New tools you've bought recently?

[Uncle Gump]

I bought a new leaf rake. It's a lightweight Fiskars with a lifetime warranty. It was cheaper then and other rake they had... it's less then half the weight of a poly rake with a wood handle... and a fraction of a metal rake. It's actually pretty impressive to use.

Pardon Our Interruption

www.farmandfleet.com

 

[sgtsandman]

I bought a new leaf rake. It's a lightweight Fiskars with a lifetime warranty. It was cheaper then and other rake they had... it's less then half the weight of a poly rake with a wood handle... and a fraction of a metal rake. It's actually pretty impressive to use.

Pardon Our Interruption

www.farmandfleet.com

I have a traditional leaf rake but due to the volume of leaves the maple and the beech drops, I find a gas powered shredder vacuum to be more efficient. The leaf rake tends to pull clean up duty after a wood splitting session instead.

 

[sgtsandman]

I picked up an original garden weasel for breaking up the soil while I'm turning and amending it in the garden. Surprise, surprise they cheapened the product some. The head that holds the spinners for breaking up the soil is made of plastic now. Already broke one after hitting a clay clump with a rock in it. It didn't take much either. I was pushing hard at all when the one side just snapped right off.

 

[Shran]

I try to buy old garden tools at thrift stores and stuff if I can. Some of the new stuff is just total junk!

My latest favorite is an ancient pitchfork. I wasn't sure if I could save the handle or not, it had that shrunken wood look going on. Hit it with 80 grit sandpaper on an electric sander to get the splinters knocked down, then many coats of linseed oil while leaving it out in the August sun to soak in. It'll need more in the coming years but I have found that it's pretty easy to bring a nice old handle back to life if you have the time. Been using the crap out of the pitchfork for moving mulch and leaves and stuff around the yard & garden this fall. Worked great for digging potatoes too.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Believe me... I'm smothered in maple and oak leaves. I blow into a pile and rake onto the tarp... then drag to the road.

I really don't need a shreader/chipper at this point.

On second thought... with the house I own down the street... I may have to reconsider.

 

[Roert42]

I just blow all the leaves across the street or up into the corner. The street runs through my front yard, and I don’t use the space over there for much due to how steep it is.

 

[Garth Libre]

I have a ton of Horrible Fright tools and stuff, some of it is pretty decent. I just wish it didn't have a pretty decent price tag to go along with it. Years ago you knew stuff was 5 bucks, it was probably worth 5 bucks, a comparable tool is $20 so you were totally fine with disposable stuff to get through a job or two. Now the quality is marginally better but they are pricing it like it's a premium product - rather just go buy name brand.

I have a few Harbor Freight tools which are superb and relatively inexpensive. I have some of their sockets, wrenches that are fantastic and yes, they are almost as much as other brands. I have a 1000 pound electric (not battery) impact wrench which will tear the balls off the devil himself in two seconds flat.

 

[Shran]

I have a few Harbor Freight tools which are superb and relatively inexpensive. I have some of their sockets, wrenches that are fantastic and yes, they are almost as much as other brands. I have a 1000 pound electric (not battery) impact wrench which will tear the balls off the devil himself in two seconds flat.

I've owned many HF impacts. The red Earthquake air guns are the only ones I thought were worth a crap. Cordless Earthquake... unimpressive. Composite air... junk. Earthquake XT air, total junk. Any Central Pneumatic impact - waste of money. They hype up their tools so bad. Take their torque rating, divide by 4, and that MIGHT be what it makes in reality.

Their prices right now are so high that there is very little difference between HF and DeWalt, Makita, Milwaukee, Bosch, etc... and you only get a 90 day warranty with the HF junk.

 

[Roert42]

The only thing I think HF is good for is a specialty tool you know you'll only need once. For some reason stuff like that they seems to have in stock when everyone else is a week out on shipping.
Something you know you are going to need to modify cut up to make work.

I hear people like their toolboxes, I would consider one.

 

[sgtsandman]

The only thing I think HF is good for is a specialty tool you know you'll only need once. For some reason stuff like that they seems to have in stock when everyone else is a week out on shipping.
Something you know you are going to need to modify cut up to make work.

I hear people like their toolboxes, I would consider one.

Some of their stuff is good and other stuff not so much. I've used and abused quite a bit of HF stuff and it still works. Other stuff, I only got one use out of it. One exception that I ran across that neither the name brand nor the HF brand were any good was electric rotary tools. After I burned up two HF tools, I bought an $80 Dremel. It burned out just as fast as the HF stuff. So far, the Mechanics brand sold by True Value seems to be running ok.

 

[Shran]

I like their toolboxes. The US General ones are pretty good quality. But, around the same price as Kobalt/Craftsman/Husky/etc...

I also like their HVLP paint guns. Pittsburgh Professional ratchets are pretty good, the rest suck. Sockets are mostly OK, tolerances are pretty loose. Wrenches...meh. Cutoff/grinding wheels, welding consumables, most of their air tools are very good. I hate their sandpaper. Most of their corded electric tools are terrible.

Personally I think their welders are the biggest rip off of anything they sell. Thousand bucks for a welder and you get a 90 day warranty... you are way better off buying a Hobart for right around the same price with a 3 year warranty that will probably last for 20 years.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

The only thing I think HF is good for is a specialty tool you know you'll only need once. For some reason stuff like that they seems to have in stock when everyone else is a week out on shipping.
Something you know you are going to need to modify cut up to make work.

I hear people like their toolboxes, I would consider one.

I bought one of the 5-drawer mechanics carts and wish I would have bought three before they upped the price

 

[scotts90ranger]

I'm heavily invested in US General boxes... I think I posted a pic earlier in this thread but I have the top and bottom 5X" (in blue of course) with two side boxes for the bottom box, a reworked old black 4? drawer box I got cheap at an auction a couple years ago, all of that's in the shop, then I have a 4X" red bottom box with a random 2X" top on it in the garage... the 5X" boxes have drawer latches which is somewhat annoying where the 4X" boxes just have detents in the slides.. anymore for the same price the Husky boxes are a touch better I think but it's a tossup... I can vouch for the Titanium line of welders, I have two that have been troopers, had the Unlimited 200 for a few years with lighter use than my MIG 170 but I've beat the heck out of it between camping, using a too small generator to weld on a farm implement in the field, killing a GFI outlet... I just used the Ulimited 200 to weld the recline lever back on the drivers seat of the '98 Explorer... somehow the 2T/4T switch got flipped which caught me by surprise... as it usually does... sure the 90 day thing sucks but they are trying to protect themselves from the "use it once and return it" part of their customer base... I do miss their older business model though at times...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I'm heavily invested in US General boxes... I think I posted a pic earlier in this thread but I have the top and bottom 5X" (in blue of course) with two side boxes for the bottom box, a reworked old black 4? drawer box I got cheap at an auction a couple years ago, all of that's in the shop, then I have a 4X" red bottom box with a random 2X" top on it in the garage... the 5X" boxes have drawer latches which is somewhat annoying where the 4X" boxes just have detents in the slides.. anymore for the same price the Husky boxes are a touch better I think but it's a tossup... I can vouch for the Titanium line of welders, I have two that have been troopers, had the Unlimited 200 for a few years with lighter use than my MIG 170 but I've beat the heck out of it between camping, using a too small generator to weld on a farm implement in the field, killing a GFI outlet... I just used the Ulimited 200 to weld the recline lever back on the drivers seat of the '98 Explorer... somehow the 2T/4T switch got flipped which caught me by surprise... as it usually does... sure the 90 day thing sucks but they are trying to protect themselves from the "use it once and return it" part of their customer base... I do miss their older business model though at times...

We got a little Titanium wire feed and it lasted just past the spool of wire that comes with it and died. Did a good job before that. I haven’t tore into it to see what’s going on and if it’s fixable, I just bought a small Lincoln to use. Matches my other two red welders…

 

[Shran]

I miss Clarke tools. They were cheap and just worked great. Still have my tool box stack from Menards, great quality, ball bearing drawers when everyone else had crappy slides. I had a few of their welders too - duty cycle was pretty short but they made a nice bead. Made in Italy of all places.