It's a little thing, but I just bought a set of these Long Reach Hose Grip Pliers for a purpose for which they were not intended (pulling hard-to-reach sensors from between the head and firewall on my 924s), and they worked great. Now finding a bunch of other unintended uses for them.
In reply to nlevine :
Oooh, I'll have to get a set of those.
Fail: 3/8 in. Drive 17 in. Breaker Bar
I woulda thought a breaker bar could handle a 160 lb person leaning into it, but no.
In related news, the Ryobi impact wrench + battery kit is on sale at the orange box store.
In reply to pmallory :
At least HF is good about replacing broken tools.
I have the half-inch version of that and it has worked fine for many years.
In reply to pmallory :
That's surprising. I have the 1/2" breaker bar, and had my full 280lbs on it trying to get lugs off the excursion with no problem.
How do we feel about the Bauer 20v yard tools? (String Trimmer, Hedge Trimmer, Mini Chainsaw)
I've used the Bauer 20v angle grinder and trim nailer and they've been decent so far. Though I haven't put them through too too much yet.
I also have DeWalt 20v tools already, so I could go that route, for like 3x the price...
Bauer 16" 120v electric chainsaw: fail
the chains are sharpened wrong the bars have too wide a rail for the chain or something because they cut curved to the right. Been running saws for 25 years and never had one even with a poorly hand sharpened chain and a worn bar cut so bad.
returned and got their cheapest 6' loading ramps. Be careful because every surface will cut you. Going to hit them in the spring with a flap wheel and bedliner so they stop slicing my hands and gloves
RacetruckRon said:https://www.harborfreight.com/3-4-quarter-inch-forged-ball-joint-separator-99849.html
Ball joint separator gets a big pass in my book. I broke a cheap pickle fork and invented some new swear words changing lower control arms on my yukon. I had to give up and got this guy from the hammer store to finish the job. I had to grind the opening a little wider to fit around the large truck ball joints but works like a charm.
Hmmmm...I was just getting ready to give that a fail. Mine required a bunch of grinder work to go around the lower control arm ball joint on a C5 Corvette. I mean it's not like I'm trying to work on a Cat. Had to grind the back side of the pivoting arm a bit too for a few extra mm of opening. I don't know the specs on the particular ball joint in question but being GM it's got to be fairly common. Maybe I was just trying to use the wrong tool but I saw several YouTubers using that exact one - but mine was just a tad too small without surgery. And yes I had the pin in the right hole
Edit: perhaps I should read your post next time before commenting. I see now that you had to grind yours too. :-)
Warrior 4v Cordless Power Cutter
Charges via a USB cable (micro or mini - I can't remember what they call it, but the one before USB-C) and just slices through cardboard like it's nothing. Apparently it can cut through a fairly extenive list of stuff and I look forward to trying it on anything I can get my hands on. Even if all it can do is cut down cardboard boxes, it's a complete pass.
Shadeux said:I just bought the $100 440lb. electric hoist and the $30 brad and staple nail gun. Both work great.
I installed an attic stair and built a 2x3x4 box for sending and retrieving crap from the attic.
IVE BEEN WONDERING WHERE I SAW THAT SOMEONE DID THIS!! I'm going to rig up something like this for the church building before it's time to redecorate for spring. The rickety folding attic ladder we have makes yours look like it was built to cross the Rhine in a tank.
Carbon Steel SAE Tap and Die Set, 40 Piece: Big fail
Almost everything I work on is metric, but I just needed to cut some 3/8"-16 threads in aluminum, and I figured a cheap set of 'merican taps and dies would be good to have on hand. Oh berkeley no. These went straight back to the store.
In reply to obsolete :
Wow... that is not normal, even for HF. I amazed that made it past QC, were all the taps in the set that bad?
I have both metric and SAE sets and they've been fine for a number of projects.
The 8000 Lumen Shop Light is fantastic. Very bright and a good color for working.
I know Goop isn't a HF product, but that's the only place I see it. Just picked this tub up and I'm in love. Takes everything off so easy.
it took forever to find in the website, so I'm sharing a screen shot.
This gets a pass from me. Box holes are a little squeezed on the sides, but fit just great. 5 seconds a hole.
Daytona jacking wheel dollies - pass or fail?
I need to reclaim the Quickjacks holding up my gutted, not running E36.
HF 'no-spill' radiator funnel kit...
Works like a champ on my Miatae... makes radiator burping easy.
I have metric and SAE tap sets. Im surprised on your experience, i was skeptical at first, but now im comfortable enough with them I use them pretty regularly with power tools. I dont recommend it, but ive been very happy with my purchase.
I use to use HF regularly, now I pretty much only use them if I have to have something right now. Ive turned largely to amazon and their chinesium things if I plan a little ahead, especially things like a no spill funnel or siphon pump.
The bauer 1/2 impact is pretty weak for as big as it is. It seems to be about as strong as the milwaukee 3/8 stubby I used to use.
wae said:Warrior 4v Cordless Power Cutter
Charges via a USB cable (micro or mini - I can't remember what they call it, but the one before USB-C) and just slices through cardboard like it's nothing. Apparently it can cut through a fairly extenive list of stuff and I look forward to trying it on anything I can get my hands on. Even if all it can do is cut down cardboard boxes, it's a complete pass.
I'm for sure going and getting one of these.
trumant said:Daytona jacking wheel dollies - pass or fail?
I need to reclaim the Quickjacks holding up my gutted, not running E36.
I've been using these for six months and love them. I use them under my C5 to lift it high enough to get my lift arms underneath it as well as lining it up. Also I've used them for rolling cars around in my shop, they work well enough for me to move the car by myself although admitedly it's easier/safer with two people.
Rodan, Opti, yeah, that SAE tap set was an anomaly for sure. I've had the metric set for 10 years and it's not heavy duty, but it's fine.
When I took the first set back to the store to return, the lady talked me into an exchange rather than a refund. I accepted on the condition that I could open the case before I left the store, which she said would be fine. I grabbed another one off the shelf, opened it up, and they looked better. A couple of them needed a little deburring, but for $20, fine. They definitely weren't as gnarly as the first set.
I got the second set home and went right to the job I bought them for, which was just tapping a partially threaded hole deeper. I got the 3/8"-16 tap threaded into the hole, and when it reached the bottom of the existing threads, it just stopped. I put as much torque on it as I was comfortable with, until I was afraid I might break the tap off in the hole, and it just would not cut a thread. Absolutely dull. I took that set back to the store and got my refund.
I went to Menards, bought a single Bosch tap in the size I needed, took that home, and it cut the remaining threads with almost no effort. Like butter.
Harbor Freight just seems to have gotten a bad batch of these SAE tap sets, and on their low end stuff, there seems to be absolutely no QC.
Looks like I'm getting a box cutter, radiator funnel, and possibly jackstands this weekend.
dclafleur said:trumant said:Daytona jacking wheel dollies - pass or fail?
I need to reclaim the Quickjacks holding up my gutted, not running E36.
I've been using these for six months and love them. I use them under my C5 to lift it high enough to get my lift arms underneath it as well as lining it up. Also I've used them for rolling cars around in my shop, they work well enough for me to move the car by myself although admitedly it's easier/safer with two people.
I have them also. There is one caveat to moving cars around I found: Once you get the castors turned (which you can do by bumping the car), it's easy. I have also used the cheap tray style. The castors where not as good, and took a lot more effort to align the castors (using a large screwdriver was the best solution) and it of course was harder to move.
The biggest downside to these that I see is that because the pump up action has to be to the outside they do stick out from the car. It's not that bad, about 6-8 inches, but if you are very tight for space, it might be. The tray style of course will take up zero extra space. (of course with the tray style, you have to jack the car onto them)
If you want to just use them to move cars around (especially a heavier car), aligning the castors as you put them on will make it pretty easy. Quality is good though (e.g. castors), I am rather confident they are as good as the name brand types.
Thanks for the reviews aircooled and dclafleur
Looks like I've got another excuse to run over to HF.
The Greenwood Propane torch with igniter button gets a pass from me. Worked great at taking care of some weeds in an over grown garden bed.
In reply to RacetruckRon :
Glad to hear as I just bought one over the weekend for that purpose.
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