Harbor Freight — Local services in Paducah

One of the hardest reviews to write. I have many tools from Harbor freight. Some things are not worth the box they come in, while other tools are awesome for the money. Seems like the brands change in the electric (120 volt) tools a lot. The drill master brand sucks. I have some orange electric tools that have been used heavily and held up well. They have a new brand of coordless tools (red) that seem to be of good quality for the money. The blue ones suck. I own some of the earthquake brand air tools. All have held up well, except the 1/4 inch impact. Even brand new, there is no way it put out the power as advertised. I had horrible results with 1/2 horse electric motors. But the Honda clone engines are top notch!! I burnt up a chop saw on first cut, admittedly I was crowding it. I have had good luck with every Jack I have purchased. Don't expect them to last a lifetime with heavy home use. But great for the buck. Hand tools are also hit and miss. Great for throwing in truck, or extra set in barn/shed. I would not want to try to make a living with many tools harbor freight has. But for home useage, most are decent. ABSOLUTELY love thier purple paint guns you can buy for ten bucks. It is a copy of a older Devilbiss. I own a couple of pretty high end paint guns. Small jobs I will buy these purple guns and just throw them away instead of cleaning my good guns, I love them. I tried one of thier higher priced compressors. The electric motor failed within a few weeks of pretty heavy use. But I have a 29 gallon in the shed, that has worked to air up tires for about 4 years. Dang thing won't work when the temperature is around 25 degrees. I guess the oil in compressors gets to thick for the little noisy motor. One thing about Harbor Frieght, if something sucks and you find out soon enough, they will refund it. You also have the option of extended warranty that I have bought and used a few times. I only buy if I KNOW I will be using a lot, almost to the point of abuse. All in all harbor freight rocks, as do most of the people...

I go in there quite a bit. The advice I have read, and the advice I follow, is that if I need a tool only once or twice and may not use it again, then go ahead and buy it. Most of the corded tools will last a long time and there is no need to buy name brand unless you plan on using the tool more regularly. I have really only had a few things I thought were junk, 1) a deep c-clamp, it broke the first time I used it and the metal fractured, not bent. The metal was of a very, very poor quality, like poor cast metal, you could tell by the texture of the inside metal after the fracture. 2) drill bits, haven't thought they were all that great. Maybe if you are handy you could polish them with a diamond hone and have better luck, but not really worth the effort on smaller...

Update as of March 28th. Can you still find stuff there? Yes? Everything you want? No. I realize the import crisis and the tarifs have changes a lot of things for harbor freight. But gee whiz! Since they've done away with mail outs and the majority of all coupons (like it used to be) don't expect any bargains. You may still find one if you hunt, but most of the pricing can be rivaled most anywhere. I remember the store being crowded ALL the time. Not any more. But understand, they have changed a lot of brands and the new items even look more expensive. I guess old shoppers like me need to realize its not the the same store from the past. Either let go of what harbor freight used to be and pay more, or, do a little more online research to check prices to find...