Harbor Freight Win-or-Fail Thread

A tool's a tool. Who cares who makes it? If it does the job, and stands up to the work; it has a home in my tool-box.

8 Piece 1/2 in. Drive Metric Impact Hex Driver Set
5/5 WIN.
Hex bolts stand no chance. How about the rear caliper slider-pins on E-Series vans? The ones that always rust in, and round out? Tap one of these in with your ball-pean, and impact away. I don't know how I've worked so long without impact hex. The SAE and Torx versions are equally great.

Push Pin Pliers
Push-Pin pliers.
5/5 mega win
Those bitch-*** clips that hold plastic panels together? Now they're your bitch. Best of all, the bent in tips make sure you don't mar any visible portion. Great for interior work.
Honestly, everyone's tool box should have one of these. Whatever you used before (screw-driver, knife, needle nose, etc.) is like rubbing sticks. This thing is a George Foreman grill.
^ I used those pliers to remove a fender splash guard on a Nissan Quest, so I could change out the oil-cooler/block spacer. It was the first time I used them.
And this was my face:
And this was my face:
Thread Starter
Elite Member
iTrader: (15)
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 4,847
Total Cats: 27
From: San Antonio, Texas
Looking for user feedback on this air compressor for whoever may have one.
2 Horsepower, 29 gal., 150 Cast Iron Vertical Air Compressor
2 Horsepower, 29 gal., 150 Cast Iron Vertical Air Compressor
Or, you know, use the googlemachine
I've actually got a paper 25% off coupon that I pulled out of the junkmail that I can scan tomorrow if you really want that additional 5%
I have several sets of the Ti coated drill bits. Some are good right out of the box, but some need to be resharpened before use. I bought a drill doctor. A few seconds, and they're good to go.
Mixed results: bought crow's feet sockets that were mis-formed (fail!); however, also bought an aluminum racing jack, a padded stool, and a pallet jack -- all are fine.
Update on the HF impact gun. A while ago it started kind of not having much oomph. Then when taking the car apart over thanks giving it would cut out if you turned it upsidedown or when it started to hammer. Opened the battery up (real easy, just philips screws with 2 under the sticker) one of the battery straps had burnt. I considered soldering it but I was afraid of over heating the cell so i just wrapped it back on with electrical tape and it seems all good in the hood. I want to try to find one an empty battery case or someone with a dead battery so I can rebuild it with high capacity cells.
Update on the HF impact gun. A while ago it started kind of not having much oomph. Then when taking the car apart over thanks giving it would cut out if you turned it upsidedown or when it started to hammer. Opened the battery up (real easy, just philips screws with 2 under the sticker) one of the battery straps had burnt. I considered soldering it but I was afraid of over heating the cell so i just wrapped it back on with electrical tape and it seems all good in the hood. I want to try to find one an empty battery case or someone with a dead battery so I can rebuild it with high capacity cells.
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 34,402
Total Cats: 7,523
From: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
I kind of want to get this, and bring either a 20oz co2 or my 70ci 4500psi air tank to the track instead.
The NASCAR / IRL / etc pit guys have huge CO2 bottles next to them. I have to wonder how much runtime a paintball-sized bottle would get you?
(FWIW, when I was into the sport, getting nitro fills at 4500 was damn near impossible outside of a small handful of shops. CO2, by comparison, could be filled damn near anywhere, including a lot of big sporting-goods retail shops. Has the situation changed? Not that I'd ever want to go back to running CO2 in my marker, but for an air tool, the usual caveats don't apply.)
They also have hyperguns in NAPCAR(tm), I'm sure spinning at speeds that die grinders do uses a whole bunch more air than my normal person 1/2" drive gun. From reading. You get 30-60 seconds of full bore use from a 20oz, but cant do more than 10 seconds all at once for fear of freezing the seals in the gun, since they're not used to the temps from the co2 phase change happening in the gun. I get that 70ci tank filled to 4500 for 6 dollars at the local army/navy store. Or I can get a full fill from the all day air if I ever go to an organized field again. There's also some company that sells a compressor that takes 85psi shop air input and a 110v outlet and over the course of like 8 hours would fill the tank too, for not crazy money. Joe, being an old timer you might recognize the man behind this as TK, the man behind the automag.









