The best thing I have gotten from HF is a 1/2" air ratchet, cost me $19.99, think they are $24.99 now. Had it for about 10 yrs, pretty strong, great for breaking down an engine, and still works like new
I have an HF jack, it has been bullet proof compared to others in the shop. It was a gift, but I'd buy another. I also buy the car dollies (the formed, plate ones, too many projects, it's like Tetras) and their $9.99 Paint guns. No complaints on any of those. After this thread I may have to take a second look at other items. The local HF is only 2 miles away, too convenient.
Yep, great return policy at CND Tire as well as Princess. Speaking of CDN Tire I bought a 7.5 amp impact wrench from them years ago and I hardly ver use my air one anymore. That sucker is tough...
Usually repair from my experience but in the case of the 1/4" ratchet it was one of the fine tooth ones with the black serrated wheel for fine adjustments and they no longer have parts to repair that model so they just took a brand new standard one off the rack and handed it to me.
I did have a Craftsman 3/8" drive deepwell socket replaced awhile back, by calling the Craftsman 800#. Still waiting on my 1/2" drive impact socket & a C-clamp...
35 years ago I was into snapon but then our neighbor's cabin up north was owned by snap on vice president at that time. Never had a problem until just the last few years, they are finally starting to break/fail. But nothing lasts forever. I do have some hf stuff. Stuff I have, I have been happy with. Hf. today is quite different from hf from 20 years ago.
Since just about every place selling tools are giving lifetime warranties, the tool trucks may find themselves out of business if they don't change with the times.
Very true. I have seen the decline at our automotive shop. The matco guy quit and went back to wrenching. The Snap on guy is hit and miss. And the Mac guy is the same. There are lots of job postings for these tool truck jobs and territories, no one is applying.
I have a lot of Craftsman tools . Half of the crappy ratchets at HF are as good or better than my Craftsman ratchets.
Any "lifetime Warranties" are only as good as the company that sold them. Craftsman tools are a great example, when there was a local company owned store here in town, that warranty was golden. Them the "company" store closed and an "independently owned" store opened at a different location. That independent guy would only replace broken stuff as a set, you broke a socket, you had to bring in the whole set to get replaced, lost one? Too bad! Then the independent guy closed. The nearest Sears store was 45 miles away, but they would still exchange the broken tools. That store closed, and it was the last one in our area. Then you had to get replacement Craftsman tools replaced at Kmart, until they all closed. Now you can go to several locations and get a broken tool replaced with a set of the off shore junk Craftsman tools. It doesn't take much to break those. Time spent chasing down replacement broken Lifetime tools, makes the warranty pretty worthless. A few months ago Harbor Freight opened up a new store here in our town. It used to be you had to travel 40 miles to replace something that may have broken, but really, that didn't happen too often. Now that that HF store is in town, replacing something that broke is pretty easy, and there are no hassles. I don't buy many tools any more, but you can bet most of the tools in my future will come from Harbor Freight because of the low up front cost, and the uneventful broken tool replacement. Gene
Tube notcher, braun light...some good things over there for the hobbiest . Lot of you tube videos out there to modify/improve their tools too. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Whenever you can't find something do what I do. Just say... "Right in front of your fucking face!" and they will magically appear. Works every time.
The only have 2 real tools with moving parts and such from HF. One is one of the old orange 20t presses (which now has a different bottle jack and metal plates...) and the other is one of the burgundy red horizontal band saw. Had both for about 8 years or so. The press was just fine until the bottle jack went, and the bandsaw's fit and finish wasn't great on it, but after I adjusted and modified it here and there and made a better rolling stand for it, it's not all that bad. I do abuse it, but it still works. I've modified it so I can get several more inches of cut, and have a better vise and vise crank on it. I have a larger more powerful horizontal band saw now that's a lot higher quality (never have to adjust anything, and always cuts straight as can be), but I still use the smaller HF band saw when I need to cut something that I have to get real "creative" while clamping it down, and am worried it won't hold. I use the HF mostly because it doesn't have near the power and has a much thinner blade, so if something slips or fails, the small blade will either just brake, or if the blade gets caught the motor will stall or slip on the belt and won't throw a part or buck back at me much. My bigger band saw will just keep chewing right through and can be dangerous if the part isn't solidly clamped. Most of the time I'm cutting easy to clamp material or parts, so I like using the bigger saw better. But I keep the HF around. All other things I have from HF with non moving parts like sockets, hammers, mirrors, wheel chocks, and so on seem to hold up just fine. I just wash them off real good before using them, alot of times they have a very odd smell to them, probably whatever oil/grease is used to protect them. The impact sockets are (or were?) very beefy. I've used them in my press regularly, up right and on the round side. Actually, I might get more use out of them as dies and hammers instead of sockets, haha! I don't like buying stuff from China, but sometimes the $ speaks.
As Fortunateson mentioned, we have Princess Auto here in Canada. I have a bunch of tools purchased over the years from them. Pressure blaster, parts washer, Pro Point impact/hammer screwdriver kit, etc. and most recently a 1 ton and a half ton trolley and half ton chain hoist. Most of the stuff is actually decent, and when on sale usually presents a deal too good to pass on.
The only thing I hate is I always have to go get a carriage because I can't carry all the stuff I have. Also when getting in my car realizing I need one more thing.
I have one of their 3000 lb aluminum floor jacks and I love it, I use it everywhere! I even lift the front corners of my OT Chevy 4X4 which comes close to the limits but it gets the job done and still no leaks after about 8 or 9 years of use!
Funny you say that! This little CE sticker: was the first thing I noticed when I got this bad boy: after bicep surgery last week. Isn’t that the same little logo that used to be on a lot of their tools? Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Well the argument of buying US made stuff sold by Snap-on at a high price doesn't hold too much water when it is discovered that the Snap-on jack is the same Chinese unit as HF sells but at several times the price. How about just buying the HF unit, and sending a $100 donation to Snap-on? Everyone wins.
"CE" just means the manufacturer claims it is in compliance and therefore legal for sale in Europe. Sort of similar to the "UL" stickers that used to be seen on electrical items in America. Probably counterfeit too, eh?
I was a Snap On dealer 40 years ago. What a learning experience for me. That's when they had "flank drive" wrenches, and sockets. Wrenches and sockets, great. Ratchets, suck, especially the fine tooth ones. Snap On tool boxes, good. At that time, MBC tool boxes, better. Snap On 1/2" air impact, so so. Ingersoll Rand 231 really good. I always had S&K ratchet sets and wrench sets on the truck also.
The Jalopy Journal
