Harbor Freight - their stuff any good?

[GasX]

I was looking at a Harbor Freight circular the other day and their prices on a lot of items are just crazy cheap. Is their stuff all complete crap or is it just heavily discounted?

 

[The Stigenator]

some stuff like chicago electric - cheap stuff made in china, but other stuff are pretty decent. I usually go there for teh gloves, 4.99 for a 100 pack of latex gloves. Their tools arent bad, but as long as you dont get the cheapo stuff. I had a friend's chiago electric handheld rechargeable light go bad, all because he plugged it in to charge when it was on. Funny my coleman (looks exactly the same) says not to do that too, dont know why?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Like most things, it depends on what you want.

I am just about to order a Grizzly 0555 band saw. Relatively inexpensive, and highly thought of.

Are you asking as a general question, or is there something in particular you were considering?

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: WinstonSmith
Like most things, it depends on what you want.Are you asking as a general question, or is there something in particular you were considering?

Well, there are a whole bunch of super cheap items I will be buying for sure such at small storage bins for a workbench, chamois cloths, gloves, dremel bits. I was just curious oabout the stuff when you get out of the $0.99 to $19.99 range...

 

[zixxer]

drill bits, anything requiring high quality materials I might avoid.


it really depends... some stuff is good, some stuff is sh!t

 

[jadinolf]

It is my favorite candy store and for occasional use most of their stuff is great.

 

[GasX]

They have a Chicago reciprocating saw for $20

It this things lasts for two uses, it's a steal. It's certainly cheaper than renting the damn thing...

(I gotta be missing something...)

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

If it looks to good to be true then it is. The chicago line of stuff is crap. You can't honestly tell me that something that sell for $20 is going to out last and out perform a Dewalt or Makita tool.

Tape measures, and tools with no mving parts are fine to buy in the store brand there, other than that, i would be highly suspecious.
I bought a 18v drill from Northern and it has so far been pretty good. Though now i'm going to go home and it won't work.

 

[slag]

Its called the chinese junkyard for a reason.

That being said, I buy a lot of my tools there last quite awhile.

Not hand tools or anything like that, but an A/C evap pump, coil spring compressor, air hose reel, stuff like that.

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
You can't honestly tell me that something that sell for $20 is going to out last and out perform a Dewalt or Makita tool.

I never for a moment thought that it would... 🙂