Cheap Harbor Freight tools!

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I used to have this friend who was a professional mechanic, and he used to always give me a hard time about my Harbor Freight tools. Today I was using a couple of knock off vise grips and it occurred to me that I’ve been using these things regularly for over Forty Years!
They still have burns and dingleberries from using them to hold things while I was welding. And they are half painted the color I spray painted a Chevy truck. I must’ve used them to hold something while I painted it.
They still work as good as the day I bought them. By the way, who else has done this, back when I bought all this stuff, there was no neighborhood store, there was no internet. You looked through a catalog , filled out an order sheet and mailed them a check. Then waited about a month to get a big box filled with hammers and wrenches and stuff dropped at your door!
Yeah these cheap old tools. I love em!
32ED9B23-FE41-4750-86C9-01BF3117CA30.jpeg
 
JC Whitney!

Way back in the day we used to buy freight damage shipments in Chicago and resell in Baraboo. We got several from JC Whitney. One item was a reproduction XK150 Jag grille, finally sold it a couple decades later on E-bay, it brought good money. Used to order motorcycle parts and tools from them. There's still a JC Whitney Whitworth wrench around here somewhere. Those wrenches were good quality, other things not so much.
 
gggGary said:
JC Whitney!

Way back in the day we used to buy freight damage shipments in Chicago and resell in Baraboo. We got several from JC Whitney. One item was a reproduction XK150 Jag grille, finally sold it a couple decades later on E-bay, it brought good money. Used to order motorcycle parts and tools from them. There's still a JC Whitney Whitworth wrench around here somewhere. Those wrenches were good quality, other things not so much.
Click to expand...

I bought a replica BMW motorcycle muffler from good old JC Whitney once. It was actually very nice!
 
Ha! It’s funny this has triggered another memory. The first vintage bike I restored was a 1977 BMW R100/7
I found an ad in the back of a Walnecks catalog ( remember those?) for a BMW parts supplier that carried an extensive catalog for old BMW’s . It was Bobs BMW in Jesup Maryland, you had to call them and they would send you a catalog, they had order sheets in the back of the catalog that I would make copies of , then you fill out an order sheet and mail them a check and wait several weeks to get your parts! It’s amazing how fast we have changed into this instant gratification society, we bitch if we don’t get our stuff within a few days of ordering it!
 
Mailman said:
I bought a replica BMW motorcycle muffler from good old JC Whitney once. It was actually very nice!
Click to expand...
Completely rebuilt a 69 MG B back in the day using nothing but a JC Whitney catalog. Engine, clutch, tranny, brakes and rag top. They had all of it. Drove it for 3yrs. Was still running great when I sold it.
 
My first car was a '69 MGB GT, white. What a mess! Mine was a rust bucket. Taught me to work on motors though...every day. Last year of the vertical bars grille.
Mailman said:
I used to have this friend who was a professional mechanic, and he used to always give me a hard time about my Harbor Freight tools. Today I was using a couple of knock off vise grips and it occurred to me that I’ve been using these things regularly for over Forty Years!
Click to expand...
The pro mechanics I've worked around and with and for fall into two camps with tools. Snap on, and whatever comes from the closest hardware store. Can't really say if one is better than the other. But the Snap on guys do spend a lot of time accusing people of theft when they've misplaced something...
 
Back in the late 70`s & early 80`s a traveling "Tool Show" would come to Shitburg (Topeka) once or twice a year and set up at the Expo Center. I bought a tube bender, engine stand and many other small tools that I`m still using today. The quality was a lot better than Harbor Freight has today. Probably "Taiwanese" back then.:thumbsup:
 
My Grandpa bought me a Husky SAE socket set when I was about 10-11 so that I could fix my bicycle. It still works and the fit of the sockets is as good as any Craftsman or Snap-on tools in my work shop.

Ahhh....the good ole’ days.....
 
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Mailman said:
Ha! It’s funny this has triggered another memory. The first vintage bike I restored was a 1977 BMW R100/7
I found an ad in the back of a Walnecks catalog ( remember those?) for a BMW parts supplier that carried an extensive catalog for old BMW’s . It was Bobs BMW in Jesup Maryland, you had to call them and they would send you a catalog, they had order sheets in the back of the catalog that I would make copies of , then you fill out an order sheet and mail them a check and wait several weeks to get your parts! It’s amazing how fast we have changed into this instant gratification society, we bitch if we don’t get our stuff within a few days of ordering it!
Click to expand...


G'day B-O-B,

Bob's BMW is one of my favourite suppliers, great to deal with that was, until the South Pacific Peso, AKA Australian Dollar went down the gurgler.

Also in the early '80's when I lived in Papua New Guinea we had a pilot who had a Wells Fargo bank account and a very dog eared Sears Craftsman catalogue.

Very hard to get quality tools back then and the quality Sears stuff sold itself and the exchange rate was good. So we told him what we wanted and when it landed then payment would take place.

I still have many of those Craftsman tools. Love'em.

GeeDub
 
Plenty of old "industrial" tool brands 'round, often at bargains, SK, Williams, Thorsen, Allen, Armstrong. I have a 3/8 Thorsen "open gear" ratchet I have been using and abusing for over 40 years now. Unfortunately "rebranders" have often bought the old names and stamp them on cheesy import stuff. I have a set of HF Pittsburgh polished wrenches I like.
 
Most of my tools are HFT. It's one of my favorite stores in the whole wide world. 20% off coupons, and "stupid sales" (when the price is sooo low, if you don't buy it, you're stupid)? What's not to like. And quality? Warrantee? They rival anything else I have. I keep telling the wife "the more tools I have, the more stuff I can fix". She doesn't buy it.... :doh:
 
59Tebo said:
I keep telling the wife "the more tools I have, the more stuff I can fix". She doesn't buy it.... :doh:
Click to expand...

Eeeeeyyyyaaahhhh.....women. We keep tryin’ to snow them on things like tools, beer and the urgent necessity of owning more that one motorcycle - and they keep not believing us. :shrug:

Hmmmm....gotta figure out why some day. :umm:
 
Jim said:
Completely rebuilt a 69 MG B back in the day using nothing but a JC Whitney catalog. Engine, clutch, tranny, brakes and rag top. They had all of it. Drove it for 3yrs. Was still running great when I sold it.
Click to expand...


I went through several MGBs and MGBGTs back in the 70s & 80s they were nice simple cars to work on but by golly here in Britain they rusted right in front of your eyes. :(

In 75 I bought a 1962 MGB roadster with the pull handle doors that was No 101 probably the oldest in the World if it still survives.
It wasn't made in Abingdon because they hadn't completely tooled up for the first few MGBs produced.

On my road race B I took a early 3x bearing crank engine and mated it with a late over-ride 5x bearing crank gearbox which was a match made in heaven i turned down the 1st motion shaft on a lathe and opened out the crankshaft phospur bronze bush to put them together. There was 1x bolt that didn't line up between engine plate and gearbox so I just left it out .:) That car did a genuine 115mph when wound up but I stripped the bumpers and everything else I could to reduce weight and filled in the grille and added a splitter.

Sold it back in 1997 for a £grand .:(
 
peanut said:
by golly here in Britain they rusted right in front of your eyes. :(
Click to expand...
I always thought they must have stood up to that in Britain but not here for some reason. One thing J.C. sold was rocker panels for them, but it's not going to help much if on in and across the car it's rotted like a tomb. I noticed one time that both of my rear leaf springs were loose at the rear, the hangers for them had rotted away, and the ends were in a little pocket that was still surviving. Rode fine, so kept on driving it. No doubt dangerous as can be. Years later bought a little first version Mazda 626 that held together better and was as just as much fun to drive.
 
Some of those tools are great, and some are junk. As a professional, I always carried professional grade tools. I started with a Craftsman set and replaced them when I figured out what top shelf tools I liked best. As a 60 year old man, tinkering in the garage, I’m not buying Snap-on tools. From my perspective, that’s stupid. For someone early in a career using tools, go for it!

I buy bargain tools. If I break them, or they won’t do the job, I replace them with something better.
 
...on MG-Bs....when we moved to Windsor in 1997, I was thrilled to find that my next door neighbour was an engineer like me. Finally, a kindred spirit!!

At the time he was rebuilding a 1972 “B” from a total pile of rusty crap. In his day-job, he was the head of R&D for a major truck parts manufacturer in the US and so he crossed the Ambassador bridge to his office in Michigan every day.

This guy was a mechanical genius and he had even more tools and equipment than me. :yikes:

After a year or two, his MG-B was completed and it was truly beautiful. This was a complete ground-up restoration by a guy who was very skilled, relentlessly thorough and had no money problems. His car was waaayyyy better than the day it was built.

One day I asked him if he would be driving it to work over in Southfield, Michigan and his head snapped up as he replied: “ Sh!t no Pete - I have to get to work on time, and every frickin’ day!”

I guess that put paid to my desire for a British sports car and I began to search for a Miata.

Dammit.

Pete
 
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jetmechmarty said:
Some of those tools are great, and some are junk. As a professional, I always carried professional grade tools. I started with a Craftsman set and replaced them when I figured out what top shelf tools I liked best. As a 60 year old man, tinkering in the garage, I’m not buying Snap-on tools. From my perspective, that’s stupid. For someone early in a career using tools, go for it!
I buy bargain tools. If I break them, or they won’t do the job, I replace them with something better.
Click to expand...
I'm also a 60+ year old man. I still have my Snap ON tools from the beginning of my career. I agree if you are a professional mechanic turning wrenches 8 hours a day Snap on or something similar is needed. If a guy is just turning wrenches for a hobby then buy whatever you think you need.
 
Craftsman and snap-on both had lifetime warranties, snap-on would show up at your factory every week and replace broken drill bits, etc...( and sell you something else you needed, and credit if you had to have it and could not pay in full)...
...snap-on was also double the price....
...but consumeable tools like drills and punches the snapon was noticeably higher quality...
 
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Moabite said:
Craftsman and snap-on both had lifetime warranties, snap-on would show up at your factory and replace broken drill bits ( and sell you something else you needed, and credit if you had to have it and could not pay in full)
Click to expand...

Oh yeah! I worked at a fleet garage and the Snap On truck and the Mac tool truck were regular visitors to our shop. They were worse than drug dealers and bookies, some of those young mechanics were in deep with the credit those guys would extend.
 

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