it with you on a trip if you felt the need. It's all anodized and the handle is in two pieces and quick removable from the jack itself, so your grandkids don't bump into it and drop the car on your foot!

And when you are working on your favorite sports car, it just looks so cool and professional........:lol8:







What have you bought at HF and found to be a "real deal"?

gadget.35-06

The 60" farm jack at $59 is worth having, particularly in my trade(HVAC). Sometimes you need to break a package unit away from the curb so the crane doesn't whiplash.

patdaly

I got one of the turbine HVLP ( Central Electric brand ) paint units, works very well, no louder than a vacuum cleaner, and sprays fairly viscous oil based paints pretty doggone good!

Blake Clark

Caught a clearance on some good 3 inch ratchet straps once. They were almost 30 bucks a piece clearance down to 6 bucks. Bought about 20 of em.

I agree a lot of there stuff is "cheaper", but handy. We have a couple of huge (1" to 3") socket sets from them to work on the bigger stuff we have. Dont get used very much so they are holding up.

cbtumedic

I bought a set of pittsburg 1/2" impact sockets 10+ years ago from them when I was just getting started in the mechanic buisiness and was flat broke, used them just about every day and only broke one (7/8" using it to break a stud that had a cross threaded lug nut on it with a breaker bar and cheater pipe.) They have held up better than the snap-on and other high end ones that guys I used to work with had. If you can find the painted ones that they sell then buy them, but if they have a anodized or parkerized appearance run and hide. Other than that I haven't bought much stuff of any substance from them. For the record most of my other tools are either snap-on, mac, or matco so I use quality tools for the most part, but can't seem to part with tools that last like those cheap impact sockets.

schamran

3/4 drive socket set for less than $60. Wouldn't have ever bought one for $350 +. Nice to have. Also a crescent wrench about the same size(s) for like $13.

Nick02Ram

I've bought a few die grinders from HF that are still going strong after 3 yrs of use. As for impact guns/air ratchets and such, I go brand name. No other air ratchet will touch my snap-on, and my IR thunder gun will break loose about anything. I also have a set of Pitt. 1/2" sockets that I use daily, and had no problems, I've even had em on a 3/4" IR impact and they took the abuse.

kthiemann

I've gotten a few things from them over the years that are fairly decent but mostly I go for the cheap sockets that I can sacrifice and beat onto a rounded off bolt or something.....saves beating on my snap-on stuff that way.

high bid

It's a good place to search for specialty tools you may only use once or twice and if you figure the price + 20% off, you really can't go wrong. I will admit some of the stuff does not last.

.boB

I bought a jack just like that about 5 years ago. I'm pretty sure I paid a few dollars more than you id. I use it a lot on my sports car, and carry it to the track. Still working fine.

I'v bought a few things over the years from HF. Surprisingly enough, most of them have lasted for quite a while. 5 years ago I bought a MIG welder for $99. I don't use it a lot, but I'v run 4-5 5# rolls of wire through it. Last week I used it to make new side pipes for my sports car. $99 is one heck of a deal.

justme-

They have so-so tools for the most part, you have to look at them individually to evaluate the quality- some stuff is pretty good. That jack tho, I have it too, good for cars, but the lift capacity is grossly over estimated. Barely lifted the front corner of my Ram...

And keep in mind you need the coupon from one of the magazines to get that price.

1-2-3

I got a little 400 pound cap. hoist. Threw a hunk of conduit up in the rafters of the garage and slipped the loops on the hoist thru it. Works great. Hook it in the back hole on the riding mower and hoist it right up for a blade job. I also use it to lift the 5'er hitch in/out and other various things. Very handy. Their little rotary tool accessories are utter junk, yet fun. I put a tiny cutoff wheel on the die grinder, gave it a quick spin and it flew into a jillion pieces only touching raw air. Very funny.

stinkindiesel

I buy the black nitrile gloves, size XL, when they're on sale.

i also bought one of those Chicago-brand Sawz-alls for some quick-n-dirty 1" copper pipe work where I didn't want to sacrifice my Milwaukee. 30 seconds into the cut, the motor stripped the plastic gear. Yeah, the piece of junk only cost $17 but for 30 seconds of marginal work? They honored the 30-day exchange, but the next one stripped the gears after 10 minutes of sawing 1/2" plywood.

Blake Clark

I was thinking of getting a small blasting pot from them, just for small jobs around the shop. Anyone have one from HF?

michiganracer2

I have 2 of them jacks for the race cars, they work really well.