LOL @ Harbor Freight stuff.

[Old Tele man]

...Harbor Freight is to TOOLS, what Radio Shack is to ELECTRONICS, ie: the best/worst of the China-imported products.

[Christ]

and yet, some of my HF stuff has held up better than Crapsman or Snap-On tools that I have/had. Only difference is that when the others break, I get free replacements, no questions asked.

[SVOboy]

I was actually planning on buying a welder and some other stuff of that nature from harbor freight pretty soon. Any recommendations?

[Christ]

I've never used a HF welder, so I can't recommend that... pullers are soemthing to stay away from, unless you have fab skills and can make new mandrel arms for them.

EDIT: Typed this in the hurry - by mandrel arms, I'm referring to the plates that go from the middle of the puller to hold the actual arms. Plates with a hole in each end, bolt goes through them, there are two per "finger" of the puller.

[MadisonMPG]

You ALWAYS want more welder than less. My shop teacher had a good saying, "Save to buy the welder you think you need, and then buy the one bigger." Get a welder that will fit your needs.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by bhazard

4 cylinder use only? Wtf?

I actually use one on a V6, the nice thing about harbor freight is that their online price is usually a factor of 10 higher than the in store price, at least if you wait for a sidewalk sale, coupons or in my case clearance.

My fuel magnet was $1.99 and worth every penny, it holds stuff up to the fridge perfectly. (actually I have been using one on my buick lesabre) and I am getting better FE oh but I failed to mention I also got a scamguage at the same time as the magnet. Ah well truth in advertising.

And I do love Harbor Freight for cheap tools that I will probably only use a few times.

Well worth it for an oddity or two as well.

And their $1.99 multimeters were a good deal as well, I now have 4 but one already has a dead battery.

[Christ]

I get all kinds of tools from HF. Wrenches, sockets, tool boxes, trailer lights, spot lights, work lights, definitely love the occasional oddity as well.

As far as the multimeter goes - just change the battery. It's probably soldered, but you can still change them fairly easily, if it's the same one that I'm thinking about.

[Nevyn]

They're not soldered. Just open 'em up with a screwdriver and it's a standard 9V.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Nevyn

They're not soldered. Just open 'em up with a screwdriver and it's a standard 9V.

Meh, I've gotten a few Chinese products that have had CR2032 batteries soldered in series to the mainboard. I don't think I've seen it in a multi, yet, but I still haven't had to change a battery in one, either.

[wagonman76]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...Harbor Freight is to TOOLS, what Radio Shack is to ELECTRONICS, ie: the best/worst of the China-imported products.

I dunno about Radio Shack, their stuff seems constructed well, and I haven't had any problems with any of their stuff. Now JC Whitney carries the worst electronics I've ever seen. Stuff so bad I didn't even know they made it in the first place. The radios my sister and friends bought from them were not even worth installing brand new out of the box. My favorite was the ad for a radio "flashing LED lets thieves know that breaking in isn't worth the effort", ain't that the truth. I also bought a set of crowfoot wrenches from them, some were missing, others were so badly cast that I couldn't even use them. But the tie rod tool I bought from them was decent and has held up well.

I ordered some fog lights on sale from HF once, some were decent, some were super cheap. The winch for my plow was the same as HF sells, after 2 seasons it seized up and I had to tear it apart and clean out the rust, seal the connections, rebuild the motor brushes, and I packed it full of wheel bearing grease. Shouldn't have had to do that but no problems since.