Buying anything at Harbor freight is like making your own personal donation to the The People's Liberation Army.

 

Sadly buying "name brand" tools (especially power-tools) is pretty much the same case these days. Even Milwaukee, Dewalt, Makita, Rigid, Bosch, Hitachi, etc. make at least some of their tools in China these days and virtually all "consumer-grade" tools are made in China.

 

There are very few 'affordable' tools these days that are not made in China. That does not mean they are all low quality. Big name manufacturers such as those mentioned by dmill89 go to a lot of effort and time to qualify good manufacturers to build their stuff or they build it themselves in China. Biggest thing to look for is good quality materials such as castings and forgings. Having said all this I buy American every chance I get. I have found lots of Craftsman tools that are proudly stamped U.S.A.

 

I live in harbor freight lol I know it's cheap Chinese stuff but I've had really good luck with theyre products so far

 

I've got a Craftsman wire feed flux core and run into the same issues - low is too low, high can burn right through if you're not careful. I would stay away from the HF version.

^^^ mostly

Power Tool - NO! (One exception I made was a small trim router that I didn't want to shell out big bucks for as I wouldn't use it that much. My full size routers are name brand, quality) Craigslist, Pawnshop, Garage Sales can sometimes get you quality name brand for the same price or less than HF in this category. I did buy my first drill press there years ago. It worked, o.k. if you don't mind broken teeth on the chuck! Replaced it years later with a Craftsman that was giveaway priced at a yard sale! Also bought my wife + daughter a HF palm sander after they destroyed one of my good ones. It seems to be holding up ok.

Simple Tools - Absolutely! I've bought sockets, impact sockets, wood clamps, etc. with pretty good results. Just picked up a set of Torx sockets, including the T-60 for around $15. My 1/2 ratchet sucked, but they swapped it out a couple years later without question. (It's the spare now, bought a Craftsman, but their sockets work fine).

Sharp edged items - Yes! I consider drill bits, jig saw blades, sawsall blades, cut off wheels, etc. to be "consumable" items. I stock up when on sale and use their 20% off coupons frequently. Table saw blades, circular saw blades i go with quality. Definite difference there. Axe and Splitting maul, bought much cheaper there and have held up well - pretty much no edge on them, but easy to sharpen.

 

I will say that I have bought a good amount of hand tools there because they're cheap as dirt with coupons and all the Pittsburg brand stuff has a lifetime warranty. I bought a couple breaker bars there the other day. I also picked up a nice lookin set of drills for like $10. Like he said, cheap consumables.

 

I've had great success with their angle grinders. They are cheap, but work.

I also used their wire feed welder to do floors in my XJ. Ugly welds, better if you use quality wire.

I had a hatchet from them, the handle fell apart haha.

It's not high end stuff, can't expect it to be. Alot of their stuff has some kind of warranty.

With all that said, I've got a nice hobart welder, now, as well as other tools I've replaced

 

i got their heavy duty (lol) 4.5 angle grinder with a flap disk to sand my d44. Worked like a charm. I'll probably pick up a dewalt one later but for simple tasks like sanding i like the one i got there.

 

Well i reckon i might pick up a couple new tools from them. If i break em, ill buy some better ones

 

I have a brick & mortar HF near me. Like others have said, they aren't pro quality tools but for the shade tree mechanic they get the job done. That said, I feel more confident buying something from them that I have touched and inspected. I'd be less likely to purchase from them as a mail order business.

 

I buy random stuff there, but I also have a great relationship with my local snap on driver

FYI, my local home depot honors the nice HF coupons as part of their price match policy.. got my rigid impact and a bunch of random stuff at 25% off thanks to that

 

I love harbor freight!!! Tools are cheap and often times they have the free coupons for lights, tarps, multi meters and such. I got my angle grinder, saw zall, and heavy duty electric drill and they haven't let me down. Many of their hand tools have life time warranty now if it breaks I just head down there and replace it no questions ask, but then again I'm cool with the guys who work at the store. However I will say they,re drill bits, hole saws, and blades suck. I usually pick those stuff at Home Depot or lowes.

 

Oh snap, I forgot about the sawz-alls. I picked one up for $20 iirc.
Does anything I ask of it...so far!

 

Before I tell my story let me say that I love Harbor Freight. I bought some sandpaper from them, just sheets of sandpaper... various grits. I went home and sanded a piece of wood but within 10 seconds all the sand fell off and I was left with just a piece of paper.

 

i am an experienced welder and have used the HF welders a bunch of times. they are not that bad of welders and lay good welds if you know what you are doing, but dont expect much penetration at all out of a HF welder. for home projects or things like making a roof rack they are great. i would absolutely NOT use one for any suspension work at all. i built a bumper one time with the 220 Hf welder and it did a good job, but the 220 Hf has about the same penetration as a 110 miller or lincoln. like i said above if you want to learn to weld, have small home projects or things like welding a light bar or roof rack they actually are great welders for the price, just dont be expecting to build a rock crawler with one.