Pretty good deals at Harbor Freight...
 

I broke my trusty nibbling tool the other day, and RadioShack doesn't stock them anymore, so I went to HarborFreight to see if they have any. They did and were only $7 (as opposed to $11 at RadioShack). So I picked up two. :smile:

While I was there, I saw they are also having a sale on cheap multimeters for $3! Yeah, they're not the best, but decent enough for the price!

A lot of the stuff there is kinda cheapish, but a gold mine if you know what you're looking for! So, if you have a store nearby, stop in sometime and look around...

They have a Huge pack of heatshrink tubing (like 12 sizes, and 10 of each size) for 4 bucks...

I have the pleasure of being in driving distance to the HF outlet store :)

There is one about 40 miles from me, but it is a little small and crappy... I do need to go, last time I spend $1500 while i was there! 3 carts! had to replace some of the damaged stuff from Katrina.

Sounds just like the one here...Oh wait, it probably is. :whistle:

The one near me is about a 10-15 minute drive. South-side Des Moines and I live on the east side. Not a huge store, but is pretty packed with stuff. My son was with me today and he got a kick out of this ~3 foot pipe wrench that weighed about 30lbs. He wanted me to buy it, and when I asked what the heck he was going to do with something like that, he said he wanted to use it as a weapon. lol, that's my boy! :smile:

Sign up for their online mailer.I get a bunch of coupons every week,then like once a month they will send you a 20% off coupon for anything in the store,including sale items.

Duh, of course thats what you do. I tried to get my dad to get a moveable car lift... and a metal lathe....and a bandsaw.... and dont forget about the end mill... my excuse was- well we dont have one.. :intello:

Not Harbor Freight but has anybody seen this tool. Would be great for those cheap 3x10mm screws that seem to ALWAYS round off the hex.

http://www.4grabit.com/Default.asp?bhcp=1

I am ok with thier hand tools but thier ugly ass orange Chicago brand power tools suck...I stay with Milwaukee and Dewalt

Haha...

I have one about 1 minute of driving, and about 5 minutes biking.
It's pretty damn close.
They were having a parking lot sale yesterday.

Picked up some Epoxy and a new set of hex drivers... :D

This is true. I have had varying success with their electric tools. I have an 18v cordless drill that works like a champ, but I also have a sawzall that blows...

Their air tools are a great deal for someone who does not use them every day. I own a auto body shop, and we can wear an airtool out quickly. I just buy the cheap ones and replace every year or so. For a home user they would last forever...

I usually buy all the little one use tools. Stuff you may never need, but if you have it you will use it. Those things are so cheap that if they break you just toss them in the trash.

I bought their Hakko looking soldiering station. I can't get it to get hot enough to melt solder!

Had to pick up the shrink wrap set... not bad for $4. Also grabbed the "helping hand". Should come in handy...

Their shrink wrap set is awesome.
The stuff there is ultra cheap as well.

I'll need to get a helping hand for when I solder.
Heard tons of great things about them...

If I had owned a house or rented someplace with a garage I would have one of there hydraulic presses! I've spent $80 in the last couple months getting wheel bearings pressed out, I would have rather spent $150 or so and bought a press. Someday!!!!!

I have a few things from HF. Mostly hand tools like screwdrivers, pliers, sandpaper, etc. It's good stuff for the most part.

Uhh, plug it in? :neutral:

I think harbor freight came in to town with a trailer sale. I got a wire stripper which broke after awhile and a multimeter that I broke with either a bbq sparker or shorting an outlet.:neutral: I want to get another multimeter, better soldering supplies.....

I want to know more about the soldering station not being able to melt solder.

That infomercial is classic. Love the music. After watching it, I'm pretty sure that tool could fix the economy and give us world peace.:lol:

I <heart> Harbor Freight. I bought a 10gal air compressor there mostly just for cleaning my trucks after bashing sessions, and it works like a champ for less than $100.

haha i believe that hakko look alike soldering station is only a look alike and not a perform alike because i thought i read int he fine print it was only a 40w which aint big enough for nothing worth messing with.

Got an email today from Harbor Freight.
http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/...6&keycode=0000

What's the difference between harborfreightusa.com and harborfreight.com? I see harborfreightusa doesn't have prices but is there any other differences?

You can't order off hfusa you need to find a store thats located near you and go there. Its like an online catalog.

I think you hit the nail on the head. I'll have to really look at the fine print on the unit. It wasn't that much so I grabbed it real quick and didn't look at the box too well. Oh well. I did buy a really nice digital caliper!

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/...9&keycode=0000

Another coupon.. lol

Last trip by there I picked up another air brush (plus a bunch of other crap I couldn't live without) for painting rcs. The first one I got from them was on sale for 4.99 a single action style. Still works okay but they had a double action one on sale for under 20.00 I bought. I'm sure it's going to improve my artistic abilities for painting. I do have a 10" (orange) compound miter saw I bought from them 8 years ago and it's still working good. I got a bunch of air tools from them back then too. Like Linc said they last for the occasional user pretty well.

I buy quite a few things from the local HF. Bought a 14.4V drill once and the battery quit holding charge after about 2 months. So I ripped open the battery pack and stuffed it with a 4S LI-Ion pack made from laptop batteries and it's going stronger than ever! I do like their selection of cheap small hand tools.

THe Cheap comes from cheap labor basically you are buying and supporting another countries economy and NOt OURS

Spend the extra $2. bucks and you may have your job a while longer

All this outsourcing and producing products there are millions more $$ bought from overseas
think about

i got a nice infared thermometer there, they have a sale on them now for under $10. i can't remember what else i have from there. my GF got me a drill press from there. i love the little thing.

its not a bad store for the everyday fix-it guy,

I'm not sure that is a valid argument. There are SOOOO many things made outside the US (especially consumer electronics) that the occasional tool purchase makes little difference.

On that same vein, why are we all using lipos? I can't recall ANY that are made here. So, are we gonna all start using batteries only found in the USA? Probably not.

But hey, I agree with you though; outsourcing and producing products overseas is NOT helping us. But until labor and products on our shores are competitive with overseas costs, companies are gonna outsource. Plain and simple. US labor is just too darn expensive TBH to be able to turn the desired profit while keeping product cost reasonable.

^^^^^^^^^It's that kind of stuff ^^^(above 2 posts)^^ that I really love about RCM. Were on an r/c site(toys, arguably) talking about a tool store and two intelligent people comment about the state of the economy and outsourcing. And they were both well informed intelligent remarks. I do enjoy this sharing knowledge thing. I missed you guys!:yes:

I'm about 15 minutes from Harbor Freight. Last time I went in I bought a small 100 psi electric air compressor for $60! perfect for dusting off RC's! It always goes to the track with me and any drift session that has power, I need to get an inverter for the car, then It will just live in the trunk.

Anyone used this handwarmer? Looks pretty good and BA. I originally saw one on the zippo site, but this is $20 cheaper so why not?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=97279

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/pho...7299/97279.gif

As anyone bought the wire crimpers from harbor freight? I need some for 45a power poles.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=97420

http://images.harborfreight.com/cpi/...7499/97420.gif

I have those crimpers they work great. I love my Harbor Freight store. Never leave empty handed.

Just bought me a quiet compressor. Regular $84.99, on sale for $69.99 and took a 20% off single item coupon and it came out to be CHEAP! LOL Also bought a box of 382 o-rings for $8. I need lots of o-rings for front wheels on my drag cars so this was a "must buy" item. O-rings at the auto parts store is about $0.50 - $1.00 each depending on size.

Compressor: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=90168
O-rings: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...temnumber=2901

Top Ten Things NOT to Buy at Harbor Freight
1) Parachutes
2) Fire Extinguishers
3) Pacemakers
4) Vaccines
5) Birth control devices
6) Elevators
7) Bullet proof vests
8) Trigger locks
9) Pitons (I didn’t know what this was either…)
10) Scuba Gear

This and more HF humor found at Toolcrib.

You guys might like this..
I'm getting quite a few as I walk to the school bus for swim practice, and our streetlamps are dead. This light helps me SO much...

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthr...9164&t=1923070