Harbor Freight tools thread.

Excellent point on LPG or natural gas (if you have it available). A couple of months ago I lost power from a Tuesday to Sunday night and went through about 12-15 gallons of gas a day for my generator - a 7500W (running watts 9500 starting) unit.

 

Yeah exactly my thought too.

LPG is an option, the house I’m moving into is electric only for utilities right now so a 200gal propane tanks is really on my mind, and with that thought I would shift to a whole house backup. This consideration is only for the first full hurricane season to make sure we want and need one?

This is exactly the reason we are limiting our choices to the smaller inverter ones. 3-5 gallons a day and quiet for now.

 

I can relate to that. We are still weighing the ups and downs of a full house generator here which would have to be LPG and would draw off of the 1,000 gallon tank we already have. With this portable unit I can fire it up off of refillable 20lb bottles and simply plug it in to run the circuits I need. I Try to keep at least a half dozen filled bottles on the property along with the two bottles on the camper. Mates that lived through Katrina said that while businesses started to open petrol didn’t make back into servo storage tanks for quite awhile but they could exchange empty LPG bottles to run grills and LPG generators.

There are LPG/Petrol dual fuel units out there but I’ve never personally used one so no experience that I can relay to help in a decision there.

As to the want and need of one. You don’t want to be in the position to “want one” when you are “in need of one.” Hope you find the perfect setup for your needs before the threats approach.

 

With all the power shutoffs in California last year I went with a propane inverter generator. I ran it for almost a week off of one 40Lb tank. It still has propane in it. This thread just reminded me it hasn't been ran in 6 months. I opened the tank, switched it on and pressed start. It started right up.

Yesterday I filled up the second 40Lb in the picture below plus 2 - 20Lb tanks and it was only $56.

I had a smaller inverter generator that ran on gas and if you didn't start it at least once a month it would take a lot of pulls to get it going.

 

Nice great little kit

 

Nice setup man, but those appear to be plastic walls, best to make sure your exhaust is open and away from anything plastic that could catch fire.

 

Thanks they are but if you look there is a metal vent where the exhaust pipe exits the generator. There is another vent higher up on the opposite side to allow air flow.

 

Ah I see, I thought the vent was plastic too, metal was definitely a good move there.

 

Input on this scope anyone?

 

At that price your expectations should be very low.

 

I don’t have it. But I think you are going to get what you pay for with this. You would be much better off spending more money and getting better quality optics.

 

@G.T. I was looking back at this post and I thought there were couple of things I would like to add.

The Generator is a Westinghouse Igen4500. It is dual fuel but I will avoid using gas to keep the carb clean.
It is 4500W gas or 3800W Propane. It has push button start so my wife can start it.

It is so quiet my next door neighbors didn't hear it running. They only noticed the house glowing from the TV while everyone else was dark.

I ran two refrigerators, an 82" TV with full surround sound and DirecTv, two computers, computer network and phones, security cameras, a large fan and several lights (LED) and it was only at 24% of power.

I ran a 30 amp RV cord into the house then split it with several extension cords thru the house. It was an OK temporary solution.

I did buy a manual switch panel to run certain circuits but it has not been installed it yet.

It sure beat several days of sitting in the dark listening to a transistor radio.

 

Anyone have experience with the Central Pneumatic framing nailer vs. Banks?.

 

No experience with the dual fuel setups as of yet but the obvious benefit of it is certainly intriguing. We have a fridge freezer combo and a deep freezer that we worry about which is the kitchen and the front garage. Add the water pump and the furnace and we’re gold. Master bedroom and it’s bath are on the emergency circuit as well. I’ve taken to chaining portable generators up when in use after so many people in the wake of Katrina woke up with no power to find that their generator was gone.

 

Love that place.

32 bucks for a router

16 bucks for an air drill

for homeowners that place is great

for tradesmen - maybe not so much

 

I built a shed with it. Legit..no issues.

 

Anyone have the mid sized green house?
good?
Bad?
Ugly?

 

Green houses seem like a decent setup, work well but somewhat typical HF meets IKEA construction that sometimes requires some modification to work right.

I’d definitely pick one of them up if I needed one.

 

Any recommendations on a welder from HF? A decent cheapen I can start using to practice as I am a beginner welder but I have done it before if that makes sense. I know how to stick weld but I want to learn to TIG and MIG. I dont really care for the flux core crap that I have used in the past seems janky

 

Buy a Lincoln or Miller. Small welders to learn on are cheap these days, (I paid less than $300 for my handy mig), and with name brand you can sometimes trade them in on better units.