New tools you've bought recently?

[Rick W]

Should you ever find yourself near one I'd recommend stopping in. It's one of the stores I really miss from back home. I haven't found anything like it down here in South FL, though I did se a Rural King in Fort Myers. One of these days I'd like to stop in and see what it's about. I think it's similar to FF.

Another good one is Menards. It's a home improvement big box store. You get a pick ticket for lumber, bricks, bags of dirt, or whatever heavy big stuff you want and drive right up to it in their yard to load it. At Lowes & HD I have to push a thousand pound cart around like Sisyphus. The downsides are their lumber is usually inconsistent quality so you've got to pick through it and I've heard the owner is kind of a scumbag.

I think if you get a shot of penicillin, it takes care of that cart problem

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Rural King is pretty awesome. Up until COVID they were selling the largest selection of USA made goods I’ve seen in a long time. Now it’s mostly China stuff unfortunately. They moved in at the local mall several years ago. Heard the mall owner started complaining about all the stuff they stocked in the mall parking lot (tractors, plants, mulch, manure, etc) and that ended when RK told the mall owner that was fine, they were going to buy their own place. Suddenly the dying mall owner didn’t have any complaints.

I got to visit a Menards somewhere in Ohio a couple years ago and man that place is huge. When a home improvement store has two floors… yeah, it’s big…

 

[Uncle Gump]

@bilbo

I like Rural King... they have got a good chunk of money from me over the years. Also... sign up for RKGuns.c0m... they have a bunch of foid sales.

 

[97RangerXLT]

Mills Fleet Farm. Add guns, hunting and fishing gear, and basic groceries too!

This was my grandpas favorite place. the one in Antigo Wisconsin was pretty nice.

Not to be confused with Blain's Farm and Fleet

AJ

 

[97RangerXLT]

though I did se a Rural King in Fort Myers.

Rural King started in Mattoon IL, (I grew up 12 miles south, and worked right next door to the original Rural King. another good store, not quite as awesome as Fleet Farm, but better than TSC.

AJ

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Runnings is my favorite, they are out west though in the land of @Shran

 

[Uncle Gump]

Runnings is my favorite, they are out west though in the land of @Shran

They opened one here locally... in Morris I believe. I'll have to go have a look.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

They opened one here locally... in Morris I believe. I'll have to go have a look.

I know the one in Rapid City is awesome, that seems to be about as far east as they go.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I know the one in Rapid City is awesome, that seems to be about as far east as they go.

Well I just looked... they further east to Morris IL.

 

[Shran]

Running's is OK, I guess I don't care for how they treat their employees. I had a couple friends that worked there and it seemed like it was like pulling teeth to make more than minimum wage.

We have Fleet Farm too. Kinda on the spendy side. Decent selection of everything - killer deals on clearance stuff! Wish they had a better selection of reloading gear.

Also in the area is Bomgaars...they are probably my favorite farm/ranch supply place. Tractor Supply is here as well but meh...I dunno... glorified Harbor Freight.

Menards is by far my favorite hardware store, they are generally really easy to do business with. If they would sell DeWalt or Milwaukee, I would not go anywhere else! Their lumber is garbage though - Lowes used to be better in that aspect but now it's mostly junk too. Local lumber yards are no better, I think it's all just crap these days.

I miss Motive Parts, they were kind of a hybrid ranch supply/auto parts/military surplus store. They had all sorts of weird stuff, ammo cans, bolts by the pound, welding rod by the pound, name brand tools cheaper than anywhere else. Really small 3 or 4 store chain but they got bought out by Runnings.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Clearance; about $2 total

 

[Uncle Gump]

I did buy a Milwaukie M12 fan when I bought the cut off tool a week or two ago.

I tested it yesterday with a 2.0ah battery... fully charged... on low speed. It ran for just over 5 hours.

My purpose is for remote summer camping. I just can't sleep without a fan... especially when hot and or hot and muggy.

I think this will do the trick...

 

[bilbo]

Runnings is my favorite, they are out west though in the land of @Shran

Runnings is a good store too. There was one in Moorhead, MN that I used to get tools from sometimes. Another one was close to my parents in Monticello.

 

[sgtsandman]

I largely gave up on HF after snapping a 3/8” breaker bar by hand, no cheater pipe, three times in as many months. Compare that to my old Craftsman 1/2” that I’ve had a six foot cheater bar on a few times without issue. There’s not a lot of things that I’ll wander into a HF looking for anymore. I do have some of their stuff and what I have I can’t complain a ton about (since the stuff I would complain about has already failed)

Most of mine haven't been to bad but one does get what they paid for aswell. Most of the stuff that died on me got pretty used and abused before it died but they probably died sooner than if I had bought something better.

 

[Shran]

Some HF tools are really good... my 1/2" deep chrome SAE socket set has been indestructible, I have used them relentlessly on an impact for at least 15 years and they just show a little wear. Bet I paid maybe $10 for that whole set.

Not as impressed others. I recently acquired a couple Icon and Pittsburgh Pro ratchets - they feel pretty nice but the back drag on them is noticeably not great. I really, really tried to like them... I like them more than my Snap-on flex head... but I keep going back to several of my favorites from GearWrench and ironically, a very cheap Evercraft round head flex ratchet from NAPA.

HF air tools are OK though. I've got a bunch of the purple HLVP sprayers, Black Widow & Spectrum HLVP guns, the old Earthquake 1/2" impact and 3/8" impacting ratchet, and their Baxter D/A sander... plus a bunch of the cheapo air tools... all great! Used hard over many years and no failures.