Harbor Freight Tools

that and she is lopsided

 

They all are, a bit, Bos. You'd know that if you weren't so dumstruck by the sight of the ones you've seen. When you get as old as I, you can be more objective! Somewhat of a connoisseur, I almost failed to notice the orteil de chameau.

 

lopsided I can handle but lopsided and corns

nah

well that and she is pencil thin

 

I received my corded 1/2" drill from harbor Freight.
The color is orange!
Weight a ton, looks like built in the sixties.
$39
Will let you know, if I still alive, and not fry by this beauty of technology
Daniel

 

The drill work fine

 

Crappy tools that can , usally, get the job done. They are great for consumables. A $20 angle grinder will give you 20 dollars worth of service.

 

Cutting tools like drill bits and end mills are some of the very best tools to buy from Chinese sources. The QC is still very good (as far as the average user will ever know; machines shops may disagree) because they are made on completely automated machines. These machines are in almost every case the old cast-off US and EU sourced machines that had their first career at American and European manufacturers who upgraded their equipment in the 80's and later. These old machines went on the used market and a huge number wound up in the far east making cutting bits again to sell back to us.

Jimbo

 

Let's not forget the 'Big Four' motorcycle makers, who went on a deliberate campaign to destroy US and EU bike builders. Having (mostly) accomplished this, they still continue to 'dump' huge overproduction of street bikes into the US each year, wiping out successive generations their dealer networks over and over again.

It's called 'exporting unemployment': Japanese factory workers vs American dealer/service workers.

Jimbo

 

my god break out the champagne and college girls we actually agree on something Jim
had to happen eventually

best of luck
B

 

Some of the tools I would NEVER recommend from HF include:

Chainsaw chain sharpener (three in a row, finally got my money back instead of another one. Bought a Tecomec)

ANY of their rotary buffers (you would burn one up polishing one plug, mold or boat.)

ANY of their metal lathes. These are VERY poorly made Chinese lathes, and not particularly low priced. If you decide to buy a Chinese metal lathe (which I don't recommend to begin with) the Jet, Grizzly and Encos from Taiwan are much better quality for little or no more money.

Jimbo

 

I was going to get one of those but I built a machine shop for a friend a while back and he has bloody everything and top notch stuff as well

he says the cheap chinese stuff will get you into the 15~25 thous range which is hardly good enough for any kind of decent fit between parts
that and the power on those is so low your going to be lucky to work aluminum and your more likely to be relegated to plastics
the middle of the road stuff should get you to 5~10 thous range and the stuff in his shop has tolerances of .5~2 thous
he often heats one part and cools another for an almost inseparable joint between pieces

guy used to be head machinist at Ball Airo Space
really talented individual

has mind bending machinery in that shop of his

laughs at the mere mention of HF

 

It makes one wonder if your friend has ever actually used one of the Harbor Freight mini lathes. There are many people out there who are using them and doing far better than the 15-25 thous range estimated by your friend.

Think about it: 25 thousandths of an inch is 2.5 hundredths of an inch, which is 1/40". You could do better than that by freehanding it, with the work piece held in a cordless drill and the cutting tool being a file.

 

Im pretty sure thats what he meant to imply

you have to remember this guy was head machinist at ball airo space
he is used to extremely high tolerances

I was working on a bridgeport and talking about wanting one of my own when the subject of the mini lathes from someone like harbor freight came up

he laughed and said old 3 axis mills are a dime a dozen and for what you spend on a mini you can get a used full size one and three times the accuracy

ok
they weigh a ton and use 3 phase but still
he even had his buddy call me trying to sell me an old mill at 700
worked fine but had been replaced with a c/c
you need a crane to move it though
that and it would take up half the garage

 

Even small and medium-sized machine shops have mostly switched to automated machines and have idled their manual machines. This has resulted in the used market being flooded with good US, EU and Japanese sourced manual machines of very high quality. These machines are literally better at 20-30 years old than a Chinese machine is new out of the box. Look on Craigslist or ebay or even a used machine tool dealer as they have many bargains. That's where I'd put my machine tool money.

Jimbo

 

that is precisely what my machinist friend says
mater of fact he has all his start up stuff just sitting and has been offering it to me from time to time dirt cheap if I'll just get it out of there

stuff is a pain in the *** to move and the market for manual heavy machine tools is dead and burred

but
its still perfectly good in terms of its accuracy ~2 thous or better with good sharp bits

glad we found something we can agree on Jim
hope all is well
B