HF tool pass/fail

Titanium Nitride Coated SAE Tap And Die Set: PASS


I posted earlier about the cheap tap and die set being pretty much useless, but this one is A LOT better. Taps and dies feel substantial and not made of cheap pot metal, and the die holder is heavy duty. The tap handle is meh, but that's to be expected and it got the job done. Also, this kit had the size I needed to de-booger my Chrysler 318 crank threads (3/4-16) which is hard to find locally by itself. Used it on a few things working on my truck over the weekend, and unlike the cheap kit, the taps and dies showed zero signs of wear, even when cleaning up Grade 8 hardware. I'm impressed, and will be getting the Metric set when I need one.

4lb Fiberglass Drilling Hammer: PASS

Hey, a hammer from the Hammer Store! Was working on a family friend's car doing brakes, and I forgot my trusty BFH at home. There was a HF store up the road, so this was purchased. I like the size and it swings nice, and the head hasn't flown off the handle (yet). Does hammer stuff. What more can you ask for?

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I use one of those fiberglass handle ones for work. It's like 3 years strong at this point. 

In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :

It's good to know that the store whose products all eventually become hammers got actual hammers right!

I love getting inexpensive eye pro from there, but it's not been 'tested' (thankfully)

I need a new rolling seat, 6 more weeks (ish) and I'll look for some BF deals

Ive got the bauer cordless 4" angle grinder. I use it for wire wheeling and cutting. Its worked pretty well for me so far. If I get it really hung up on the wire wheel it will shut down, which I like because Ive had a big angle grinder get away from me. I havent had it stop when cutting though. I dont know if the shut off is built in or accidental, but It seems right at the sweep spot for me. Pass

I also use the bauer cordless sander. works well, I prepped the hood and fender for the miata with it and it worked fine. I will grab it for quick wood stuff when doing the shed if I dont feel like grabbing the belt sander or my corded one. Pass.

I need to get a few more batteries though and they cost as much as the tools generally.

In reply to hybridmomentspass :

There eyepro is a plus. I basically only wear the shaded safety glasses. 

Opti said:

...I need to get a few more batteries though and they cost as much as the tools generally.

Check the return / discount area.  You can find them at a decent discount there many times.

Yes, depending on the neighborhood, there are a lot of people who use HF for tool rental...

aircooled said:

Opti said:

...I need to get a few more batteries though and they cost as much as the tools generally.

Check the return / discount area.  You can find them at a decent discount there many times.

Yes, depending on the neighborhood, there are a lot of people who use HF for tool rental...

That's how I get all my batteries. Go to the HF in the hood and there is always marked down return batterys. 

Opti said:

Ive got the bauer cordless 4" angle grinder. I use it for wire wheeling and cutting. Its worked pretty well for me so far. If I get it really hung up on the wire wheel it will shut down, which I like because Ive had a big angle grinder get away from me. I havent had it stop when cutting though. I dont know if the shut off is built in or accidental, but It seems right at the sweep spot for me. Pass

I have a $10 cheapo HF corded angle grinder that I only use for wire wheels, for exactly this reason. If a wire wheel on a decently powerful grinder gets away from you, it's scary. The HF corded grinder is weak enough that it's much easier to control, and safer.

I think these have been mentioned before in this thread, but I've been using them quite a bit over the last few days, and they're a huge pass...

These things work way better than any standard hole saws that I've used, and have been well worth the minimal cost (~$35).

Amazon hole cutter set

Are you reviewing Amazon products in the Harbor Freight tool review thread? 

I guess I am.  I figured if it was cheap and works, it's worth mentioning here. 

Pass for me, not a pro but seriously compact, powerful, 120v, my new best friend.

3 1/4 planer. Big big pass have used this thing a ton on 120+ year old hard wood in the house and works like a champ and never gives up. 

Had to bleed the brakes in my wagon before heading out to Gainesville tomorrow. I thought I'd try the compressed air activated brake bleeder. 
 

I went all the way around the car twice, and I was never able to get it to stop pulling air bubbles, probably from the fitting. I can't give it a passing score for that reason, although the brakes are definitely better. 
 

The most useful thing was draining my power steering reservoir for a drain and fill. 
 

I wonder if a better quality part to plug onto the bleeder would improve it. 
 

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

Interesting you had issues with it. I've had mine for years and it works great for me. One thing I did have issues was bleeding the clutch line on my mom's Civic, due to how the hardlines were going all over the place on it, I couldn't get a good bleed even with the tool. Spoke to a friend who used to be a tech at Honda and he suggested to start the pneumatic bleeder first, then crack open the bleeder screw while the pneumatic bleeder is sucking away the fluid. The same is done when closing the bleeder screw, to keep it running. 

One thing I have done with the pump style was to temporarily coat the nipple with heavy oil to keep it from leaking from the threads.  That might be the source of you bubbles also.  Loosening the nipple as little as possible might also help.

Thanks for the replies, saved me from starting a new thread. 
 

I did open the nipple quite a lot trying to get some flow. It took quite a while for it to pull in a fluid at all, so I couldn't tell when it was actually open. That may have accounted for some of the air bubbles. One thing I did figure out was to close it while maintaining suction.

next time I'll try to remember these other excellent tips, opening it while already applying suction, and also coating the nipple with heavy oil. 

I've even put teflon tape on the bleeder screw threads so they seal. I usually prefer pipe dope but didn't want the pipe dope to get into the braking system.

Hammer store sells a pretty good air hammer apparently

https://youtu.be/PuUgFLhOL7Y

I had posted before about the rolling stool, I liked it...until the welds on the part that attach to the round seat, busted. There are three or four spot welds and that's it. 

Last night I spent time in the garage cleaning and getting ready - I'll be doing suspension, maybe, this week. If not, next.

Well, there's the stool, and it's very helpful for working in a wheelwell when the car is on jacks. But mine is busted. So lets take a peek at it.

I had tried, before, using a heavy duty epoxy, it did almost nothing. So i pulled all that off (well there's my problem, i was able to pull it off by hand...),and looked at how much space I had. I removed the seat, only 4 bolts, and ended up drilling some holes through the seat mounting pan through the piece that attaches to the hydralic tube. Then I put a few bolts through with nuts and tested it out. Worked...for now. 

I even did the area that hadnt busted *yet* to, hopefully, stop that from happening again. 

It couldve been $33 purchase to buy another, that would break, or less than a dollar on some machine screws and nuts. I'll likely go back and add loctite before I start wrenching. 

SO, if this works out, I'd put it closer to the PASS category...though one shouldnt have to drill holes and add bolts to make it work right. If only they had put more spot welds on or just welded the whole dang thing 

DIY, BABY!

Seeing this thread pop up reminded me of possibly my best HF purchase of all time, since I used it a lot over the weekend. This thing: https://www.harborfreight.com/3-in-1-corded-electric-blower-vacuum-mulcher-62337.html

Apparently it's a pretty decent leaf blower, but I never use it for that. It's in vacuum mode 100% of the time. Yeah, it's corded, and dragging around a cord is annoying, but the power and infinite run time are worth it. My only complaint is that after 3 years, the bag is getting pretty ratty.

This house has a lot of rock landscaping that was put in by the previous owners, probably to make the place look nicer to sell. There are also a lot of mature trees that dump a lot of leaves. It's such a pain, because if any leaves collect on the rocks, they decompose and turn into soil, and the whole area starts growing weeds and needs to be dug out and redone.  I would like to spend as little time on this as possible; maintaining landscaping is not my passion, but it's there, so I have to do something with it. This tool has been the key. Just plug it in, walk around the house, suck up all the leaves. They come out nice and chopped up, ready to dump on the garden as mulch.

I have a 3/8" breaker bar I bought from HF because I needed one in a pinch and it's held up in spite of occasionally using a 4' cheater bar with it for a "little" extra leverage.

The Warrior brand Sawzall blades suck E36 M3. Hot butter would last longer. 

Are the big ass Daytona jacks any good?  I need to get a new 3+ ton jack now that I've decided that my Craftsman Jack is officially kaput.