Harbor Freight tools thread.

nice little boxes

 

I didn't know if HF was going to offer this again, as it has been a while...

 

I missed the vice conversation. I haz dis:



It’s older than me and the one thing my dad gave me when I bought my house since I already have as many tools as him. That’s 2” square tube for reference.

 

I have a lot of older Craftsman sockets as well that I bought new as an "upgrade" to my HF stuff that I bought in the mid 1980s. As a side note, HF existed in the 1980s but had no stores, only mail order. They ran small ads in the back of magazines like Popular Mechanics and you could call and they'd mail you a thin catalog which was a limited line of basic hand tools. At this time the tools were made in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. Up until 5 years ago I had 4 Sears within a 30 mile radius of my house; now there are none. I've never needed to change out a socket but have with pliers and screwdrivers- their screwdrivers suck. I gave up on them years ago and went to SK and Williams for sockets and Wiha for drivers.

 

this is mine. Was my grandfathers but I don’t know anything else about it.

 

Columbian is US...Colombian is the country in South America with the beautiful scenery, women, coffee and let's not forget the cocaine and kidnappings.

 

I did this with a torque wrench I had. Called HD and let them know, they didn't want the core and I had a gift card in my inbox prior to hanging up the phone. I'm a big fan of the new way.

 

And guys like this will ruin the new way .

 

that will make it where they keep a record of everything and there will be absolutely no way for anyone but original buyer to get the tool replaced.

kinda how everything at HF is done through your phone and email, I wouldn't expect them to warranty a tool i buy from someone used.

 

https://charlotte.craigslist.org/tls/d/locust-harbor-freight-tool-sale/6948397479.html

 

Looks like some stuff fell off a truck somewhere...

 

Claims to have ordered a whole truck load and is now selling the stuff for profit

 

This screams credit card fraud to me. People buy stuff with stolen CC numbers and then sell it at a reduced price. Years ago I somehow had a card fraudulently duplicated (that I didn't lose) - it wasn't used on internet orders, which has happened to me before, but this time it was used at grocery stores, gas stations, etc. in my area.

 

I can’t tell you how disappointed I was when Sears/Craftsman stopped handing out the rebuild kit for the wrenches.

One of my first tool purchases, at age 14, was a Craftsman 3/8 drive swivel head wrench. It was my primary go to wrench for 35 years. It started to skip so I went to Sears a few years ago for the kit and they said they don’t hand them out anymore. The guy went rooting in a drawer and handed me a rebuilt one. It seemed a bit older and slightly heavier than mine so I regrettably handed my old one over.

It still bothers me... I don’t understand why they would have stopped handing out the kits. (Prolly liability issues..). Seems like the kits to a do it yourselfer would be the least costly way to deal with worn out wrenches...

End rant.

 

Well that's better than now where they replace it with the Chinese version. Right when they started doing this I just bought the rebuild kits off ebay, now they're up to $20 so it's not worth it...

 

Honestly I have bought husky for years now. It was cheaper than craftsman and readily available. I have had a bigger set since 2013 and never had an issue with a tool of theirs to need warranty.

 

The problem is that Craftsman never manufactured anything. They'd contract with someone like Danaher to make a ratchet, and then in 10 years they'd get them from another vendor. When that happens you lose the ability to get a free rebuild kit because they've changed suppliers. If you can find a Sears store, now they'll probably give you a new Chinese ratchet. If you buy an SK ratchet you can get a free rebuild kit 20 years later as they're the ones that made the ratchet.

 

As a 14 year old, I was blissfully ignorant of such matters

 

I'm sure 99% didn't know either- I didn't until ~10 yrs ago. I knew Sears didn't make Die Hard batteries, but figured there was a Craftsman tool plant somewhere. I still have a few Craftsman wrenches that I bought in the 1980s