damn harbor frieght

Ckanderson

Supramania Contributor
Apr 1, 1983
2,644
0
0
41
The beach
Just bought an angle grinder to clean up the rust on the conti's bumper before powdercoat. Used it for about 2 min, and it failed and got REALLLLLY hot..

damn it.
 

BorHor

2JZ-GZE
Jan 10, 2006
6,181
1
0
35
San Jose, CA
No you didn't! LIES!

My dad bought a few tools from there and they seem decent. But I don't expect much quality, which is quite obvious.
 

JASONA70

nomnomnom
Oct 27, 2006
743
0
0
socal
i bought a handful of harbor freight tools, and my friend came over and told me their shit sucks, and now this thread tells me that harbor freight tools fail. harbor freight tools fail :cry: good thing these things have a 1-2 year warranty.
 

Clip

The Magnificent Seven
Oct 16, 2005
2,738
9
38
35
Virginia
they're alright for a one time use deal. i got an angle grinder kit from northern ($20) and its doing great. id shop there for an upper-class harbor freight feel :)
 

Adjuster

Supramania Contributor
I have never had one fail yet. Been pretty brutal to the tools also. (Have two buffers that were about 30.00 each, appear to be copies of a 400.00 Bosch design, and have worked as needed for years in many classes and demonstrations of how to color sand and buff.)

Buy cheap stuff, expect to get what you bought. Not very shocking... LOL

Take it back. They will just hand you another one, or they might even refund your money. Just add a few hundred bucks to whatever you paid, and go get a better version if you want to buy quality name brand stuff. (Most likely made in the same place, keep in mind..)

Years ago, I worked for a floor covering place, and we replaced the stair treads in a factory in LA that made yard power tools. (Leaf blowers, weed/string trimmers and hedge trimmers.. that kind of stuff.) They had the product show room upstairs, and I peeked into it...

Guess what?
Here are Craftsman, Toro, Lawnboy and a bunch of other brands all displayed around the room. All of them are made in the same plant, using pretty much similar internal stuff, with different color plastic handles and designs on the outside... It was so funny, I had to get Mike, the guy I was working with and show him, and he was also laughing as he had just bought a Hilti hammer drill, and was now wondering if he should have saved a few hundred and bought the Craftsman version... :)

Today, with pretty much everything sourced out of China, do you wonder where all your tools are made anymore? (I'm sure the power tools are made in a few large plants around the world, and they are all either direct copies of each other, or made by the same machines/people to various standards of construction and design.)

So, you might not really be getting what you paid for eh?
 

Interex

New Member
Mar 30, 2005
64
0
0
41
Houston, TX
For tools that I'm going to beat up on and will likely fail, I get the replacement warranty. It's anywhere from $6-$12 (depending on purchase price) and well worth it, IMO. Beats shipping back to the manufacture for them to honor their warranty.
 

speed

Gone. Email me.
May 27, 2006
1,045
0
0
not here
www.timduganphotography.com
Damn, i've abused the crap out of my HF angle grinder- still works decently well. I dropped it 20ft a few weeks ago, now its not quite perfectly balanced but hey thats what eye protection and gloves are for.
 

iwannadie

New Member
Jul 28, 2006
981
0
0
gilbert, az
Adjuster said:
I have never had one fail yet. Been pretty brutal to the tools also. (Have two buffers that were about 30.00 each, appear to be copies of a 400.00 Bosch design, and have worked as needed for years in many classes and demonstrations of how to color sand and buff.)

Buy cheap stuff, expect to get what you bought. Not very shocking... LOL

Take it back. They will just hand you another one, or they might even refund your money. Just add a few hundred bucks to whatever you paid, and go get a better version if you want to buy quality name brand stuff. (Most likely made in the same place, keep in mind..)

Years ago, I worked for a floor covering place, and we replaced the stair treads in a factory in LA that made yard power tools. (Leaf blowers, weed/string trimmers and hedge trimmers.. that kind of stuff.) They had the product show room upstairs, and I peeked into it...

Guess what?
Here are Craftsman, Toro, Lawnboy and a bunch of other brands all displayed around the room. All of them are made in the same plant, using pretty much similar internal stuff, with different color plastic handles and designs on the outside... It was so funny, I had to get Mike, the guy I was working with and show him, and he was also laughing as he had just bought a Hilti hammer drill, and was now wondering if he should have saved a few hundred and bought the Craftsman version... :)

Today, with pretty much everything sourced out of China, do you wonder where all your tools are made anymore? (I'm sure the power tools are made in a few large plants around the world, and they are all either direct copies of each other, or made by the same machines/people to various standards of construction and design.)

So, you might not really be getting what you paid for eh?


Just because stuff is made in one plant doesnt mean they are direct copies of each other. Key components can be totally different which make the difference in quality. Having say plastic gears Vs metal gears, the same plant can do stuff like that, making a low and high end tool.

Ive watched the show How its made too much lol, but Ive seen that sort of thing alot. Im not saying alot of name brand stuff is Not just a mere copy of generic though. Just that 1 plant can produce junk and quality at the same time.