Rate your Harbor Freight Tool Experiences! - Page 30

cwc · 03-19-2013, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave in Wi

I am getting the feeling that Sears may not survive. What's going to happen with our Craftsman "lifetime warranty" then?

Same thing that happened to my Bonney lifetime warranty. I bought a ½ inch drive socket set in 1959 or 60? and ten years later I broke a socket. A breaker bar and 2 ft. of pipe shouldn't break a socket should it? I called them and they said they weren't in the business anymore and that I was SOL. OTOH, I haven't broken any more in the over 50 years I've used the set.

pennswoodsed · 03-19-2013, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrainBender

Anybody try this lift yet? I don't have much garage space so I was considering this one. Gets good reviews on their site.

http://www.harborfreight.com/automot...ift-99887.html

I spun the cylinder base 90* and drilled new mounting holes , the lift can be very near to a wall and be operated .

victor441 · 03-20-2013, 11:00 AM

Used mine for the first time last night and it did the job OK though fit and finish are typical HF. Pulled a fairly light 4 cyl. engine with it but not so sure I'd want to use it on a big heavy V8 as the roller hung up a bit. Still it is worth the $35 I paid and quality is good enough for an amateur mechanic like me who will only use it occasionally on lighter loads...and using a leveler did make the job much easier.

BroncoDave · 03-20-2013, 12:02 PM

Is that a caterham ?

victor441 · 03-20-2013, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BroncoDave

Is that a caterham ?

A Birkin S3, very similar to a Caterham

Lil' Steve · 03-28-2013, 11:32 AM

This thing gets a passing grade from me. Works pretty good and doubles as a larger waste oil container. May not be worth it for someone who only has one car/truck, but it definitely fits my needs. Small engine oil changes will be a mess free breeze with this. So will transmission oil, or any other fluid that might otherwise be messy (power steering comes to mind) or time consuming.

The only thing you need is a 1/4" NPT male air fitting to hook it up to your compressor.

It comes with 5 probes, 2 of them are metal (2 different diamters) , 3 of them are clear plastic tubing, also in 2 different diameters. I used the small diameter plastic tube for my wife's Honda Pilot.

Using it is pretty easy, you close the 1/4 turn valve on the extractor hose, hook up your air line and watch the vacuum gauge on the tank. It has a small air muffler that will be hissing when you're pulling a vacuum on the tank. When it reaches near max, disconnect your air line and open the valve on the extractor hose. It only took a few minutes to extract about 4.5 quarts of oil. The engine was at normal operating temperature and it only sat about 5 minutes before I began the extraction.

Out of curiosity, I pulled the drain plug after extraction to see if there was much oil left in the sump. Not much at all, I measured barely an ounce of oil. That's a good thing since the threads on the oil pan arent as good as I'd like them to be. Now I dont have to disturb the drain plug and worry about it anymore.

Best of all, no spilled oil under the car, the wind always seems to be blowing when I decide to do an oil change.

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-1-4-q...tor-46149.html

RichBeBe · 03-28-2013, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil' Steve

Best of all, no spilled oil under the car, the wind always seems to be blowing when I decide to do an oil change.

Be over in about an hour, just need to stop and grab some oil first

Lil' Steve · 03-28-2013, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichBeBe

Be over in about an hour, just need to stop and grab some oil first

You're welcome to it anytime. It was so easy I wanna use it again.

RichBeBe · 03-28-2013, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil' Steve

You're welcome to it anytime. It was so easy I wanna use it again.

I am going to take you up on that. I wonder if you can do bikes? Since usually the clutch basket is in the way.

Lil' Steve · 03-28-2013, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichBeBe

I am going to take you up on that. I wonder if you can do bikes? Since usually the clutch basket is in the way.

I guess we'll find out.

victor441 · 03-28-2013, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil' Steve

I guess we'll find out.

I have an oil extractor myself and the tube won't reach the bottom of the sump on my modern bikes....but it works great for draining the tank on my vintage dry sump bike, oil changes are MUCH less messy.

Lil' Steve · 03-28-2013, 06:11 PM

Good this Sunday only, thought I'd pass it along.

http://widgets.harborfreight.com/wsw...3&keycode=1004

snoman002 · 03-28-2013, 09:27 PM

Just picked up a HF "Motocross Dirt Bike Stand", and although I'm sure it has been mentioned before, I give it a 'Marginal' rating.

It WILL lift my, admittedly heavy, XR650L. However, the foot peddle required modification to ensure it would travel far enough to lock so that one could put the safety pin in. Speaking of safety pin, it won't go in when the stand is loaded as the holes are about 1/4" off. The top plate is too small and the bike won't sit with both wheels off the ground. This is compounded by the loose slide which let's the bike rock back and forth, and the rubber top doesn't help. Oh, and without copeous amounts of grease there is NO way one could lift a heavy bike like the XR, but that's a simple fix and greasing the slide and pivots made it quite easy actually, much better than trying to put my Virago on the center stand anyways.

All in all about 30 minutes of farting around to make it usable (and non-returnable) but completely unusable out of the box.

Previously I had the aluminum "Spool Stand" and found it 100% acceptable for my heavy SV1000s, although it did always feel like when one is standing on a pop can, one god hit and it will crumple. A buddy bought one at the same time however and said it folded the first time he put his (lighter) bike on it. Granted, he was a bit of an oaf about things.

jordan325ic · 03-28-2013, 10:26 PM

I live only a few blocks from a harbor freight, so it's my go-to destination for those need-right-now items. The things I do not like to get from harbor freight are ratchets, screwdrivers and power-tools.

3/8" deep wall metric socket set
Very tough sockets. 6 sided, so they never strip anything. The "color coding" chips off a little with heavy use but I love them anyway.

I've used several of their shop cranes. The pistons tend to stop holding pressure so well after a while, so they will slowly lower if left sitting for a while. They are very cheap though, definitely what I choose for light-duty engine pulling. You can buy them for $75 used on craigslist and sell them next month for the same money.

Aluminum racing jack
I went through a phase where I was just killing jacks every few months. Eventually I splurged for a "nice" craftsman jack, and it too died. I got this harbor freight jack for $40 (some super sale or something) thinking if it died at least this one would be cheap. It's been many years and the thing has been overloaded, left out in the rain for months, abused, and it still works perfectly. It will hold a car up all night without dropping an inch.

Their halogen bulbs are very cheap, but only last a few hours.

Their compression tester works great.

Their timing light does NOT work very well. The first one would only pick up the signal randomly, so I exchanged it. The newer one works sometimes, but mostly not. Very picky about lead placement.

barko1 · 03-29-2013, 06:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snoman002

Just picked up a HF "Motocross Dirt Bike Stand", and although I'm sure it has been mentioned before, I give it a 'Marginal' rating.

It WILL lift my, admittedly heavy, XR650L.

I had a couple and worked fine on an MX bike but ended up bent and worthless after a few times lifting my DR650. Cheese metal

03-20-2013, 11:00 AM	#438
victor441 Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Jul 2009 Location: Santa Rosa, Calif. Oddometer: 460	Load Leveler... Used mine for the first time last night and it did the job OK though fit and finish are typical HF. Pulled a fairly light 4 cyl. engine with it but not so sure I'd want to use it on a big heavy V8 as the roller hung up a bit. Still it is worth the $35 I paid and quality is good enough for an amateur mechanic like me who will only use it occasionally on lighter loads...and using a leveler did make the job much easier.

03-28-2013, 11:32 AM	#441
Lil' Steve PussyWagon™ Chauffer Joined: Oct 2006 Location: Da Bronx, NYC Oddometer: 3,576	Pneumatic Oil Extractor This thing gets a passing grade from me. Works pretty good and doubles as a larger waste oil container. May not be worth it for someone who only has one car/truck, but it definitely fits my needs. Small engine oil changes will be a mess free breeze with this. So will transmission oil, or any other fluid that might otherwise be messy (power steering comes to mind) or time consuming. The only thing you need is a 1/4" NPT male air fitting to hook it up to your compressor. It comes with 5 probes, 2 of them are metal (2 different diamters) , 3 of them are clear plastic tubing, also in 2 different diameters. I used the small diameter plastic tube for my wife's Honda Pilot. Using it is pretty easy, you close the 1/4 turn valve on the extractor hose, hook up your air line and watch the vacuum gauge on the tank. It has a small air muffler that will be hissing when you're pulling a vacuum on the tank. When it reaches near max, disconnect your air line and open the valve on the extractor hose. It only took a few minutes to extract about 4.5 quarts of oil. The engine was at normal operating temperature and it only sat about 5 minutes before I began the extraction. Out of curiosity, I pulled the drain plug after extraction to see if there was much oil left in the sump. Not much at all, I measured barely an ounce of oil. That's a good thing since the threads on the oil pan arent as good as I'd like them to be. Now I dont have to disturb the drain plug and worry about it anymore. Best of all, no spilled oil under the car, the wind always seems to be blowing when I decide to do an oil change. http://www.harborfreight.com/6-1-4-q...tor-46149.html __________________ Steve 07 KLX250S w/300 kit, 05 DR650SE, 04 XT225 99 VFR800 w/870 kit, 96 GPz1100

03-28-2013, 06:11 PM	#447
Lil' Steve PussyWagon™ Chauffer Joined: Oct 2006 Location: Da Bronx, NYC Oddometer: 3,576	25% off coupon Good this Sunday only, thought I'd pass it along. http://widgets.harborfreight.com/wsw...3&keycode=1004 __________________ Steve 07 KLX250S w/300 kit, 05 DR650SE, 04 XT225 99 VFR800 w/870 kit, 96 GPz1100

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03-20-2013, 12:02 PM	#439
BroncoDave Studly Adventurer Joined: Feb 2012 Location: Tobyhanna, PA Oddometer: 789	Is that a caterham ?

03-28-2013, 09:27 PM	#448
snoman002 Adventurer Joined: Mar 2013 Location: Ohio Oddometer: 14	Just picked up a HF "Motocross Dirt Bike Stand", and although I'm sure it has been mentioned before, I give it a 'Marginal' rating. It WILL lift my, admittedly heavy, XR650L. However, the foot peddle required modification to ensure it would travel far enough to lock so that one could put the safety pin in. Speaking of safety pin, it won't go in when the stand is loaded as the holes are about 1/4" off. The top plate is too small and the bike won't sit with both wheels off the ground. This is compounded by the loose slide which let's the bike rock back and forth, and the rubber top doesn't help. Oh, and without copeous amounts of grease there is NO way one could lift a heavy bike like the XR, but that's a simple fix and greasing the slide and pivots made it quite easy actually, much better than trying to put my Virago on the center stand anyways. All in all about 30 minutes of farting around to make it usable (and non-returnable) but completely unusable out of the box. Previously I had the aluminum "Spool Stand" and found it 100% acceptable for my heavy SV1000s, although it did always feel like when one is standing on a pop can, one god hit and it will crumple. A buddy bought one at the same time however and said it folded the first time he put his (lighter) bike on it. Granted, he was a bit of an oaf about things.

03-28-2013, 10:26 PM	#449
jordan325ic Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Mar 2010 Location: Austin, TX Oddometer: 206	I live only a few blocks from a harbor freight, so it's my go-to destination for those need-right-now items. The things I do not like to get from harbor freight are ratchets, screwdrivers and power-tools. 3/8" deep wall metric socket set Very tough sockets. 6 sided, so they never strip anything. The "color coding" chips off a little with heavy use but I love them anyway. I've used several of their shop cranes. The pistons tend to stop holding pressure so well after a while, so they will slowly lower if left sitting for a while. They are very cheap though, definitely what I choose for light-duty engine pulling. You can buy them for $75 used on craigslist and sell them next month for the same money. Aluminum racing jack I went through a phase where I was just killing jacks every few months. Eventually I splurged for a "nice" craftsman jack, and it too died. I got this harbor freight jack for $40 (some super sale or something) thinking if it died at least this one would be cheap. It's been many years and the thing has been overloaded, left out in the rain for months, abused, and it still works perfectly. It will hold a car up all night without dropping an inch. Their halogen bulbs are very cheap, but only last a few hours. Their compression tester works great. Their timing light does NOT work very well. The first one would only pick up the signal randomly, so I exchanged it. The newer one works sometimes, but mostly not. Very picky about lead placement.