Harbor Freight Tool/Product Review

[MikeB]

Bought a 25ft Diablo air hose because I wanted a short run from a filter/dryer/regulator to a paint gun. Diameter is larger and weight is more than a standard Goodyear hose, making it a bit much to handle on a paint gun. The 50ft or 100ft versions would be very heavy, but would probably hold up to repeated abuse, like driving a forklift over them!
https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-x-25-ft-premium-rubber-air-hose-62889.html

Also bought an HVLP touchup gun to paint some small parts. When adjusting the pattern, it leaked out in one or two places, covering my hand with paint! Ended up tightening fittings and actually replacing a poorly machined nut (!) and got the pattern looking good. Have to say it gave me a smooth finish with no orange peel. However, one or two of the parts that you'd expect to be plated were bare steel, so I wouldn't expect it to last very long.
Seems like I paid around $20 for this on sale and with a coupon 18 months ago.
https://www.harborfreight.com/120-cc-hvlp-touch-up-air-spray-gun-61473.htm

Some guys I know use the purple $14 version as one-time use throw-away gun!

 

[Moose Drool]

Has anyone tried the fuel pump/vacuum gauge?

https://www.harborfreight.com/fuel-pump-and-vacuum-tester-62637.html

 

[Camar068]

Has anyone tried the fuel pump/vacuum gauge?

https://www.harborfreight.com/fuel-pump-and-vacuum-tester-62637.html

hard to beat the price....worth a shot

 

[eskimomann209]

I meant to post this a while back HF has some decent tools and some that are throw away. This usually happens within the first day of use with these two tools. I’m not sure at what point during the project it happens... I’ll go to pick it up to realize it’s got a little more flex than usual.
I best on these to clean off frames and drill large ass holes tho. rather kill this motor than than my battery powered ones.

This is the drill
And the grinder.

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[Catbox]

Has anyone tried the fuel pump/vacuum gauge?

https://www.harborfreight.com/fuel-pump-and-vacuum-tester-62637.html

I have one of those and it seems to work well enough.
We haven't done anything extensive with it.
Just goofing around with it one night to see how it worked.

 

[skysurfer]

Long Term Update: My HF 8" 3/4 hp bench grinder started making some gawd-awful noises last week and removing the wheels confirmed the noise was coming from within. WTF? I just bought this thing in '88 and it's giving me trouble already?? To be fair, this grinder is old enough that it has the Central Machinery label but was made in Taiwan, not China. I started looking at new ones, but prices have gone up considerably in the last 35 years.

Wasn't too eager to try fixing it because my past experience with electric motors seemed to always involve brushes and wires that wouldn't go back in place and I'd end up with a big paperweight, but figured I might as well take it apart and either fix it or just do a post-mortem inspection. Popped off the end caps and found the bearings were just hanging out there easy as could be. They were NTN brand, which are supposed to be pretty good, but they were only shielded on one side and had eaten a LOT of grinding dust. I ordered some double-shielded Timken bearings, slapped it back together, and she's running quiet as a church mouse. Total repair cost was $13.

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[HotRodPC]

Long Term Update: My HF 8" 3/4 hp bench grinder started making some gawd-awful noises last week and removing the wheels confirmed the noise was coming from within. WTF? I just bought this thing in '88 and it's giving me trouble already?? To be fair, this grinder is old enough that it has the Central Machinery label but was made in Taiwan, not China. I started looking at new ones, but prices have gone up considerably in the last 35 years.

Wasn't too eager to try fixing it because my past experience with electric motors seemed to always involve brushes and wires that wouldn't go back in place and I'd end up with a big paperweight, but figured I might as well take it apart and either fix it or just do a post-mortem inspection. Popped off the end caps and found the bearings were just hanging out there easy as could be. They were NTN brand, which are supposed to be pretty good, but they were only shielded on one side and had eaten a LOT of grinding dust. I ordered some double-shielded Timken bearings, slapped it back together, and she's running quiet as a church mouse. Total repair cost was $13.

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Total BS. Only 35 years of occasional use? I'd never walk into another HF ever again. Not even to buy a .99 cent magnet. Terrible Terrible !!!

 

[sidschev]

Has anyone tried the fuel pump/vacuum gauge?

https://www.harborfreight.com/fuel-pump-and-vacuum-tester-62637.html

yup ive got one and it does the job

 

[skysurfer]

Here's another long-term update to go with the grinder review above. My 60-gallon HF compressor blew a head gasket last week. It's been humming along with fairly regular use since May 2010. I could hear it right away and could see a bit of the gasket sticking out. I still had the parts list but searching for parts for an old HF compressor is not easy. Then I remembered that these units were made in a factory in North Carolina that also made Belaire compressors. A new search with Belaire as a term produced a gasket set with the same part number. Messick's in PA. had an 11-piece rebuild set for around $60. It arrived yesterday (a nice quality set from Germany) and she's up and running again today.

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[HotRodPC]

Here's another long-term update to go with the grinder review above. My 60-gallon HF compressor blew a head gasket last week. It's been humming along with fairly regular use since May 2010. I could hear it right away and could see a bit of the gasket sticking out. I still had the parts list but searching for parts for an old HF compressor is not easy. Then I remembered that these units were made in a factory in North Carolina that also made Belaire compressors. A new search with Belaire as a term produced a gasket set with the same part number. Messick's in PA. had an 11-piece rebuild set for around $60. It arrived yesterday (a nice quality set from Germany) and she's up and running again today.

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Sweet, you replaced all the seals and gaskets in the compressor? What about bearings? Sounds as if it could be as a brand new unit again provided the electric motor is still working well. I like so much when people can repair tools. I've repaired many of my power tools, like screw guns and dremel tools. Usually just bearings or bushings and brushes. You can usually get by with that about 3 times. When it's time for the 4th, the armature could be worn pretty good and a rebuild won't last very long so it's pretty time to replace by then.

 

[skysurfer]

Nah, I just replaced the head gasket and the valve plate gasket. They're both sandwiched between the head and block, so you have to do both at the same time. No need to go any further, it was running fine before and I needed to get it going to finish some drywall work I've been doing in the garage. Stupid Elon shoots his rockets from nearby Vandenberg base all the time and the first-stage portion booms the crapola out of everything when it comes back to land. I've been here 30 years and the house has developed more cracks in the last couple of years than the prior 28. People complain, but the official response is along the lines of "You can't prove it's us." The upside to it is my drywall skills have really improved.

 

[HotRodPC]

Nah, I just replaced the head gasket and the valve plate gasket. They're both sandwiched between the head and block, so you have to do both at the same time. No need to go any further, it was running fine before and I needed to get it going to finish some drywall work I've been doing in the garage. Stupid Elon shoots his rockets from nearby Vandenberg base all the time and the first-stage portion booms the crapola out of everything when it comes back to land. I've been here 30 years and the house has developed more cracks in the last couple of years than the prior 28. People complain, but the official response is along the lines of "You can't prove it's us." The upside to it is my drywall skills have really improved.

We had the same things going on here in OK. We had a huge rash of small earthquakes. We're not known for earthquakes but they do happen and they're little 2.5 or 2.9's, you know, very little IMO coming from So Cali and livng through some bigger ones in the 5's and 6's. But they happened so often in certain areas, that they started taking tolls on some of the older homes in rural towns, like those old victorian stype farms and such. Those are old brittle concrete footings and nails tend to pop in that old dried out lumber. It was blamed on all the fracking from oil companies and all the drilling. Like you said, You can't prove it. Well, some geoligists come up with some report and sounded like educated professionals, so some politicians listened, made some new laws that reduced fracking and low and behold, would you believe the earthquake frequency went way down and what few there were, they went way down in intensity too. But what are you going to do? Elon has enough money, he can pay experts to say what he wants them to. It sucks. I like that the guy uses his money to expand and grow technology, but still, chill with the fuggin arrogance and at least consider other people's property you dirt bag.