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Harbor Freight chain saw

IronWing

IronWing

No Lifer
I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay.
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The HF $55 14" electric chain saw actually worked. :biggrin: I took down a 12" DBH palo verde today with no complaints wrt the saw. Gotta get me a plaid shirt and a pair of Whites.

/blog
 
I've had fairly good luck with some of their corded electric tools. I've beat the fuck out of a ~$25 angle grinder, and still haven't even had to use the spare brushes that came in the damn box with it. It's a sturdy chunk of plastic with a primitive but effective electric motor. I would wager the chainsaw would be similar.

...but the chain itself would scare the shit out of me. Probably made of pot metal.
 
Congrats on cutting through a sapling with a HF chain saw. I'm not sure I'd have ever attempted it.
 
Any time I can cheap out on an implement that can quickly and easily kill me, I go for it.
 
lxskllr said:
HarborFreight eats shit. Every single thing is Chinese trash, and they occupy the micro-niche of supplies for people too poor to buy good tools, and not smart enough to rent a decent tool for a one-off job.

Glad it worked for you OP, but I wouldn't have even bothered using power tools for 12" tree. You could have gotten a nice cordless saw for half the cost...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ywords=bow+saw
Click to expand...

I have a bow saw and have taken down smaller trees (9") with them. Palo verde trees suck for bow saws. The wood is as soft as basswood or aspen but ridiculously sticky so the blade is forever binding. Anything over five inches diameter sucks. The chain saw was worth every penny.
 
lxskllr said:
HarborFreight eats shit. Every single thing is Chinese trash, and they occupy the micro-niche of supplies for people too poor to buy good tools, and not smart enough to rent a decent tool for a one-off job.

Glad it worked for you OP, but I wouldn't have even bothered using power tools for 12" tree. You could have gotten a nice cordless saw for half the cost...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ywords=bow+saw
Click to expand...

Well, that's like, your opinion man. I think a majority of their stuff is junk, but on the other hand, I've bought many items there that work great. Not everything from there is crap. I have their powered drain auger and it has saved me several 200 dollar trips from the plumber, plus a 20 ton press, welding cart, torque wrench, lots of impact sockets, o ring sets, misc stuff like that.
 
phucheneh said:
I've had fairly good luck with some of their corded electric tools. I've beat the fuck out of a ~$25 angle grinder, and still haven't even had to use the spare brushes that came in the damn box with it. It's a sturdy chunk of plastic with a primitive but effective electric motor.
Click to expand...

i got the $14 and had the same experience. their brand abrasives are worthless shit though.
 
I prefer buying things from harbor freight with few or no moving parts....


A harbor freight anvil would be a fair gamble....otherwise most of their stuff is disposable.
 
lxskllr said:
HarborFreight eats shit. Every single thing is Chinese trash, and they occupy the micro-niche of supplies for people too poor to buy good tools, and not smart enough to rent a decent tool for a one-off job.

Glad it worked for you OP, but I wouldn't have even bothered using power tools for 12" tree. You could have gotten a nice cordless saw for half the cost...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ywords=bow+saw
Click to expand...

And 90% of the power tools in your local hardware store are also made in China. Make sure you cry about that the next time you go there.
 
railer said:
And 90% of the power tools in your local hardware store are also made in China. Make sure you cry about that the next time you go there.
Click to expand...

I don't cry about anything. Crying's for sissies, but I can see how that would immediately jump to your mind ;^)

I vote with my dollars. I recently bought a set of ViceGrips, and found they were made in China after getting home. I took them back a couple days later, and there was no crying involved.

That said, I recently bought a machete from HarborFreight. My other ones were broken, and uncomfortable to use. I had gone there for bungies, and saw them on the rack for $5. I should know better, but about every 10 years I break down and buy a Chinese tool in the vain hope they've gotten better, I probably cut 100' total before the handle came apart. I had also buried it in a piece of square stock I didn't see while cutting, and it put an S curve in the blade edge.

I ended up ordering an Ontario, and a Woodman's Pal from Amazon, and there's no doubt in my mind I could use either of them to hack through the Chinese machete, with only superficial damage to the blades, and the handles firmly in place.
 
Speaking of chainsaws, I pulled mine(Poulan Wildthing) out today and was going to cut some limbs and noticed gas dripping. I pull it apart and a couple of the hose were broke, can I just get a new hose kit? I am also not sure where all the different hoses go. I know one comes from the primer bulb to the carb and one from the gas tank to the carb, I see what looks like a place on the bottom of the compartment where the carb sits. Is that a drain/run off?
 
SAWYER said:
Speaking of chainsaws, I pulled mine(Poulan Wildthing) out today and was going to cut some limbs and noticed gas dripping. I pull it apart and a couple of the hose were broke, can I just get a new hose kit? I am also not sure where all the different hoses go. I know one comes from the primer bulb to the carb and one from the gas tank to the carb, I see what looks like a place on the bottom of the compartment where the carb sits. Is that a drain/run off?
Click to expand...

on my MAC it goes

gas tank [tube] carb inlet

carb outlet [tube] primer inlet

primer outlet [tube] gas tank

you may as well check the chain oiler tube if there is one if it's disintegrated
 
I buy stuff from HF that I intend to use for one job. Anything longer is a bonus. So far I've been very pleasantly surprise with the durability. At least with those expectations. Its also been cheaper every time to buy there than to rent a quality tool.

That said, a HF chainsaw would make me a little nervous. I'd want to take off the chain, lube it and make sure it had no sticky spots before use.
 
lxskllr said:
HarborFreight eats shit. Every single thing is Chinese trash, and they occupy the micro-niche of supplies for people too poor to buy good tools, and not smart enough to rent a decent tool for a one-off job.

Glad it worked for you OP, but I wouldn't have even bothered using power tools for 12" tree. You could have gotten a nice cordless saw for half the cost...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ywords=bow+saw
Click to expand...

shrug. I've bought tons of stuff from Harbor Freight and have probably saved thousands of dollars. Each item I've purchased has gotten the job done with no problems.
 
dabuddha said:
shrug. I've bought tons of stuff from Harbor Freight and have probably saved thousands of dollars. Each item I've purchased has gotten the job done with no problems.
Click to expand...

Same. Alot of goobers on here would say the OP should be using a Husky or echo pro saw for chopping down one 12" sapling.
 
monkeydelmagico said:
Same. Alot of goobers on here would say the OP should be using a Husky or echo pro saw for chopping down one 12" sapling.
Click to expand...

Well, no... he should have been a "real man" and got himself a Stihl chainsaw that he'll be able to give to his kid 30 years from now still in working order. 🙂
 
ultimatebob said:
Well, no... he should have been a "real man" and got himself a Stihl chainsaw that he'll be able to give to his kid 30 years from now still in working order. 🙂
Click to expand...

I had to overcome my natural urge to buy the most expensive American-made tool available and buy the HF instead. I did so for reasons.
 
Scarpozzi said:
I prefer buying things from harbor freight with few or no moving parts....


A harbor freight anvil would be a fair gamble....otherwise most of their stuff is disposable.
Click to expand...

Oddly enough, it really is the reverse of this. Their sockets and wrenches suck. Sizes are pretty...approximate. And the cheap metal stretches pretty quickly. Stuff for low torque applications (like 1/4" drive stuff) works okay, but you'll split their 3/8" and 1/2" chrome sockets. The big impact stuff (black sockets) seems solid, though. Open ended wrenches are useless.

But the exact same stuff can be said of Craftsman.

As far as an anvil...meh, same issues. Metal is cheap and brittle. Their bench vices are terribad (...relevance being that bench vices get used as anvils a lot).

I have an anvil that somebody made for me. It's a chunk of old railroad track. It's a quality piece and costs nothing...provided you have access to some discarded railroad bits. And an oxyacetylene torch.
 
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