9.99 angle grinder form Harbor Freight???

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Has anyone bought one of these?? would you trust using it?? i was thinkin about getting one for $10 what the hell..but i dont really want it exploding in my face!

[Chopped54]

I have one that I threw a cut off disk on and have it laying around so I dont have to change out disks on my 6" grinder.
Dont know how long it will last, but I have had it for about 8 months and has not failed me yet.

[McGrath]

My work ordered 3 of them a while back just to see if they were worth having and all three were burnt up within a month. That was under full time industrial use though, they may last considerably longer used on a Hobby basis.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Yeah it's just for doin small stuff on my bike..it might be worth it

[dixiedog]

My boy got one for working on his jeep - burned up in about 3 months of nightly grinding.
I have the low speed buffer - noisy as all hell but still works after 6 months of periodic use
and the Chicago Metal Chop saw - doing good after a year of abuse

[burndup]

I've had a makita for like 4 years, and a harbor freight for like 8 mos... both are fine still, but strictly hobby use... its only 10 bucks, go for it.

Some chinese kid might get a new communist flag for his birthday if you buy it! (they don' let em have Xmas)

[Unkl Ian]

[ QUOTE ]
Some chinese kid might get a new communist flag for his birthday if you buy it!

[/ QUOTE ]

And really,isn't that what is most important here?


We've had it too good,for too long.

Let's send ALL our jobs to under developed countries,so we can have more time to enjoy life.

[Bugman]

We got 4 of them for school. One of them got fried within a few weeks. The other 3 have lasted for 2.5 years so far, and high school kids are pretty rough on equipment.

-Shop Teacher Jeff

[Dirty Dug]

I'd rather flush $10 down the toilet. They have no power. Save your money.

[k-member]

Buy one and save your receipt(sp) they should return it, mine has been through hell and still works great. Probably not to good for everyday mass production work, anything that is abused usually won't last as long as it should.

[Paul]

I had one of their cheapo Chicago Electic 4" grinders for about ten years,

'used the hell out of it.

As soon as I bought a good Bosch

the poor old Chi El's gears started growling and the switch fell appart.

I still have it in a drawer somewhere, I'd rather bury it then throw it in the trash http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

with the proper abuse you can burn up any tool in no time at all but,

if you don't bear down on it or let it overheat it will last a lot longer.

Paul

[McGrath]

The outfit I work for has tried all the major Brands over the years as far as 4 1/2" grinders go. From our experience, Metabo is the best quality and longest lasting. We have bought around 15 of them over the last 3 years and they are all still running fine. I think they are pretty expensive though.

Milwaukee and Dewalt hold up pretty good too, but they start making a lot of noise after a year or two of full time use.

[Machinos]

Hell no. I got a $15 "Tool Shop" grinder from Menard's once, when I was 18 and poor and working on my first car. I figured "Well, even if it only lasts a couple months, I'd still have to buy 2-3 of them to get up to the price of the next best grinder"

The first time I plugged it in and turned it on I could instantly smell burning electrical. I returned it and sprung for a $35 Skil grinder. It lasted awhile until the chuck broke, and when I took it apart I found that it had broken because the damn thing was mounted in PLASTIC. Now I have a nice metal Hitachi that I got for $60 and it's lasted through about 20 cutting discs, so it's definitely a good one.

[D Picasso]

there's definitely a trick to getting Harbor Freight electrical tools to last a long time:

see that black cord coming out the bottom? avoid plugging it into a receptacle.

[Gr8ballsofir]

You'll get a grinder that's worth $9.99. I bought a $4.99 at a flea market (New in the box). I used it twice and now it's USELESS! Spend the extra $5.00 and get the top of the line $15.00 one, because you're worth it...

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Ok so now that we have established that the harbor freight one is not worth it...what do you guys suggest?? I want it to be electrical and its only for stuff every now and then..so it doesn't have to be industrial strength

[Paul]

[ QUOTE ]
Spend the extra $5.00 and get the top of the line $15.00 one, because you're worth it...


[/ QUOTE ]

HAHAHA

[burndup]

Oh, my bad, I thought th $17 on was on sale...

Unkl Ian, I agree with you, I don't like supporting red china... but sometimes, you do with their crap or do without.

Also, how do you propose to cure the mess we're in? The consumer is pushing for cheaper and cheaper prices, but that consumer refuses to work for the lousy wage required to manufacture the item at that price.

How do we fix this mess?

[MarkX]

if its for your personal use .... buy it and use the good discs..... thats what i did and i use mine at my body shop .... no problems at all

[Deuce Rails]

Just use good disks. If the motor burns out, you're only out ten bucks plus shipping. If the disk explodes, the cost may include body parts.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

[ QUOTE ]
Oh, my bad, I thought th $17 on was on sale...

Unkl Ian, I agree with you, I don't like supporting red china... but sometimes, you do with their crap or do without.

Also, how do you propose to cure the mess we're in? The consumer is pushing for cheaper and cheaper prices, but that consumer refuses to work for the lousy wage required to manufacture the item at that price.

How do we fix this mess?



[/ QUOTE ]

guys i wasn't really tryin to start a political debate here?

[Toqwik]

I bought 2 of em, 1 for cutoff, and 1 for grinding. I am a little lazy, but hell, by the time I find the wrenches to change discs, find discs, change em, step on the disc I just switched cause I was too lazy to put it back where it goes, I came out cheaper. They are about 3 years old, got some duct/electrical tape on em, but have built a few cars with em and still doing fine. Hell, you can't buy a few good discs for 9.99.....just my 2 cents

[KCMongo]

HF had a sale on em' for $7.99 before XMAS, I bought 3.

Grinding Wheel
Flap Disk
Wire Cup

The time I've saved not having to swap stuff so far has made up for the cheapness of them. They came with an extra set of brushes for when they burn up. And the guys down at HF are more than willing to trade stuff from what I've heard when they die under warrantee. And it's like $10 that's like 1/2 hour at the bar. Especially if it's just for personal use.
MONGO

[chromedRAT]

they're good for secondary use, i'd think. we got a couple of the 5 dollar jobbies to use only for wire wheel duty in the bronze foundry to save time switching. the ONE that has survived has so much wobble in the shaft that you can barely hold it. i think bronze dust is harder on electric tools for some reason, it just seems to be. our regular use grinders are metabos, and have lasted around 6 years with plenty of bronze dust in them, with regular use. HELLUVA good grinder. i don't think we've lost one yet. i have a dewalt, it seems to be pretty tough. i can fully dig the cost issue and whatnot myself on the flipside though. it's sometimes hard to buy american, or even buy good tools. i really do try though. i bought some of those sockets that break rounded off nuts loose on an impulse buy last night for the sole reason that they were made in the USA and all i seem to have is rust!

[briggs&strattonChev]

weve had a makita on the shop/farm for years and its been great

LOTS of abuse

I was at a flea market and saw $8.99 angle grinders new in box. The seller told me "if you want to use it for 4 hours total, buy this one. If you want to use it 4 hours a day, buy a makita" I agree that cheap grinding discs are a waste of time too, and potentially dangerous

"you get what you pay for" is a valuable lesson ive recently learned

[johnnylonghair]

Get a Dewalt they last forever

[Yosemite Hermit]

I got one when they were still $14. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif But it's been good so far. I'll just get another when it burns up. I'll get a real one when I can afford it.