Harbor Freight "Professional 301 piece mechanic's tool kit"?

[Destroyer000]

i have some harborfreight swivel ratchets that i use all the time.. they were like 14 bucks a piece.. my buddy has the gear wrench ones and the snap on ones are IDENTICAL .. my tools verry.. my impact sockets are harborfreight.. for the price of them 20 bucks a 14 pc set an they are LIFETIME.. cant beat that. my big ratchet is snap on. my air hammer is matco, harbor freight has a ton of good deals on some stuff. some of their are tools, the air grinders, die grinders body saw. for the price of them you cant beat it. MIT and Tekton is another company just like harbor freight.. everything again is life time..

if you have a tool that every company sells and its LIFETIME hell id pay 10 bucks for it vs 80 and still get it replaced for free everytime ..

 

[NMB2]

the only harbor freight tools I use is my brake line flare tool, impact sockets and step bits. They have a few other tools worth while but the main thing HF I would stay away from is their air tools. they are ALL garbage. High air consumption, low power, noisy, low quality. Electric tools are lacking too. My chop saw is a 15amp HF and its anemic... I wish I would of spent the extra $80 on a hitachi or dewalt or something.

impact hand tools = good
hand tools = alright
air and electric = waste of money.
hydraulic = hit and miss. My 3ton is a HF and its a pretty good floorjack, no complaints.

 

[Shran]

Snap-on just plain pisses me off. I like the quality of their tools, but honestly I do not personally own very many. My issue is that they're supposed to be lifetime warranty... but try breaking something that was bought 25 years ago and they tell you that you're SOL because they've discontinued it. Seems like warranty stuff is totally up to the rep and I don't like that.

Most of my hand tools are a mix of Craftsman, Tool Shop (Mendards brand,) SK, Ace Hardware, Thorsen, and Stanley. I have had really good luck with the Tool Shop ones, I use the 1/2" drive deep well thin walls with my impact gun all the time and they last quite a while.

The most common things I have broken are 12mm 12 point sockets, 3/8 swivels, and every size adapter sockets.

Oh yeah - the best tool I bought from HF was my ball joint press - that thing is BITCHIN. It's all bent to shit but still works after doing probably 50-60 joints with it. I don't care if it was cheap, it has saved me hundreds of dollars. I would buy another 5 of them if I had to and HIGHLY recommend it to anyone else.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I like their 4.5" angle grinders, I have two of them, one with a grinding wheel and one with a cutoff wheel (their cutoff wheels are great for the money too). Not super powerful but not complete trash...

their hand tool warranty is great, walk in with a broken tool, walk out with a new one... I hammer on my HF combo wrenches all the time and haven't broken one, a 25 piece wrench set for $14 is good math to me...

 

[r1hatman]

I have a set of chrome socket adapters I got from Harbor Freight like 8 years ago that I have used and abused and they have stood the test of time. If I buy Harbor Freight tools, I try to buy Pittsburgh, they have a lifetime replacement and I have been satisfied with them, Yes HF has some crap tools, but you need to be smart about it. I see professional mechanics in there buying their tools of the trade every day. I would get you mechanics set from sears and then get your add on pieces from where you can get the best quality for the best deal! I just got some chrome ratcheting wrenches and I have regular wrenches I got from HF like 15 years ago and they are still going strong. Use your best judgment.! Oh I get all my torque wrenches there, you can find them on sale online and they will honor that price at the store!

 

[rockin86ranger]

anybody know of any deals on starter set or anything like that, alot of the tool company websites you have to have a freakin account there just to view prices. I was looking at getting a starter set because they are usually a little cheaper than piecing them together, any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Shran]

The closest HF to me is about 7 hours away in Denver. I have never actually been in the store but have ordered off their website a lot.

I will let everyone in on my little secret about hand tools. Don't buy them new! Hit up the pawn shops, yard sales, whatever - buy the Craftsman and other lifetime warranty ones, that way if and when they break , you can replace them and you still have little to no investment in them. I have a shit ton of sockets, ratchets, wrenches, etc and have about 10% of what they would cost new into the used ones.

 

[r1hatman]

Sears/Craftsman

 

[bd2988]

Costcos has a nice crescent set. I think it is like $60. ........

I've used this set for years. They are lifetime tools too. When my 1/2" ratchet had a problem, they sent me another one, without even asking for the old one back. Hell they even threw in a 3/8" ratchet too.

 

[88_Eddie]

anybody know of any deals on starter set or anything like that, alot of the tool company websites you have to have a freakin account there just to view prices. I was looking at getting a starter set because they are usually a little cheaper than piecing them together, any help would be greatly appreciated

the best thing you can do is talk to people, haggle with them. go to sears or autozone and tell them what you need and then ask them what they will do for you or tell them you'll go somewhere else. believe me, @ autozone, if your about to drop $250-$300, they'll give you some sort of discount to keep you from walking out. regardless of what they may say, a manager can override a price or take 10-20% off. shit, where do you live? come to the autozone i work at and i'll give you 20% off

 

[94bigsteele]

http://www.toolsource.com/hand-tool-corp-m-5408.html?sort=6d&page=1&sourceid=googlebrands&gclid=CKLxm_znoKMCFUsJ2god9WtA3g

 

[OilPatch197]

Look, just buy USA made tools. Harbor Freight tools are cheap for a reason, some of it IS quality, the other part is the PISS POOR wages our Fellow Chinese friends make!

Just say no to cheap tools, if you buy tools solely because they are cheap, you support near slave labor conditions.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The closest HF to me is about 7 hours away in Denver. I have never actually been in the store but have ordered off their website a lot.

I will let everyone in on my little secret about hand tools. Don't buy them new! Hit up the pawn shops, yard sales, whatever - buy the Craftsman and other lifetime warranty ones, that way if and when they break , you can replace them and you still have little to no investment in them. I have a shit ton of sockets, ratchets, wrenches, etc and have about 10% of what they would cost new into the used ones.

I have bought broken ones at garage sales, they go pretty cheap when the owner thinks they are junk...

Turn around and warretee them and you get a brand new one for next to nothing.

 

[Roger]

A coworker had this exact set. The screwdrivers were crap and the pliers weren't bad. The sockets all seemed just fine, came with 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 drive. We never broke any of them, despite trying pretty hard a couple times...

 

[kcm1582]

For not a whole lot more money you can get a much better starter tool kit from craftsman. That's what I started with and still use.