Harbor Freight Tools

Discussion in 'Materials' started by dskira, Apr 4, 2010.

  1. dskira

    dskira Previous Member

    I Try for a picture.
    [​IMG]
     
  2. Stumble
    Joined: Oct 2008
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    Location: New Orleans

    Stumble Senior Member

    I but HF tools all the time, but you do have to buy them just assuming they are crap and will break relatively quickly.

    On the other hand, I picked up a 1000 piece drill bit set for like $20 that I have used for years. I just use their crap until it breaks then go but a good quality drill but to replace just the broken one. Because lets be honest its nice to have a 1/32 drill bit but I have never used it. This way I get to have one of everything on hand, and the bits I use all the time are good ones.

    The one exception I have found is their pneumatic tools, I have been using some of them for years without a glitch.
     
  3. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    Makita pulled the same feudal business crap on the west as did Sonny and Toyota
    a lot of the early Japanese companies did

    basically they protected there own home marketplace and subsidized the overseas market cost in order to drive out the competition, then jacked up the price once they felt secure enough to do so.
    Im sure they bribed there share of politicians or there is no way they would have been allowed to do so and in the end it killed the quality of the tools we could get here
    I ty to never buy foreign stuff but the Japanese tools and electronics industries are the worst example of the protectionism and bribery system of business that I can think of
    although the Chinese are fast catching up
    I dont buy there **** either if I can at all help it

    mind you Im not some flag waving idiot but I do believe in keeping my neighbor in business in the hopes that he will do the same
    its better for everyone if we do biz locally and stay away from those outsiders who come in specifically to take advantage of folks who are struggling

    frankly I think wallmart should be held for war crimes

    my two cents
    http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=video&oi=video_result&cad=13300000955266019568&ct=res&cd=1&ved=0CE8QtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DuJMYZwL8sPA&ei=Cky5S7-fOoLctgPDmfCCCA&usg=AFQjCNFw-a5LPj8uG7qshqWraPLMw44SFA&sig2=jotDynVKxXFMLHTkuEda8w
    this documentary series pretty much describes not only what walmart is doing but what businesses like Mikita and the chinese are up to as well
     
  4. TollyWally
    Joined: Mar 2005
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    Location: Fox Island

    TollyWally Senior Member

    I built a few houses over in Japan in the early 90's. It was after their big bust had started but before they realized that it wasn't really going to end.

    What you don't understand Boston is the differences in culture. In Japan the consumer is at the bottom of the heap. They stand in line, to buy what is available, at the price they are told to pay.

    A few examples, a computer system that would sell here for $3500.00 was 12 grand. A 3/8 drill here was maybe $125.00, there 300 plus. A crappy sheet metal glue gun, the bottom of the barrel, here $7.00 there $35.00. Etc. Etc. Etc.

    They had a few tools that were readily available that were great. Chopsaws, chisels, and pull saws. Everything thing else was crap. I
    was working for a concern whose parent company's niche was schools and hospitals. A fairly big time outfit. They couldn't source us sawzall's or 7 1/4 skill saws. At all.

    The Makita stuff was export only. My wife sent us a sawzall and a wormdrive saw. Both Makitas, as requested by the company we were working for. We forgot the problem of blades. In the end we customized hacksaw blades for the sawzall and I built 2 houses with one crappy factory starter blade despite being in the land of those glorious matsushita blades.

    All because we couldn't source blades in Japan with the resources of a company that had a couple of schools and hospitals going at once. If you know anything about the japs and "face" you'll know they were trying very hard not let the round eyes have a reason to indulge in one upmanship.

    So go ahead and have a hard on over the Makita stuff if you want but don't do it because they were "dumping" tools here at a lower cost than their domestic market. Americans wouldn't pay the home grown price. Jap tools had to be priced competively in this country for them to have sold any at all. You are mistaking our fair market price with the japanese domestic bend over rate.
     
  5. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    crazy
    I remember learning all about how Sony and Zenith captured the TV and electronics market way back in my college days and it pissed me off so much I just quite buying there stuff
    when I noticed Makita doing what looked to me like something similar I just said forget it and never ever bought there stuff
    Im sure having never lived there there is a lot I don't know but what I do leads me to avoid businesses that harm my neighbors livelihoods

    my basic theory is that if my neighbor is doing well I have a better chance of doing well myself. If my neighbors are destitute then I am more likely to be in the same boat

    frankly I cant wait to earn enough money to get the hell out of Colorado and up to the Alaskan peninsula Seattle area
    sounds like there is work for a skilled carpenter and I could be eating like a king again on crab and fish, all the stuff I really love anyway

    cheers
    B
     
  6. TollyWally
    Joined: Mar 2005
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    Location: Fox Island

    TollyWally Senior Member

    Carpenter work is a bit hard to come by in the PNW at the moment. Bigger outfits are down to skeleton core crews. Little outfits are down to the owner and helper stage. The laid off 2nd tier crews were competing for the side job market but only the best guys are still out scrambling. The rest have starved out. The mexicans have noticibly decreased in numbers.

    But FYI, Alaska and the mainland are often 180 out from each other on the boom and bust cycles. The locals own the good work but summer is a busy time and a good hand is often in demand. AK's a great place to build in some ways. Nobody bugs you. The downside is little infrastucture, sources, or competition between tradesmen.

    I've built a 1/2 dozen places up there over the years. Pay attention to the local customs and methods. They do that stuff for a reason! You've probably had some experience with cold weather stuff in Colorado but keep your eyes open. Some stuff AK style seems a little wierd or funky but keep an open mind and find out why before dismissing any eccentric local stuff.

    You're going to be unhappy when the reality of Wa. State resource management meets your preconceived notions. Harvest possibilities are severely constrained by both biological and political considerations. There are summertime opportunities but the good old days of easy livin are long gone.

    AK is great but if you're not a resident you'll pay for the priviledge. Pay for the priviledge but eat well.
     
  7. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    I plan on an Alaska residence address at the least
    all I need to do is get a license and address and Im in for cheap hunting and fishing permits

    in spite of what the news may be saying Colorado could not be worse for construction jobs
    Ive been a working GC and finish carpenter most of my life other than the occasional stint in the sciences and Ive never seen anything as bad as this
    on the boat at least I can survive hunting and fishing on just a few jobs a year but here im starving trying to save for the build
    things are bad and getting worse
    a friend of mine runs a referral service and I just might have to bite the bullet and sign up

    I have only two small jobs lined up so far and thats pathetic compared to say four years ago

    although I did well in day trading last winter I have been inundated with people in the know telling me it was a fluke and not to try it again
    frankly Im a bit gun shy over it these days
    seems when 100 or so folks all to a man say the same thing its hard not to listen
     
  8. mark775

    mark775 Guest

    Black bears starting to stretch their legs as we speak, Bos... I almost got hit in the face by a mallard drake, clubbed a moose with a Nordictrack ski and a bottle of Perrier yesterday for eating my ornamentals, pheasants carrying on horny, cranes, the best bird, showing up (oops - protected).
    Thanks Dskira. I hate so much having to reach between the handles to physically move the lever arm so I can adjust the sizing screw a 1/8 turn...only to have it now be about three turns tighter! Somehow, that then causes them to leap from my hand into the ocean, the wall, or the trash.
    I'll tell you, I have a little Fein and my neighbor has bit the bullet for Fes and they are good, pricey, stuff. A few years ago, I hinted to a German how nice his adjustible pliers were until he gave 'em to me. Now, my recurring Germans bring gifts of little hand tools and fishing stuff we don't have here. No FesTools yet. Probably won't be seeing Germans for awhile after they bail out Greece...
     
  9. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    well I love roast duck and bear is makes great sausage mixed with venison and jalapenos

    and yes I have some great German tools and some dam nice fishing stuff
    thing is its all fly fishing stuff so I will need to retool a bit for surf casting and salmon

    B
     
  10. TollyWally
    Joined: Mar 2005
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    Location: Fox Island

    TollyWally Senior Member

    LOL Boston,
    I don't mean to pick on you but AK has you figured out. They have this little thing called the Permanent Fund. Without going into detail it's free money for residents. Winter residents. They already figured out outsiders would like to scam their way into the good stuff and have a good system to defeat that. The bones of the Permanent Fund defense system permeate the entire state residency requirements for everything.

    They don't like folks from the outside much and try to save all the goody for the locals. Limited Entry was put in place to keep Washington fishermen out after Boldt threw the industry into the toilet for the sake of the Indians. It costs money to buy in, a lot of money. The permit can not be collateralized except by the State. The state program is only available to residents. Again the system was designed to prevent scamming. The result, financing opportunities are quite constrained for non residents.

    Sport fishing and hunting are similarily restricted in favor of the locals. The system is designed to weed out scammers. That is basically it's whole purpose. Sure there are ways around it for someone to sneak their cousins or brothers in. But it takes being hooked up and being hooked up well.

    Alaskans may not be super sophisticated but they sure aren't dumb. They've seen your kind a million times and get great pleasure in thwarting your ability to access their resources. They are a live and let live type of people, very warm, very friendly, basically quite libertarian and anti regulation except for one little thing, faking being a loke to get the good ****. It's a real big state but a very little place. Everyone knows everyone else, who they are and who they aren't.

    There is always room for a good hand and after a few tough winters if you made it you too are a loke. But you got to make it. The last bust I witnessed up there was 10 years back or so. Times were tough, the real lokes had all the good back up hard time jobs locked up, bartending etc. The fake lokes who had only been there a few years were all competing for the same couple midnight shifts at the 7/11. And they were stuck. One thing about AK, it costs more money to leave then it does to arrive. You can't load up your truck, scam a few tanks of gas and head for greener pastures.

    For a couple years, every season things were even bleaker for the short timers who didn't have the connections. Eventually folks quit paying rent for as long as possible, abandoned their rigs and belongings and flew out of town on the strength of their permanent fund checks and ended up living somewhere else down south.

    I'm not trying to discourage you from heading up, just pointing out a few things that are common knowledge on the inside and sort of unknown and unimagined on the outside. You've got the right skillset to make it. If you really want a boat there buy a second or third tier commercial boat from the locals.

    The second year, send up a bunch of parts from Seattle and fix it up. You can scam cheap shipping if you get hooked up and send it on the slow boat. :) Otherwise at a certain point flying to Seattle for parts starts to have an upside. Alaskans are absolute experts at internet shopping! Anyway this has rambled far further than intended. Good luck. Not trying to rain on your parade just pointing out a few ways not to get soaking wet,
     
  11. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    no worries
    but its bound to be worth a try
    besides I just want to live on board
    that and build a few things
    cant be any worse than down here and on board if I dont like it I can just bug out for the cost of a fill up.
    Im only bringing enough stuff as I can fit on the boat
    Ill get rid of everything else

    cheers
    B
     
  12. TollyWally
    Joined: Mar 2005
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    Location: Fox Island

    TollyWally Senior Member

    You've got the right attitude and appropriate skillset. You going to build in Seattle or truck from the rockies?
     
  13. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    Ill buy cheap cheap cheap in Oregon somewhere and go from there
    Ive found properties in the 3/5 k range that are within a mile of so of the water although Im not so sure about the launching site they were close to the water

    also high on the columbia in farm country I could rent a barn if I find one at the right price
    anything with a roof will do as long as there is dirt down to the river and enough locks to get me to open water

    I toyed with building here but I want something bigger than could be reasonably transported all that way

    48' x 12' and ~12' tall
    just doesn't go down the road all that well
     
  14. dskira

    dskira Previous Member

    This thread as a life on his own :p :p :p :p :p
    Ok what about Northern Tool.
    And Boston don't tell me that Northern Tool is responsable for WW I :D

    Oh well politic and tools are I suppose linked in a very absconde way that only the choosen can apreciate.

    How's your eggs parties on Easter Gents? did you find all of them?

    MARK775 try this one:
    http://www.nothingbuthardware.com/tools-irwin.html

    Cheers
    Daniel
     

  15. hoytedow
    Joined: Sep 2009
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    Location: Control Group

    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    Easter was egg-scruciating, egg-sasperating and egg-xhausting.
     
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