I know we all buy tools, jacks, etc at Harbor Freight Tools and appreciate having discount coupon. Yesterday I shopped there for something I needed, but no discount coupons were posted on the web page or at the store. There were 20% coupons at the store for next week, but not this week. When I showed a bit of disappointment, the checker gave me a code to send a text with my phone and back came a 20% coupon! She had it memorized and it is good for a week. I believe I could have gotten the discount text code by simply asking for it. Keep it in mind next time you are at HFT.

 

cool, i dont shop there too often these days, but will be sure to ask!

 

Nice place to buy tools if you are a handyman who needs some tools to satisfy a job around the house.

 

Their aluminum jacks are nice, I have two. Also have a set of their jack stands. Also have their sand blast helmet. Other than things like step drills and other things made in China that most repackage the same item I consider most of their stuff extremely low end if not just barely a step over having nothing. Dare I say, allot of it is junk.

Maybe it's just my luck with their products, but most of the stuff I have purchased from them takes two tries. First aluminum jack I bought, brought it home in the winter, was waiting for my garage to heat up so I assembled it in my kitchen. Went to pump it up and the seal blew out and put oil all over my kitchen floor. The second one was fine and the third one was fine. Same with their $10 digital calipers. I have a set of Mitutoyo, but only use them when total accuracy is important. I have about four pairs of the $10 harbor freight that I keep lying around all over so if I need to measure something one is handy. Out of the four, only one pair was good from the start. The others took two to tree purchases, before I had one that was either accurate and/or repeatable.

 

I like Harbor Freight, but agree with Rob.

Sadly, the same can be said when I buy things are double Harbor Freight prices. Go to Lowes, Home Depot, and even most of the items at Sears or Ace Hardware, and they are junk now also. Really sad! Sears and Ace Hardware used to provide acceptable quality items at acceptable prices.

Seems we are now stuck with either cheap junk or stupidly overpriced (Matco, Snap-On, Mac) options.

Generally speaking, I use Harbor Freight for accessory items. Magnetic tool bowls, organizers, lights, gloves, etc and shop elsewhere for tools. The last straw was when I bought a large snap ring tool set and promptly broke half of the items in the set.

 

Yea, I bought most of my Snap-On when I was 16 years old with my $3.75 an hour minimum wage job. I remember buying 3/8" drive SAE and Metric deep and shallow well sockets, a couple ratchets and extensions for like $300 I thought it was stupid money back then, now I'm happy I bought them.

Craftsman has now turned to offshore made junk. I have a made in the USA Craftsman 165+ piece socket set I bought when I was 17 or 18? Have another that my father bought before he died in a plastic case that I gave to my 16 year old son. Unfortunately, if I ever break a socket it, the replacement will be Chinese junk.

It's getting hard to find inexpensive made in the USA tools. Menards had their Materforce brand which looked like private label branded Allen tools? They were made in the USA, but now appear to be being phased out and replaced with some made offshore junk?

You can still find some deals on higher quality Chinese made tools. Last weekend I bought a 20 piece Gearwrench set for my son at Menards. It was on sale for $40 and also had an additional 15% off with their bag sale. Brought it down to $34 or something like that?

Most of my pliers and such are Knipex. Decent quality German tools. You can also buy reasonably priced Felo screw drivers and such.

For Impacts I have a mixture of Sunnex and GP (Gray Pneumatic). While made offshore they are of high quality and get excellent reviews. I went with GP for the deep well years ago because they were deeper than the Sunnex. For the Standard sockets, I went with the Sunnex because they were shorter than the GP.

I'm also willing to spend extra for better quality tools. I figure my son will get them eventually when I don't feel like working on stuff anymore or steal them from me in the time honored tradition of sons building their tool sets from their fathers tools

 

Good info Rob! Thanks.

Most of my collection is made in USA Craftsmen that I bought in the 90's. It's definitely not Snap-On quality, but 20+ years later, most of it is still in good shape.

Husky stuff is usually pretty decent for Chinese made stuff. They seem to at least relabel the better quality low end stuff.

If a young person or someone starting out today asked me, I'd tell them to hit up pawn shops, estate sales, craigslist, etc. Better to buy used made in the USA than new made elsewhere. Especially if it's lifetime warranty stuff. They don't ask for receipts or proof of being the original purchaser.

 

When my father passed away some years ago, my brothers and I divided up my father's old skool, genuine USA-made Craftsman hand tools. My oldest brother said, "The best thing about Dad's tools is that they've been trained. They know what to do." <g>

My experience with Harbor Freight matches what I read above; I have mixed results too.

I've not had experience with Lowe's Kobalt or Home Depot's Husky, but they look pretty well made.

 

All my Craftsman screwdrivers, wrenches and sockets are nearly fifty years old, love 'em. Products from Harbor Freight have have a range of quality The quality of Harbor Freight wrenches is worth a second look now days, especially for a tool set stashed in the car. Mostly I buy chip brushes, rubber gloves, pneumatic fittings, tarps, o-rings, flashlights, magnetic trays, magnetic tool bars, crowbars, posthole digging bars, ratchet straps kind of stuff. Not long ago I bought an angle grinder for $7 for some masonry grinding. Most times I can buy a tool there for less than you can rent it for. I bought my drill press from Harbor Freight twenty years ago. Yesterday I bought an extra vise for it for $13.50. I'd love to have gotten a $100 Palmgren vise instead, but could not justify the extra cost.

 

the corded rotary tool i bought at harbor freight 15yrs+ ago still works and it was only $9.99. lol

sure i have expensive tools too, snap-on, SK, facom, matco, wera, wiha, beta, etc but the $9.99 HF tool also has a spot in my tool case.

 

Thank you for the heads-up!

 

Unfortunately I have limited my shopping at Harbor Freight considerably since their Credit Card Information breach.
I won't use a credit card in their store anymore, nor will I share any electronic information. Which limits me to specific "cash only" transactions.

I still occasionally shop there, but I pick and know what I want, then make sure I have the cash to purchase it.

I also agree sadly with the apparent deterioration of "Craftsman" goods. Not too long ago you could count on that brand as being more expensive BUT of superior quality. Last few Craftsman products I have bought, had the old more expensive aspect, but the quality of the tool was very lacking. Was hoping it was just a fluke, but reading this thread I guess it's just a reality, not bad luck on my part.

 

I don't buy a ton at HF, but it's usually "disposable" items. I do simple repairs so I just need good enough equipment, nothing that requires tight tolerances.

As far as credit card breach, that's like saying I won't shop at XYZ because they got hacked. Target and Home Depot have been hacked. Still shop there and use my CC to get reward points and pay it off at the end of the month. If you think about it, CC is one of the safest transaction methods. You're only going to be liable for $50 fraud, and more than likely not even that once you tell the CC company what happened. Cash can get stolen and good luck trying to get that back.

I never use a debit card because I would not want that getting hacked as it's directly linked to a checking account.

 

In response to the OP's original post here, the mention of Harbor Freight's 20% off discount coupons brings to mind the severe limitations placed by HF on their discounts. In reading the fine print on the bottom of their coupons, HF excludes discounts on whole lines of specific manufacture's lines of products including the more costly products like tool boxes, etc. These discount limitations even pertains to their newest line of diagnostic scanners that they recently unveiled and as it turns out, are the only one marketing these particular scanners. Their aim apparently is to limit your discount to the lower end $10.00 and under merchandise, and prevent you from applying their discount to the more costly higher end items.

 

It is a very good discussion. I wish I could find a thread "what tools we are using for what repairs"

 

pliers and duct tape is all u need.

yah, i too was denied a coupon a while back and it really disappointed me for dem wasting my time driving across down cause i dont even usually shop at da place.. since den i just buy cheap tools off amazon.

 

kenchan, I've been wondering- why do you always type a D instead of a TH? It makes your posts harder to read.

 

much harder to read.

 

He wants to be kewl?

 

You're not liable for $50 if someone hacks a merchant and gets your credit card #. You're liable only if they physically stole your card.

I won't buy any Snap-On products because I bought a power washer with their name on it. The brand name is the main reason I chose that particular model. When it broke I contacted the company and they said they have nothing to do with it- they licensed their name and I have to get in touch with whoever actually made it. So screw them, I can't trust anything with their brand name anymore.