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Harbor Freight Coupons & Deals

58K views 97 replies 25 participants last post by  lt1silverhawk 
#1 ·
This thread is for anyone interested in HF coupons & deals. If you see a good deal or coupon, please share it.

Save up to 20% Off
Good through April 30th, 2011

Spring Clean-Up Sale
Good through April 24th, 2011
 
#6 ·
T-bucket23 said:
There are no good deals at HF. They sell low end junk for the most part.
I'd agree with that. Their stuff I would never dream of using in a professional setting. Yet at the same time I have never broken anything or had anything fail on me. I have a few floor jacks from them and never had a problem. Probably because I use jack stands! I have a welder from Harbor Freight that hasn't ever given me issues, and some other odds and ends. There's a limit to any tool, I guess...
 
#9 ·
You gotta be very selective when buying harbor freight. I will always say it's my second favorite place to buy tools for what it is. I haven't had many bad buys from there cause I know what to avoid. I don't buy air couplers from there cause I don't want to be annoyed by the hiss. I don't buy air tools from there cause they suck and all bog down. I would never buy a compressor from there or welder, but I don't mind their welding cart. Seems to be ok. Wouldn't buy sockets, ratchets, screwdrivers, or drill bits, blades.


I love their $12 tear drop mallets. I got both sizes and love them. I like their $3 pen scriber. Works like a charm and where can you get that for $3? I have the spring loaded punch for $3. That's a $20 tool elsewhere. SOME of their welding clamps are ok. The deep throat one sucks. Their porta powers are ok
 
#11 ·
tech69 said:
I don't buy air tools from there cause they suck and all bog down.
Your loss, the "Earthquake" line of impact wrenches are real brutes and hold up well. I have had mine for several years now and it is as powerful as when it was new, a farmer friend of mine has a 1" drive "Earthquake" that they use almost everyday and it too delivers some serious power without any problems. These things are knock-offs of the IR "Thunder Gun" but at a fraction of the price, quite powerful and hold up well.



tech69 said:
I would never buy a compressor from there

No? How about the AMERICAN built US Generals? If you are shopping for a compresor of this class and price range you can go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy Chinese junk or for the same money or less you can buy the US Generals at HF. These are IMHO the best deal for the money anywhere and people who pass them up for the Chinese outfits from other places are making a big mistake. As we have mentioned a dozen times lately these are rebadged AMERICAN built Belaire compressors and just can't be beat for the price, American built except for the really good quality Italian built pump. :)
 
#15 ·
oldred said:
I have been wondering about those things, I am in need of a new one now but had not heard anything about them one way or the other.

Anyone else have one of these?
i have a couple of them, (50 and 25 ft.)
if you get them on sale they are pretty cheap.
the hose isn't that great (looks like its weather checking/dry rotting) where its made to bend tightly at the base of the reel.
but its been a few years and still no problems.
i figured i would just change the hose down the road. :thumbup:
 
#16 ·
matts37chev said:
I figured i would just change the hose down the road. :thumbup:


And that's another good deal they have! They have genuine GoodYear black air hose sometimes at really good prices, this hose stays flexible at low temperature and will not swell when exposed to the sun like HF's cheap hose. My HF/GoodYear hoses are 12 years old now and holding up just fine and are still available there- often on sale!


Like a couple of guys have already said it is just a matter of watching WHAT you buy there, simply avoiding everything is to pass up some real bargains! :)
 
#18 ·
oldred said:
I have been wondering about those things, I am in need of a new one now but had not heard anything about them one way or the other.

Anyone else have one of these?
I have one of the cheaper ones with the big metal arms that I bought here at Princess Auto (Same thing as HF pretty much.. I know this piece specifically is the same).

All the ones I looked at had the same crappy little swivel valve for incoming air, so I went with the cheapy one ($17?) and drilled out the holes a little bit for more air.


I also have teh HF paint shaker. And mind you, it gets VERY limited use, but seems great for $80 or whatever I got it for on sale with a coupon.

Too bad my table or tools on the table can't handle it.
 
#20 ·
I have saved a bunch on several purchases by using coupons and just buying items that other places sell for more money, a lot more! My 14x40 lathe was purchased for about $1000 less (yep I have spent some bucks there sometimes :) ) than the same exact Chinese built machine,except for the color, that Enco and a few others have. Then a coupon saved me another $670 off that for a savings of nearly $1700 on one item, I read on another site of another guy doing the same thing so I thought why not me too? Then I needed a tool grinder, they had it on sale for $129 and let me use a 25% off coupon on top of that, same grinder at Enco and similar places ranges from $189 to $249 for the same one but a different name and color, cost me less than a hundred bucks. 5x6 metal cutting bandsaw that I bought for $149 12 years ago has been used unmercifully and has been zero trouble during that time and I do mean zero trouble! It cuts as accurate as any saw I have ever used and less than a month ago was used to cut some 4 1/2" diameter 4140 bar which it is called upon to do fairly often, angle iron, pipe, rod, etc in normal sizes used in our hobby is no problem at all with this little saw. If I were in need of an air compressor for my shop I would not hesitate to go to HF for one of those US Generals we have been discussing (the Quincy would be a much better choice for a full time shop however) but it looks like my old Quincy is going to out-last me! :rolleyes:


The point to all this is that HF can indeed save some serious money for the serious hobbyist and home shop although I can't think of much I would want to buy there for commercial use. And yes you can buy some serious junk there also if you are not selective about what you buy but a bit of checking around can usually solve that problem. I was almost ready to order that 14x40 lathe from Enco before reading the post on that other site about the HF deal and a bit of asking around revealed it, like the US General compressors, is the same machine sold for more by others with different paint on it.
 
#22 ·
oldred said:
I have saved a bunch on several purchases by using coupons and just buying items that other places sell for more money, a lot more! My 14x40 lathe was purchased for about $1000 less than the same exact Chinese built machine,except for the colorpaint on it.
Thats what gets me.. A lot of folks saying everything from Horrible Freight is junk, but what they bought at sears is top notch. Its almost always the exact same thing with different paint. Lowes, Northern.. Its all coming from the same Factories in China. :rolleyes:
 
#23 ·
Since it seems we can't help where the tools are made, just look at how they are made. Now, I have a few junk hand tools. But I rarely use them. My hand tools, no matter where they are made, have to say "drop forged" or at least "forged" on them. None of that chrome viladium or whatever BS.

Most of my Harbor Freight stuff is cast iron. My floor jacks are of the generic design, so seal kits are available. My arbor press uses a jack that can be found anywhere if it goes bad.

With air tools, yeah, they';re lower quality in some respects. But all you have to do is oil them! It says so on the side of every air tool I have ever used!

Their air line fittings are crap. But at least they are brass.
 
#24 ·
i have one of the cheap, small bottle jack presses.
i used it yesterday to press some studs in and out of a strut top plate.
it worked great for that, its not the most precise piece of equipment but it worked good for what i used it for.
and i could never afford to have a really good one.
 
#26 ·
Most everything I have ever bought (very little) from harbor freight has broken within the first few minutes of use, except for the short air hose I bought, it was so frieken hard I just about couldnt unroll it. It was useless.
I got an angle air drill (90 degree) a while back, and I was initially impressed with its look and feel, and the motor felt real strong. Second time I squeezed the paddle to drill, it puked an o ring then upon dissasembly a spring steel retainer crumbled and all was but lost. I found an alternative O ring that works Good and stays in place , then I took a clip nut and ground it to fit in the place of the retianer that broke and it seems to be OK now. Only spent about 2 hours dickin with it, not to mention I paid almost 40 bucks to buy it.
Now that it is working well I am OK with it, but it doesnt have any other good features other than the price and the fact it is a 90 degree drill. It has no speed control at all so its tough not to burn up bits. It will do in a pinch as I only need one every so often .
I hate to even go to harbor freight for anything ,being selective about what you buy is the best advice I have heard here.
 
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