feeding the metric sharks is an important part of ecosystem building
2 Likes
Never heard of them. Is HF a Pittsburgh thing?
1 Like
I have been through many tape measures in my career. This is my current favorite.
The clip is excellent, and the tape is durable.
6 Likes
California based but Pittsburgh is one of the brands of tools they wholesale.
5 Likes
(Which are all made in China, not Pennsylvania, of course.)
6 Likes
That looks like some combination of an i-device and a Transformer.
5 Likes
When possible I like to buy used tools at yard sales or off of sites like Offer Up, as older tools are often better built and used is usually cheaper. But there are some exceptions where you just can’t find used tools at a reasonable price and the cost of high quality new ones is exorbitant.
One example is a wood turning lathe that I got for my son. Nice ones run into the thousands, and I wasn’t going to drop that much for something that my kid was mostly using for occasional home projects. The $400 one they sell works just fine for what he does and is still cheaper than any decent used ones that we could find.
Another example was an anvil that I got for my other son. High quality anvils, new or used, typically cost over $1000, or at least in the high hundreds. So we settled for the cheapo hunk of cast iron from Harbor Freight.
5 Likes
They have a lot of really decent tools. I have a very diverse ecology of tools in the shop - everything from Vessel to Milwaukee to Bosch to Ryobi to Harbor Freight. Their stuff can be terrible and it can be very very good. To claim they have nothing worth owning is not in the least accurate.
7 Likes
:: cracks knuckles ::
Firstly:
Yes, ALL metal tape measures will cheerfully slice you open if you keep your sausages on the tape while it’s moving. Keep your appendages away from the fast moving tape! (Also, I like the “lever lock” style better, because there’s no plastic nubbie to manipulate right next to control the retraction speed of said tape that your finger can slide off of and get cut by said tape. )
Secondly:
I’ve bought crap tools at harbor freight; the combination bench top belt and disc sander was not constructed properly, so the belt portion of it had a bit of lean to it which the tracking adjuster mostly was able to correct out of. Had a good time dismantling that thing for the motor, electricals, and bearings once I replaced it with a nicer one, so it didn’t add a lot to the landfill. I’ve also bought reasonably decent tools there as well; I have a Bauer branded battery powered drill which I haven’t killed yet, and not for lack of trying.
:: hands you a coke for summarizing a five paragraph ramble of mine to two sentences. :: 
6 Likes
“If your life or your job depends on it, don’t buy it from Harbor Freight”
3 Likes
They are my go-to source for chip brushes, tarps and disposable vinyl gloves so that tracks.
7 Likes
Measure twice, cut once?
10 Likes
My old man, who grew up during the Great Depression, always advised me to buy the 2nd cheapest tool. He figured the cheapest cut corners to beat out everyone else, and the 2nd cheapest was more likely to be durable.
He was dismayed back in the day when I bought a MacBook Pro (but it did last 10 years).
7 Likes
Their medium end batteries are decent for cheapo devices and I got a copy of Pocket Ref from them. That being said you have to be super careful of what you buy there if it’s mechanical
3 Likes
ahh! for high fidelity playback of industrial hard core.
needs to come in gold - for purity of audio signal, you know.
gold pneumatic/ audio combo or it’s just Harbor Freight knock-off.
ymmv.
5 Likes
Suddenly, the phase “blow it out your ear!” takes on a new meaning…
5 Likes
In Surely You’re Joking Feynman tells a tape measure story from Los Alamos. Feynman retracts the tape measure, hurts himself, complains to Fermi who’s passing by. Fermi says, you should do it like I do, and demonstrates, not hurting himself.
Feynman spends a couple of days trying to replicate Fermi’s trick, unsuccessfully. Eventually he gives up and asks Fermi how to do it without hurting himself. Fermi says, of course I hurt myself. With a moment’s quick thinking, Fermi has managed to get Feynman to spend days hurting his thumb.
15 Likes
“Harbor Freight” was used as a pejorative at my first employer among the lab mechs, whether or not a tool or device came from HF.
ex: “Oh. It’s a Harbor Freight.”
2 Likes
Even at 10% smaller (to bring it closer to what I’d say is actual size on my screen) the hook at the end looks very substantial.
1 Like
