Hot Rods You get what you pay for !

LUCKYTHIRTEENAGOGO Like you said about H.F. Its hit or miss. I learned my lesson. I read the reviews on the tool before I buy them there.My log splitter from H.F is going on its 4 th year here and I do split a lot of wood up here. Here it is.Its a little more worn looking after 4 years though. LOL. Bruce.

 

Tinkers damn = Fiddlers fuck.
Old guy vernacular for "worthless".
Up here we have Princess Auto, similar to Harbour Freight, I think.
A place to get any shop tool or knick knack that you could think of or need.
Even a lot of stuff you don't need, more like impulse buys.
It is truly hard to go to this place & not buy something.
Kind of like a Cabelas if you are a sportsman or Home Depot if you play with wood.
You can get tools cheap but they aren't worth a fiddlers fuck, for the most part.
They are designed for one or two uses then put on a shelf & forgotten about.
They are designed for the backyard mechanic.
A professional mechanic would chew these tools up quickly.
Their warranty is good & they will replace the defective tool with little or no questions asked,
but it's a pain in the ass to have to run back & forth.
Good tools are expensive.
I work with HD mechanics that have 30-40K + invested in their tool boxes.
Remember, you get what you pay for!

 

I know we all do this , me included . Tighten lugs with out a torque wrench . When ever I get a new set of tires that I don’t put the wheels on myself I be sure I watch to see lugs are set with a torque wrench , if not I don’t pay until they are . I also do the dreaded anti seize on the stud threads . Threads only not the nut seating surface . I know this comment will set the H.A.M.B. ablaze with comments . But I always use anti seize on all threads that do not require to be sealed


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Been a professional mechanic for almost 40 years, when it comes to tools I have learned, quality is value at any price-cheap is just cheap.

 

That kind of stuff needs to be done with care and understanding.
@Truck64 said in another thread "one guy shits his pants and everyone needs to wear diapers" and that puts this in a nut shell. There's lots to unpack there in that statement.

 

I use never-seize on lug nuts, better to have that than to have one gall. I do the threads only. Some shops use those torque sticks... but they are motherin' tight. I get home, crack them loose and torque them to 90-100 FT LBS.

 

"
I bought an IR231 impact in 1982, it was the first air tool I bought. I bought a new one two years ago and use that one as a backup now. Over the 30 odd years I had to replace a couple of trigger springs and one anvil. When I bought it I was very bothered by how expensive it was (+/- $125) but I needed it for work. I'm pretty much over the sticker shock now and it and most of my other "expensive" tools have paid me not cost me over the years"

I also bought the best Igersoll Rand 1/2" impact but it was about 1990. Specs say it makes 1000#s to remove a bolt....750# to put it back on. I bought it after buying a CP impact every 2 years, working as a heavy equipt mechanic. Man! The I.R. is an animal! WE used 3/8" fittings on all our air tools because that what the shop air hoses were. I'm retired but still use this monster at home...love it and it's never broken since I've owned it.
Conversly, I bought a used Snap On 1/2" for back up and it's ---maybe 1/2 as powerful as my I.R. wrench. I think C.P. makes the snap-on.

 

Wow; you're lucky that pawn shops in PNW sell stuff at reasonable prices. I don't go to them around here any more 'cause everything I've ever looked at here was priced about equal to what the same thing would cost brand new.

OK; now back to your regularly scheduled program...

 

I buy quite a bit from the local shop. When my cassette player in the garage crapped out, they had a cool Sony that plays 5 tapes in a carrousel, 45 bucks. Works like a charm. I also bought my Glock model 16 from them. You might say I'm a regular customer. A lot of mechanics pawn their tools and the shops only buy the good stuff so they can resell it. Remember it is a pawn shop, don't pay asking price.

 

I've got an earlier model of these impressive stout and quite https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200400363_200400363?cm_mmc=Google-pla&utm_source=Google_PLA&utm_medium=Air Tools + Compressors > Air Impact Wrenches&utm_campaign=NitroCat&utm_content=100107&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIppXpl4nY2AIVFIezCh0-kAP5EAYYASABEgIsBfD_BwE

 

Air impact= Ingersol Rand or Air Cat

 

They are at, or above dealer retail here. I have tried negotiating, but have waked out with nothing.

I can beat local pawn shop prices on Craigslist, or eBay.

 

Yeah, the local pawn shops near me are all like that. I'm not going to pay near-new price for used stuff. The only time I had any success at one was the place that had a first-series Bose 901 EQ for sale at $200, they sat on it for over a year before finally taking my $50 offer and still acted pissed that it sold for that.

 

I laugh when people say "you get what you pay for" . I can stop at Wally World and buy a can of Pepsi for $.50 drive down the road a block and buy the same thing at a Wallgreens for $1.25 .Does that mean the $1.25 one is better ? , Nope, it just means it cost more ,nothing else. Oil the same way ,prices vary greatly for the exact same brand ,size and weight .

When I hear that "you get what you pay for " bull ,I just think that is something they say when they know they paid too much and are afraid to admit it . If you get something from Harbor Freight that doesn't suit you ,for Christs sake take it back.

 

My harbor freight impact wrench and die grinder are still kicking after 25 years. I got more than I expected

 

First of all it is "tinkerers dam" A tinkerer was a person that traveled from community to community fixing things for people. One of their specialties was repairing cast iron cooking utensils, often a pouring spout would get broken off a iron tea kettle or a handle off a dipper, etc. The tinkerer carried the materials to make rudimentary cast pieces using the thermite process. He would make a small mold on whatever need repair out of fire clay, pack in the thermite and light it up. It didn't pay to stick around until the casting had cooled so he left the mold attached to the utensil with instructions as to how to remove the mold material. (also known as a dam) A burned up dam wasn't worth much!

 

It is interesting to see people comparing HF stuff with Snap On etc. An increasing amount of the "good" tools from Snap On, Mac, Matco etc are being made off shore now and one of the glaring examples are tool boxes. Check out the 4/5 drawer roll around boxes and tell me that they are not the same piece. I have Mac, Matco and HF boxes in my shop and HF's General series is the equal of the so called pro stuff. In a lot of cases the higher cost of the tool truck stuff is more related to the need for the franchised truck operator to make a buck than any inherent quality variation.
That said, I don't have any HF wrenches etc in my shop, just Mac stuff that I purchased for pennies on the dollar when Prudhomme and Bernstein shut down their race teams here in Brownsburg.

Roo

 

Some things my neighborhood grocery store sells are good. Some are not.

 

I buy their cheap grinders usually on sale for around $15 and consider them throw away tools. Most of the time I use them for cutting metal with the thin cutoff wheel and they hold up pretty well. I just got done cutting the ends off of 5 pieces 8x8 " square tubbing 1/4" thick with no problem. When they break, I usually have a spare to replace it. My biggest complaint with their electrical tools is the cheap cord which is stiff and doesn't bend easily like the higher priced ones.

 

Reminded me of the Auto wrecker near me that had a 60 Cadillac hardtop in his yard and it had red tuck and roll interior. I had a 67 at the time and asked to buy the interior. I offered $400 and he insisted on $1000. I didn't buy the interior and sold the car a few years later. A few years after that, I drove by and saw the Cadillac on top of the crushed car pile with the red tuck and roll still inside.

 

JoeCool said"I laugh when people say "you get what you pay for" . I can stop at Wally World and buy a can of Pepsi for $.50 drive down the road a block and buy the same thing at a Wallgreens for $1.25 .Does that mean the $1.25 one is better ? , Nope, it just means it cost more ,nothing else. Oil the same way ,prices vary greatly for the exact same brand ,size and weight ."
When I buy a pop or even oil it's a consumable not a investment,which is what a tool is.When it's gone or needs changing it's gone forever.That's not even what we are talking about. BTW,my nearest Wally World is a 30 mile round trip while Walgreens is a 1/2 mile away.I'll pay the $1.25

"When I hear that "you get what you pay for " bull ,I just think that is something they say when they know they paid too much and are afraid to admit it . If you get something from Harbor Freight that doesn't suit you ,for Christs sake take it back."
Thanks for reminding me to never buy anything from anyone with that attitude.If using crap tools is good enough I would expect the work done to be just good enough.Another BTW,nearest Harbor Freight is a 48 mile round trip.Yeahhhh nothing I enjoy more that wasting more time and gas to return a item.Time is money and by my calculator those hours and gas would be best spent buying a quality tool ONCE.

 

That is why HF and the other vendors are both in business, they both get enough business from people that are satisfied with what they buy depending on their personal opinions of whether they want/need to spend the money on the higher priced tools!

 

In the Practical Dictionary of Mechanics of 1877, Edward Knight gives this definition: "Tinker's-dam: a wall of dough raised around a place which a plumber desires to flood with a coat of solder. The material can be but once used; being consequently thrown away as worthless".

 

So There.....

 

Yep, so there it is...an obscure piece of trivia that likely you will share only ONCE then simply toss away.....basically like a Timker's dam! Lol

Sent from my SM-G930V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app