[TheForge] HF vs PA

[Bruce Freeman]

I think I may have walked into a Princess Auto one time in Quebec,
many years ago, thinking it was an auto parts store.  I was probably
after a quart of oil for my poor old car.  So I don't really know that
side of the comparison.

However, Harbor Freight seems to me to have few consumables (mainly
bits, blades, some electrical hardware like spade lugs and heat-shrink
tubing), and some of their consumables are crap (like hose clamps that
can't clamp down on a hose without breaking).  "Use at home and don't
throw away too quickly" power tools (professionals may feel
differently).  I can't speak for the hydraulics, of which the seem to
have only jacks and a few other things.  Few anvil shaped objects,
mostly <50#.

Bits and blades seem mostly good, tho I've heard bad reports about
some of their diamond blades.  Wrenches and screwdrivers no longer
bend or twist when you use them -- the Chinese are shipping us back
our own steel these days.  (I've got worse socket wrenches from a
regular, All American auto parts store in MD!)  They have a killer
little digital multimeter, No. 90899, completer with battery, diode,
AND transistor checker, and  this month's AARP Bulletin gives you a
coupon for a free one.  (Get it!)

And their electric flyswatters rock!

On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 2:21 AM, Mike Spencer <mspencer at tallships.ca> wrote:
>
<snip>

>
> [2] Similar, I think, to that Harbor Fright place y'all in the USA go
>    to.  Good consumables, use-and-throw-away power tools, high
>    quality hydraulics, anvil-shaped objects -- a very mixed bag with
>    many good bargains.
>
> --
> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~.
>                                                           /V\
> mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^
>
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-- 
Bruce
NJ