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Comment by dieselgate | Hacker News Reader

It’s easy to shit on HF but some of their products are basically industry standard - like winches and floor jacks. It’s really odd to be honest because people will frequently mention buying something cheap off “Amazon or Ali express” and then scoff at HF. I’ve seen some HF products out perform SnapOn tools in YouTube reviews.

Not everything is “good” but it’ll get the job done.

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Daytona floor jacks, good stuff. Icon tools pretty much one step below Mac/Snap on. Cable Porter, Warrior, etc. brand well its cheap and disposable. Pittsburg - well you're buying brass brushes so you use em once and throw em in the fuckit bucket. The names they give stuff do a good job indicating what the quality is.

Yes, this!

Where would you go to buy air compressor and accessories at retail but HF? Nobody caries them. I bought excellent standing air compressor at black Friday sale couple years ago!

I’ve found that Rural King and Tractor Supply Company are solid places to shop for the type of tools I’d find at Harbor Freight.

Walmart carries air compressors and fittings, at least at the rural ones.

I love shopping at HF but I've had to learn through experience which of their products are decent and which are utter dogshit. And sometimes I still buy the dogshit if I know I only need the item once and plan to toss it.

buy cheap for the first one and if you ever have to replace it you know you will use it enough to pay for a quality replacement. that way you spend money on tools that need it.

Sometimes cheap is so bad it can't do the job. You can never be sure if it is you are the tool when you do a bad job.

I stopped buying harbor freight tools and went all in on Milwaukee. The productivity boost dwarfed the extra cash I paid...which now seems trivial in comparison to my capabilities with the tools.

All my Milwaukee resides in US General toolboxes (the Milwaukee workbenches are for changing tables, after all).

Every now and then a crappy tool is exactly what’s needed. Ever had a hole in a countertop but a misaligned or otherwise inadequate hole in the plywood under it? (Or just wanted to drill a new hole through both?). Get a cheap, crappy Forstner bit the same size as your hole, stick it in the countertop hole, and drill through the plywood base. Cuts perfectly and takes very little time. Also destroys the bit very quickly. I don’t think there’s any benefit to using a nice Forstner bit for this. (A cheap hole saw could also work, but some fiddling with the drill bit portion may be needed.)

Obviously one should use a high quality diamond bit for cutting the countertop in the first place, with proper dust control.

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