911 and E.R.-- courtesy of Harbor Freight

With the lawsuit you'll be able to generate from the Fired Dept report, you'll be able to buy more than a new motor.

My brother had a HF 4" grinder explode and catch fire in his hands once!

 

i buy harbour freight for a moment of unpexted excitement.

 

Because it is cheap and if you need something to get a job done right now and can't afford high quality you go and buy the cheap stuff. How many times do you think guys buy something cheap and say "I only need it to get this one job done." and then continue to use it.

This thread kills me. I would guess at least 50% of the posters bitch about shitty Chinese made stuff and you should buy American and then go on to tell the story about how their cheap Chinese made tool broke.

Sorry about the hand.

 

just at sear and look at a grinder make china ,look at drill doctor make in usa,china or mexico so how do you know where it was made... How do you buy made USA.. and some snap-on tools are made in china

 

Wow, I'm really sorry you got hurt. I can't even express how I feel about the lack of regard for life and safety these foriegn fucks have. I think whomever is importing this shit needs to start being accountable. ENOUGH ALREADY!! Stop buyin this shit guys...what else needs to happen?

Remember the idea that if something seems too good to be true? Well this import tool shit is it. I'd rather stake a 4X6 timber to my garage joist, support the center with another, then sling a good old fashioned come-along up there. You know, that come-along that you coulda bought at the garage sale, made in the USA years ago, seemed pricey at $50 than huh?

 

gm is going to bankrupcy cause we all say we gonna buy american as we drive away in our toyota

 

that scares the crap out of me...
how do i know if Sears/craftsman stuff is good? or Pepboys stuff vs. harbor frieght? and orange stands? you can get those ina lot of places! oh crap how can you support your car then...
glad to hear you'll be okay, how bad was your hand? not to be gross but is the car okaytoo? and pics?

 

Glad you made sure you left yourself an out and had someone that could call 911. When I'm doing something like working under the car, besides having way too many jackstands and maybe an emergency bottle jack or something under there just in case, I keep my cellphone within reach. Ya never know. Well at least my goal is to do all that, I'm sure I don't do it as often as I ought to .

I think the last engine I put in I dindt' have the celly with me, stupid in retrospect as I was using a leveler of unknown junky origin(which means it's from only one place: The Big Red C)

Anyway man glad you're alright and a piece of that dang thing didn't hit you in the eye or something when it blew up!

I'll bet my stand/cherry picker were both from HF too, come think of it(borrowed froma pal). I'm not convinced those hoists are good for more than a few - 6 uses.

 

I'm in the market for an engine hoist, a engine stand and some new jackstands. Anyone know where I can buy good American Made ones?

 

Glad it's gonna be okay...the chinese are trying to poison us and kill us with their inferior crap...they make a nice prototype and when it goes into production they skimp and use subpar materials...take a look sometime at how much of our kids candy and our food is produced over there...all made by some guy named Sum Dum Phuc

 

so are we talkin about the jackstands with the cast head piece....they look like the ones I bought off a mactool truck 12 years ago

 

Glad you are (relatively) OK. What exactly happened that caused it to fly apart? Threads pull off of the adjusting rod, or??? Was the nut threaded on all the way?

I used one of these years ago (not sure, but it might not have been China made), and the nut that held the handle on seemed to want to thread it's way off the threaded rod in operation. Had to keep a close eye on that thing.

A few weeks ago, I dropped one in using a (china) carb plate deal direct to the hoist. Worked pretty well. If I had the coin, I'd get one of these:

http://www.myks-tools.com/anipivotaction.html

 

I think you made a very good point. Never work alone, and always have redundancy in support, even if its just a wheel laid flat jammed under the rocker panel and frame. My son got mad at me awhile back for insisting on sticking around while he put brakes on his sister's car, insisting on doing one wheel at a time and sticking the tire he took off under the rocker panel. I don't trust any single thing to hold up a car, I want to at least be able to wiggle out.

Look at your "superstud" jack stands regardless of where they are made and realize that not much more steel sear is engaging than wedging a box wrench in an old bumper jack. Not me. There will be something secondary there. A guy I knew was doing a trans swap on a Lincoln with 4 stands up and a wheel off. He was on an outdoor pad and a gust of wind blew the car off on him. His mom found him the next day. Crushed to death slow, if someone had been there to jack the car back up he would have lived, maybe a few broken ribs.

 

Harbor Frieght stuff is cheap because you need two of the same tool to do the job of one. I've twisted off two or three of the 3/8 drive breaker bar tips now - they just go all of a sudden, no warning or anything.

 

There was a thread by Weasel about a week ago telling how to identify the country of Origin by the first 3 digits of the bar code. I just did a search and can't find it.



BB

 

SEMA recently wrote that its members are now "allowed" to sell in China.
http://www.sema.org/main/semaorghome.aspx?id=60397
I had to laugh at them when I read that. I work in the medical device industry, most companies will not sell to China because when they get the products they have all of the info they need to copy it.

 

OK.then what is the BEST/SAFEST jack stand out there????

 

I have 4 HF and 4 Husky Jackstands. I use them ALL when the car is off all 4 wheels. Might sound stupid, but I ain't dead yet.

 

mine are old matco jackstands. they say made in the usa right on em as does the 2-ton floor jack

 

No, it is because of years of mismanagment, unions sucking them to death and greed. This country was a one horse town for decades, but a global economy changed that. Foreign car companies just turned out better products cheaper, this is a different case.

Hope your hand gets better!

 

Hate to hear that happened.And I have one of those!!!! Just pulled my motor out of my model a today and just used a chain.Dumb luck.

 

HOLY CRAP! Glad you still have fingers....sheet!
I have used the leveler once. Noticed it hanging up.
I went back to using the carb plate.
I tossed mine in the bottomless drawer.

 

boob?

I'm sorry but I agree that the Chinese aren't to blame. They are building stuff to specs supplied by the US companies who are wanting them.

You aren't buying parts from Fujitso Co directly from China... you are buying parts imported by Americans for Americans...

 

I use plenty of HF tools myself. I just look the stuff over really good. Especially if it's any type of structural thing.

I keep it simple though, mostly....drills, soap stone, angle grinders, etc...

Heck....I just bought a Power House Cage for weight lifting and this thing makes my backroom look like YMCA....but EVERY weld I look at on the thing makes me cringe. Mainly, because I'm a cert'd welder and know what to look for.

Same with HF.....if your buying something structural.....then I'd just gouge all the welds and re-weld. I haven't bought the HF engine hoist, but I've looked it over really good along with the ones you see at O'Reillys and AutoZone and all the welding on these things suck......Not just HF, but all of them car places.

Back to the HF angle grinders...common....I really abuse mine in a True Weld Facility and I get around 8mos out of a $16- grinder. You really can't beat that. Same with the 3/8's drill....over 1 weekend I build 22 or more forklift platforms which boils down to 176 holes I drill on them. "I'm just crushing these drills every weekend....." just can't beat the price on some of it.

Then again ....I'm single parent with cust. 2 kids and I have to go cheap when I can. There's no question. Carl Hagan

 

I drove past HF today at lunch, 15 min. out of my way to visit and patronize the local owned shop. I'm on board because of this thread. Still don't know exactly where my stuff was made, but HF won't get my $$$

 

Its hard to say with all of the mergers and outsourcing. I got mine off the Snap-on truck years ago, Walker 5 Ton . But still use something to give you wiggle room out if something breaks. Also place them at an angle so that if there is any rocking they are all working together. That's the best advice i can give. I think Walkers are made overseas now.

 

Never risk more than you can afford to lose.

 

Wow, that really sucks about your hand. Glad it's going to be OK.

I've got the HF engine hoist. I hate to buy China stuff but the reality is I can't afford an American made one. It's been great for years lifting the engines out of my Fiats. I will admit I was damn nervous and kept in mind where my feet were when I took the Nailhead I bought out of the back of my van, I just didn't trust it (I used some old chain to attach it to the hoist which I guess was US made just because it was so old).

If it wasn't for this cheap stuff there is no way I'd own an engine hoist, car rolling dollies ($80 for 4 China ones, $300 for US ones - WTF???), bead roller and so on. That's why people buy this stuff. I'd much rather do what I do in a US plant than cross the border into Mexico everyday but it's that or get some "service" job in the US.

To me, somewhere along the way American companies lost their sense of moral obligation to the people and country that made them great. China is a great power now only because of US companies cost cutting efforts. We told them what to build, showed them how and spec'd it out. I most cases, we built the plants in China for them. We shouldn't be surprized when one day they surpass us in both price and quality.

My father worked for IBM for 37 years. IBM took good care of us as I was growing up and my father was fiecely loyal to them. My mother is still set for life from that. Years ago an employee and an employer had a social contract to take care of each other. Not so today. BOTH sides got too greedy and ruined this. If you need some more examples of the total lack of corparate ethics in this country just look at our banking industry.

I do appreciate you posting that though. I will heed your warning not get under my cheapie engine hoist when I got big engines on it. It's a wake up call for sure and something we should all know anyway from looking at how this stuff is made.

I always stick big logs right beside my jackstands too. I don't trust em.

Get well soon!

 

Ouch. Bummer man, glad you're all right.

 

That sucks! I know the sick feeling of having their shit fail on you. Had a pair of jackstands fold up like a house of cards! Luckily I had just gotten out from under the car. No more of that cheap shit for heavy work.