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anybody shop at harbor freight??


frankie

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They do have a few good things. Like many threads on newsgroups say, you have to know what to "weed out" when you go there. But I wish such places didn't exist, because it's hard to resist when they do have a tool that's as good as an American made tool that cost 10 times more. It would be better to keep the money in America. Maybe the American factory worker would play guitar and pay me for some repair work. A Chinese factory worker isn't going to buy anything from me.

Next time I'm tempted to buy from HB, I'll give the pawnshops another try first .

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i'm thinking about buying their 5.00 rasp/file set, only because im not much of a woodworker and don't need something that will last longer than me. It's like 7.50 shipped

....don't waste your time or money on Harbor Freight.....go to your local hardware store and pick up a few Vermont-American files.....They are of decent quality, not great, but are made of a much higher grade of steel than the Chinese stuff, and will work well for more than one project.

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Southpa.....Funny you should post a link to an auto darkening welder's helmet. I was looking at a Lincoln TIG 185 yesterday and also checked out the auto-dark helmets...Somehow I think that at $315, the helmet at the welder's supply is a better helmet than the $49.99 Harbor Freight!

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Southpa.....Funny you should post a link to an auto darkening welder's helmet. I was looking at a Lincoln TIG 185 yesterday and also checked out the auto-dark helmets...Somehow I think that at $315, the helmet at the welder's supply is a better helmet than the $49.99 Harbor Freight!

if you get one of those be careful...i don't like them because when i have been welding for a while and my eyes get tired(you other welders know what i am talking about)i start to stretch my eye muscles while i am welding and i will tilt my head a little so i can look at the weld through the corner or top or bottom of my eye instead of straight on...and if you tilt away from the weld with those lenses they tend to undarken and leave you looking directly at the arc unprotected.

i much prefer a standard hood with a well worn headband that will flip down when i move my head forward

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I guess I am one of the lucky ones. Every tool I have bought from there has worked well and has stood up just as good as some name brand stuff...

I have their laminate router and their 1-3/4 HP Plunge Router from Chicago Tools, and I use them almost daily for different things at the shop, and they have yet to fail me... As a matter of fact, the laminate router just outlasted our Ryobi laminate router.

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I used to work at a machine shop and the tools that we bought from them were not the cheap ones. If you get the cheapest you get crap. They have a router set of 41 pcs for 19, another for 40 and another for 80. If you get the 19 don't expect to use them more than once. My boss learn that the hard way. we wanted a HVLP sprayer and he got the $40 special. Worthless. SO be careful what you order.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well I posted a Harbor Freight horror story in here a few months ago. My big problem was with their customer service.... I bought a metal work bench from them... It came to my house missing the hardware to put it together. A month of several calls led me to send it back for a refund. Buyer beware:

On a good note.... I had a pair of digital calipers I bought from them.... No problems so far... But then again its a just a sophisticated ruler!!!!! I still get books and flyers from them in the mail. I use them to keep my 10 month old daughter from ripping my guitar mags. By the time she is done.... there's nothing but shredded catalog all over the place.... lol

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I have bought some odd ball clamps that have proved to be handy. I also bought buffing wheels there and sand paper. You can find some things there that are odd ball tools that you won't find elsewhere and will do the job. Plus its kinda like a treasure hunt, and at some places I guess you will have to dig a deeper hole to find that trinket. I doubt I would look there for a quality tool though.

Fryguy :D

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