I'm going to die broke...

....with nothing to my name but a pile of cheap tools from Taiwan.

(....a.k.a Harbor Freight just opened a new store near my house.)

I usually refer to Harbor Freight as "The Bad Place" because it functions as a black hole that empties my wallet. I go into the store looking for one thing (in this case, a winch for my trailer) and come out with a half dozen other extra items. I didn't know that I was in the market for a machete, a new work light, a small pancake compressor, and some masonry cutoff wheels, but I now have them, too.

Please keep me in your thoughts, I need to develop strength to avoid the temptation.

Very HHOS.

A Bojangle's is opening right down the road from me.
Pray for me.

HNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGG dirty rice HNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG

plus one for the machete

JoeyM wrote: Please keep me in your thoughts, I need to develop strength to avoid the temptation.

I takes time, but after awhile you learn restraint. I'm now able to go in the local store and buy ONLY what I was looking for. Once in awhile, I'll even leave without buying anything at all. Really!

One trick is to say to yourself, "Ok... this is cool... but where the hell am I going to put it?" That has stopped me from buying a lot of, "gee, that would be nice to have..." tools.

Ian F wrote:

JoeyM wrote: Please keep me in your thoughts, I need to develop strength to avoid the temptation.

I takes time, but after awhile you learn restraint. I'm now able to go in the local store and buy ONLY what I was looking for. Once in awhile, I'll even leave without buying anything at all. Really! One trick is to say to yourself, "Ok... this is cool... but where the hell am I going to put it?" That has stopped me from buying a lot of, "gee, that would be nice to have..." tools.

I've done the flipside of that. My dad has, too, on more than one occasion. It's that thing of where you walk into a HF and see something on sale that you don't need immediately, but know you can't live without. Or the obscenely low price just means that you;re stupid for NOT buying it.

So you buy the item, take it home, open the tool box to the place where it will live... and see another one sitting there, still in the package, from the last time you decided you couldn't live without it.

jg

In reply to JoeyM:

Well you're not going to die nearly as broke as those who buy good tools. You know, the kind that work.

eh.. HF is overrated. I rarely buy anything there and there is a store less than a mile from my house. I got over cheap tools that break within hours of buying them.

I'm safe since the store reeks of BO the last two times I went in there. Have not gone back in six months. Whew.

EastCoastMojo wrote: A Bojangle's is opening right down the road from me. Pray for me.

Ick. That place is berkeleying nasty. The smell makes me sick when I drive by.

Don't listen to the haters Joey. Welcome to the support group. Hi, my name is David S....

Everyone complains about the crappy tools, but most of the stuff I've bought there works fine. They say every HF tool eventually becomes a hammer, but if I were buying expensive tools I could only afford one hammer to start with, so I figure I'm ahead somewhat.

I have several things from Harbor Freight. Drill press, metal cutting band saw, miscellaneous small hand tools. I'm stopping by tomorrow after work to pick up a 20-ton press so I can do the Protege's front wheel bearings.

Yeah. Unless you want to blow "Snap-on" money for tools, it's all the same Chinese E36 M3 to me. While I realize you can find used Snap-on stuff on CL, if I need a tool, I usually need it right then.

And yes, it's berkeleying impossible for me to get out of that place for under $100.

Ian F wrote:

JoeyM wrote: Please keep me in your thoughts, I need to develop strength to avoid the temptation.

I takes time, but after awhile you learn restraint. I'm now able to go in the local store and buy ONLY what I was looking for. Once in awhile, I'll even leave without buying anything at all. Really! One trick is to say to yourself, "Ok... this is cool... but where the hell am I going to put it?" That has stopped me from buying a lot of, "gee, that would be nice to have..." tools.

only after you've bought one of everything

The fact that I'm not a real grownup (AKA I rent and don't plan on buying a home soon) keeps some of my pack rat tendencies at bay.
Else-wise, I'd be screwed.

That being said, I'm going to harbor freight 'for just one thing' tomorrow...
We'll see.

I love Hazard Fraught, one is opening near me just as soon as I leave town, thankfully.

I have the addiction too, I have tried to walk away can't even come close to being able to afford the name brand stuff. I have had a few things break but it's nothing that wouldn't have broken a name brand too. I always end up grabbing stuff that I could have used, but didn't have at the time I needed it. There is also stuff I never see in other retail stores, I buy on a whim and it pays for itself 10x over.

I use them for the 'only need it once' tools or non critical things.

The location near me stocks the 'precise' tools like calipers and micrometers in the same aisle as the hammers to keep with Ultraclydes theory.

Literally %50 of the tools I've gotten from harbor freight have broken immediately. All my Pittsburg swivels are now welded on the connecting rods.

The other half have been fantastic and I use them constantly.

If you die broke you have done it exactly right! Why leave a pile of money laying around you can't use?

Blah blah blah another thread about why anything not made in america sucks.

Give it a berkeleying rest. My entire junkyard bag is made up of HF tools. I beat the E36 M3 out of them and abuse them. And I don't feel bad when I lose them.

Haven't broken anything but a pry bar so far, and it just bent.

Couldn't say the same about the Craftsman tools the Pittsburgh Pro stuff replaced.

Woukd I rely on them if I ran a shop? Nah. But that doesn't mean I'm going to complain about them evrry goddamn time this thread comes up and chastise people that do use them.

Swank Force One wrote: Blah blah blah another thread about why anything not made in america sucks. Give it a berkeleying rest. My entire junkyard bag is made up of HF tools. I beat the E36 M3 out of them and abuse them. And I don't feel bad when I lose them. Haven't broken anything but a pry bar so far, and it just bent. Couldn't say the same about the Craftsman tools the Pittsburgh Pro stuff replaced. Woukd I rely on them if I ran a shop? Nah. But that doesn't mean I'm going to complain about them evrry goddamn time this thread comes up and chastise people that do use them.

This.

On the rare occasion I am staring at a wall of choices, and there is a "Made in USA" version, I will buy it if I can afford it. But that only happens about once a year. And these days, I know that "Made in the USA" often means "Put into a box in the USA." We're all sleeping in the same E36 M3ty bed...Horse has left the barn...blah blah.

The E36 M3 from Sears/Lowes/Home Depot/etc. is, in almost every instance, just as "de-contented" and just as Asian as what Harbor Freight sells, but those guys charge four times more.

I will admit the reciperacting saw I bought from them for $35 has kept me sufficently amused that I have not needed to buy a more expensive brand name one yet.

I have broken most of the hand tools though.

What is is wrong with this picture? A moderately eleborate device like a powered saw lasts forever, but the hand tools become hammers in less than a day?

I was in there today and couldn't find what I needed. I was extremely close to walking out of there with a jack too. I would have had I had any space in the car.

I have visited twice, and only bought a $20 drill. It didn't even die when I had to drill a line of holes in a disk brake for a truck.