Originally Posted By: Win
I'm renovating another building and some of the kids working didn't have enough tools, so I went to Harbor Freight and bought one of their belt sanders, a heavy duty drill (has the second handle for two handed force) and their version of a sawz all, and so far, in a month of service, no one has succeeded in breaking them.
And, they've seen some fairly hard service. The drill has bored a lot of holes in old petrified lumber, and a lot of holes in old, HARD, concrete. The sawz all has cut a lot of old conduit and old lumber. Their drill bits and blades are still pretty mediocre, in my opinion, and it's best to get better for those items.
I bought one of their fancy paint sprayers also, but haven't got to that yet. It will probably be a couple of weeks before I know how well that works.
Anyway, place of origin aside, the quality of their common hand tools has definitely improved, imo. I think they have moved beyond the "use once and throw away" quality of the recent past.
If they worked for you, congratulations.
The few times I've used (never purchased) a Harbor Freight item it's been clearly inferior to my own tools. I recently helped a friend install new hardwood floors, and when we were cutting the old flooring with a brand new, fresh out of the box toe kick saw (Chicago Electric brand I think) from Harbor Freight, the handle snapped after the first 3 feet of cutting. I had to drive back home and get my older Crain toe kick saw to finish the cuts. It took Harbor Freight almost a month to ship him a replacement. When the handle snapped off, the saw jumped out from the groove it was cutting and skidded across the floor. It was potentially very dangerous, and could have injured someone.
The wonder bar that he purchased from Harbor Freight actually bent while pulling up some plywood. I was pulling plywood in a different part of the room with my wonder bar, and never had a single issue. Needless to say, mine did not come from Harbor Freight.
I could continue to cite several pexamples of inferior Harbor Freight products that I've seen or read about, especially the Chicago Electric or Central Pneumatic brands (which are blatant attempts to copy Chicago Pneumatic). But examples aside, I simply don't like rolling the dice when it comes to quality (and my safety). A quality tool is much safer than one which may or may not break, shatter or snap off when in use. The quality premium that I've paid for my tools is well worth it, especially when amortized over the life of the tool.
Even if they have moved beyond the "use once and throw away" quality, I feel some of their business practices are at best shady and their treatment of employees is poor (look up the class action lawsuits), and it's a company with whom I won't do business.
