Harbor Freight

[DeeVeeEight]

I have mixed feelings about shopping at Harbor Freight. I am guilty of having spent several hundred dollars there but all the stuff is made in China :crap: and distributed exclusively by Harbor Freight.
What does stuff like this do to our economy? When are we going to be more competitive with our products in the USA?

 

[big2bird]

I feel the same way. I held out for American made goods as long as I could, still seek them out, but it's getting plain hard. I buy Craftsman, Stanley, and such when possible. But, like a blast cabinet, or an engine stand, it's almost all imported now.:********:

 

[BBShark]

It is almost impossible for us to compete with (what we used to call) 3rd world countries for products that require fabrication labor. A production welder in China is basically a slave. He lives at the company commune and if he is not productive, he loses his job and his bed.

The Chinese are capitalists but they are also communists. They are about where the US was in 1850.

 

[js292]

You can't get a US employee to work for what a chino employee works for. There is no way the US fabricator could survi ve on their wages. When I was in China earlier this year, I saw most people living in conditions close to our homeless peolpe.

 

[MYBAD79]

It's not just that. I for example have asked two shops for a quote for blasting my parts and pressing the spindles into the bearing carriers.

I bought a blast cabinet and a 12T shop press for roughly $220.

Now that I'm done rebuilding these trailing arms I could just take the cabinet and the press to the curb and I still saved a lot of money over having somebody do the job for me.

I'll just keep using this stuff until it breaks (which I don't think will take long) :bump:

 

[BBShark]

When I was in China earlier this year, I saw most people living in conditions close to our homeless peolpe.

Last time I was in China, the homeless guy in the US would look like the King of China to most workers:amazed:

 

[js292]

When I was in China earlier this year, I saw most people living in conditions close to our homeless peolpe.

Last time I was in China, the homeless guy in the US would look like the King of China to most workers:amazed:

Pretty much the same, our clients told us they thought everyone in the US was rich, and seeing how they live I see how they could think that. The owner of the Plant I do business with drove a 85 Jetta, where the owner of my Plant drives a Cheyanne.:beer:

 

[010752]

Doubt if there is anything you can buy that doesn't have some of the components made in China that you aren't even aware of.

On the brighter side, they are buying American stuff too. That's why IBM sort of sold retail end to Lenovo, Too big a market to miss out on.

And our hero billionaire, Buffet, partnered with China Oil a few years ago made around 13 billion in 1 year. Wonder if any of that profit made it's way back to our shores. Worry is only for us meager folks.

At Harbor Freight, you just have to feel good about supporting the store employees with your purchases.

 

[Jsup]

How is this a bad thing? It's been going on for decades and every time the same fears are discussed.

Where's Smith Corona, the typewriter manufacturer, or the people who fix them? The only one who owns a typewriter these days is Dan Rather.

Look, capitalism spurs innovation. Mircosoft, Intel, etc....

With that innovation new advances people need to sell, support, market this stuff. How many jobs has Microsoft created? Cisco?

Capitalism invented the transistor, the Japanese took advantage of it. Capitalism invented the IC, other countries took advantage of it. Capitalism invented software, other countries took advantage of it.

As it relates to tools, I'm not that old, but old enough to use my father's tools in the garage, I remember a day where a nice set of SK tools, or Snap on, were representative of the markings. A 1/2 inch box wrench was, actually, 1/2 inch. The cheap stuff was just estimations and I'd round out nuts every time.

Today, a 1/2 inch is a 1/2 inch. Manufacturing has improved greatly. Now, I'm not saying that this stuff is the quality of Snap On, not by any stretch, but it is useable if all you do is need a tool every once in the while, or want a disposable tool you'll use once.

My question is who do you want to be? These "other countries" who take our innovation and do something with it? Or the innovators?

I don't know, I don't want an economy based on screwing the heads on Barbie dolls. I like the idea of being the world's innovators, passing it on once ubiquitous, and moving on to the next thing, is not a bad thing.

 

[mrvette]

You mention SCM......man does that bring back mammories.....


My father bought the very first small automated billing machine, it was a great fore runner of today's computers stuff.....

it had a SCM vertion of the IBM electric typewriter on it, and a reader for paper tape with holes in it...about a inch wide....then a paper puncher that would MAKE the tape....

it was used for automated billing in Dad's office for the monthly statements for the Suburban Maryland Builders Association....

which had about 500 companies in it, and then each company had people employed, which would come and go from month to month....in order for the owners who were typically older, to get decent group hospitalization rates for themselves and the family, they were required to cover a lot of the costs of their usually younger employees, and the employees typically but not always had to pay their family coverage through payroll deductions....

Very standard coverage even today for most/many companies....

Well this machine was used in playback from previous month's billings, the manilla file pulled from the cabinet, tape played, while the 3 page tractor feed billing sheets went into the automated typewriter......Dorothy would set in that room with the door closed, but did not mind as she was hard of hearing anyway, so the machine read the tape, and typed the document at super high speed....about 150 WPM.....anyway, the carriage slammed back and forth with authority.....whole thing mounted on a desk with metal legs the whole desk swayed with the motion....so when it came time for changes, Dorothy would stop the billing skip the tape over deletes, and add in new information as required....this of course all stored on the 'new tape' which was then updated the next month as required.....coming of course from the above mentioned puncher.....

ONE of the builders is probably still around up there in Wash Dc...the Carl M. Freeman Co......they took all damn day to do just that one account....



So Dorothy said one day that it was hard to follow the typewriter and get set to interrupt the thing while reading on account of the swaying table....so one of Dad's partners, Johnny, tied the table to the wall studs....

that carriage slammed back and forth about 6 times and continued on off the console, hit the wall, and punch a HOLE in the sheetrock......

the entire office had to immediately drop ALL activity and get working on that month's billing for the Builders Assn....took about 2.5 weeks to do a week's worth of work done typically by Dorothy alone.....

:lol::lol::lol:

Some years later, I heard from Dad's partners that the actual billing machine was donated to the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Science and Tech in Washington Dc, right there on the Mall Downtown, I saw it there in a display of very early office automation......this about '79 sometime.....

:smash::smash::twitch:

Just a piece of odd Sunday morning recollections for the crew.....

:lol:

 

[saudivette]

...I don't want an economy based on screwing the heads on Barbie dolls. I like the idea of being the world's innovators, passing it on once ubiquitous, and moving on to the next thing, is not a bad thing.

Ha, depends on who's helicopters you fly in...

 

[Cherry]

...I don't want an economy based on screwing the heads on Barbie dolls. I like the idea of being the world's innovators, passing it on once ubiquitous, and moving on to the next thing, is not a bad thing.

Ha, depends on who's helicopters you fly in...

The concept today,""Use it and throw it away"" :kissass: Solving that problem ""don't buy their ****"" In ten yrs there won't be anyone who knows how to turn a screw drive!
Question: why should we buy that trash, we now know the *****'s junk is junk!:banghead:

 

[TimAT]

Helicopters don't really fly anyway-they just beat the air into submission. IF you want a throwaway, look at Airbus. The first A-319's and 320's bought by a major airline are setting in the desert. Bought them in the late 90's and there's so much corrosion that it's cheaper to park them than fix them.

 

[mrvette]

Helicopters don't really fly anyway-they just beat the air into submission. IF you want a throwaway, look at Airbus. The first A-319's and 320's bought by a major airline are setting in the desert. Bought them in the late 90's and there's so much corrosion that it's cheaper to park them than fix them.

But yet our PENTAGON awarded some contract sections to that clown outfit, as against BOEING??? contract pulled and under review due to BOEING's complaints....last I heard....

wonder what happened?? they not coat the aluminum??

curious about that on the rest of the ABus fleet.....

:hissyfit:

as a matter of fact, since the planes are NWR.....why not just cut em up for the aluminum, and let BOEING make something better outta it????

 

[bobs77vet]

i like harbor freight ,some stuff is better then other stuff and just ask the UPS guy if he gets paid for delivering the stuff.....its a global economy so get use to it. there is no going back.....

 

[kwplot34]

I have never been to a Harbor Freight,pretty sure there is one in KC somewhere but i have never shopped at it.

 

[big2bird]

i like harbor freight ,some stuff is better then other stuff and just ask the UPS guy if he gets paid for delivering the stuff.....its a global economy so get use to it. there is no going back.....

I'm afraid I agree. There IS no going back. All you can do is buy the good stuff, and refuse to buy/return the crap. They'll get the message, and improve quality.
I resisted for years, but to no avail.

 

[big2bird]

I have never been to a Harbor Freight,pretty sure there is one in KC somewhere but i have never shopped at it.

Go in one Kevin. There is alot of crap, but there is some good stuff too. They also take ANYTHING back, no questions asked. Just save your receipts.

 

[kwplot34]

I have never been to a Harbor Freight,pretty sure there is one in KC somewhere but i have never shopped at it.

Go in one Kevin. There is alot of crap, but there is some good stuff too. They also take ANYTHING back, no questions asked. Just save your receipts.

I might have to go into town sometime just to check them out.

 

[mrvette]

I have never been to a Harbor Freight,pretty sure there is one in KC somewhere but i have never shopped at it.

Go in one Kevin. There is alot of crap, but there is some good stuff too. They also take ANYTHING back, no questions asked. Just save your receipts.

Got one up the street, smells like a Chinese cardboard factory....

:banghead::gurney:

 

[BRUTAL64]

I have never been to a Harbor Freight,pretty sure there is one in KC somewhere but i have never shopped at it.

Go in one Kevin. There is alot of crap, but there is some good stuff too. They also take ANYTHING back, no questions asked. Just save your receipts.

All, true. They are VERY good about returns. Everytime I go there I figure to spend $5.00 and spend $50.00. A lot of the stuff I have got there have held up pretty good. Just watch what you buy---just like any other place.:idea:

 

[bobs77vet]

they have great socket set for between 99-119 smackaroos.....its in a grey case and is both sae and metric full deep sockets and 6 point and 12 point stuff.....i have bought two of them for the kids and they are our choice when we are working onthe cars since everything is right there. i can get a part number if any one wants it. i may even buy just for me cause i like it so much.....and these would be triplicates for me.....

 

[mrvette]

I still do have my old set of Cman 12 point sockets, 1/2 drive....but I very seldom use them anymore....bolt wringers.....

there used to be a independent type HF import tool joint in Rockville years ago, and I got a set of 1/2 deep impacts from him from 7/16 through 1 1/4 must be 20 years now...still hammering....much tougher steel than the 3/8 drive 1/2 & 9/16 deep impacts from of all places SNAP ON......which I am on my second replacement set now....something must be really rong with Snap's setup there on the line....think I had my compressor on 200 psi or someting....

:suicide:

 

[clutchdust]

i guess i should chime in on this thread. anybody who knows me from the other forums probably knows my opinion on this subject.
1) the .gov of china is not our friend. i have no problem with the chinese people as i don't believe many of them have any desire but to try and make enough money to eat more than once a day. the .gov needs to go away. i *hate* communist governments because i believe they are as close to institutionalized evil as human society has constructed.
2) i don't purchase goods from china if i can afford it. and i do walk the walk. tonight i purchased inserts for my work boots and rummaged through about 8 different types and manufacturers before i paid more money to buy the ones not made in china. part of it is i know the poor MF'ers making this crap is getting paid virtually nothing to do so, then that product is sold over here for a huge profit to the importer and an equally huge profit going to *the government of china* which i find unacceptable.

 

[Fuelie74]

I buy stuff from Harbor Freight but I watch what I buy. I leaned the hard way that the steel they are making things out of in china out of isn't any good.

I bought a parts washer, missed place the recite, and found it leaked. Turned out to be one of the spot welds for a leg. So I hit it with the mig thinking easy fix. As soon as I touched it with the wire it blew a hole threw it. So I thought I would braze it. As soon as I touched the torch to it it started cracking. I ended up JB welding it and using it anyways.

 

[mrvette]

I buy stuff from Harbor Freight but I watch what I buy. I leaned the hard way that the steel they are making things out of in china out of isn't any good.

I bought a parts washer, missed place the recite, and found it leaked. Turned out to be one of the spot welds for a leg. So I hit it with the mig thinking easy fix. As soon as I touched it with the wire it blew a hole threw it. So I thought I would braze it. As soon as I touched the torch to it it started cracking. I ended up JB welding it and using it anyways.

Sounds like something my welder buddy WOULD fix for me, BUT he would BITCH like a little school gal.....:crap::crutches:

 

[Fuelie74]

Well good luck to him. The alloys were not right in the steel. Its made out of roughly 18 ga steel and it should not start spider cracking like it did when I tried to braze it.