harbor Freight Tools & Northern Tool

[Missouribound]

Both of these companies have made an impact on both business and do it yourselfers for decades with their sales and selections.
Which catalog or store do you like to browse the most and what do you look for?
I have bought items from both in the past and will most likely continue. I have also heard a lot of negative comments regarding Harbor Freight but I contend that you get what you pay for and you know up front what it is.
I haven't heard too many bad things about Northern Tool and now that one has moved into my area I may actually be able to see something BEFORE I buy it.
Any thoughts or experiences you may want to share?

 

[dlsmith]

I have bought from Northern Tool for a long time, even back when they were Northern Hydraulic. I have always had good luck with anything I purchased from them. A while back, I bought a 1/16" through 1/2" 29 piece cobalt drill bit set from them that was on sale for around $90, and it has been just what I expected, a good quality set of drills.

I have bought a lot from Harbor Freight, but about half was some type of consumable, like ty-raps, tape, sand paper or abrasive disks. I have bought a few hand tools, like metric wrenches for the toolbox I keep in my pickup, and a 4 1/2" angle grinder so I don't have to change disks all the time on my Dewalt grinder. I have given it no mercy and has held up for a couple of years now, but it is getting a little noisy, so the pinion or bevel gears are getting worn.

Like you said, I don't have any expectations of long life or superior quality when I buy from Harbor Freight, although I think they are working on the quality of their tools to try to change their image of selling only cheap Chineezium junk.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Way back when, Northern was primarily on the chainsaw and accessories business. I've bought from them in the past but not lately because I find most of their prices to be ok but ship cost put their merchandise in par with local stores.

I've become a Harbor Freight believer. You get what you pay for at HF and if you want cheap single use stuff, they have that but they also have quality stuff too.

Just bought a Bauer 20 volt Li-Ion 3/8" impact, nice tool and I use it constantly, just like the Bauer hex drive impact I have and the 4 1/2" cordless angle grinder, all good stuff. Also bought the Icon 1/2" drive torque wrench. Have a Snap-On that cost me well over 300 bucks. The Icon will be my bang around wrench but it's equal to or better in torque values than the Snap-On at 1/3 the price.

What really got me tuned into HF was their Predator engines. Had a Honda GX engine that tossed a rod. Replaced it with a 99 buck Pred and honestly, I didn't expect much. That was 5 years ago and it's still running strong (on a pressure washer), change the oil and clean the air filter once a year. That is it. Still has the original spark plug.

HF has junk, no doubt, but so does Northern but I can see what I'm buying at HF and if I have an issue (on tools), HF has a lifetime guarantee and it's not hype either. I used it already, took back a breaker bar I broke. They gave me a new one, no questions asked. Try that with Northern through thr mail.

 

[Lycomech96]

I have a HF Electric Chain saw sharpener that I broke the abrasive disc on. Could not get a replacement part through HF. I looked at Northern and found the exact part I needed for $7.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I might add for reference that last fall I bought a set of HF 1/2" drive SAE and Metric impact sockets. I was replacing the wear bar on my snowplow (held on by high strength dome head plow bolts) and broke a Snap-On impact socket and needed a new one quick so I went to the local HF and bought them.

I really reefed on the frozen nuts, used my IR 1/2" drive Thundergun impact at 175 psi, wide open. Flat out it makes almost 1300 foot pounds of torque. The snap on socket split right up the side. The HF impacts took the abuse no issue, in fact, I twisted a couple nuts right off. I was really impressed. Lifetime guarantee again but I don't see breakage as an issue.

 

[SidecarFlip]

HF isn't good for replacement parts, agreed but they are good at replacing an entire tool.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Shopped at both for decades. Bought my first pressure washer from Northern in 1990. My bro has it and it still runs great.

Both stores buy from the same factories in China. Both stores buy from outlets other than China. However, Harbor Freight, faced with higher prices, has demanded better quality, which the Chinese can produce. That is where their in-house "made-up" name brand items have come from. Hard to believe but, their low end tools have gotten even worse.

I use a half dozen grinders when I weld. It takes too long to swap between a grinding wheel, a flap disk, a cut-off wheel, or a wire wheel. Two years ago they came out with a killer lightweight grinder you could routinely pick up for $14 on sale. I have only had one of these get returned and it was a brand new one. Seems the arbor nuts were all mis-machined and the wheel wobbled and vibrated. At the urging of a friend who was seriously injured by a HF grinder a decade back, I have now bought re-man Makita grinders for under $40 (CPO Outlets) and they are very nice. I still have three or four original HF grinders from 20 years ago and they still work fine. I will swap into the Makita tools as I do more projects.

I was about to place an order from Northern for some brush grubbing tools but they had them on Amazon for a little less with free shipping. It all added up to about 80 lbs of stuff and Northern would have killed me on shipping. I bought a Polar trailer from them that I love and shipping was close to sixty bucks because it was oversize.

I like to watch that crazy Canuck on YouTube, AvE. He tears into the innards of many items today and has an engineering background that helps you understand what things are made of and what the industry standard is. You have to be able to handle a "little" salty language but his information is really good. (FYI: Skookem Jim was an Indian miner/guide in the NW territories that basically started the gold rush when he showed up in San Francisco with a couple of bags of gold. LOL... You'll hear references to "That Skookem." He's pretty funny.)

This one is on the newer HF power tools. These tools are certainly better than the HF tools of old but AvE shows you how much better in this episode. My experience is that it's better to buy a re-man name brand tool for the same price and get more robust construction. I have been buying re-man power tools for decades and have only had one tool (Bosch) with an issue. Still have it after a decade and it still runs awesomely after months of abuse by subs during my remodel. (Why don't subs have their own tools? BECAUSE THEY BREAK THEIR CHEAP TOOLS!!!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZfYF9aIO7U

 

[m.t.hands]

I've become a Harbor Freight believer. You get what you pay for at HF and if you want cheap single use stuff, they have that but they also have quality stuff too.

I had to have a demolition hammer drill pretty quickly, someone had decided they needed my Hilti worse than I did, in the past several years i have reduced the number of times i'll use one to maybe 3-5 a year/versus 3-5 weekly, so I looked at HF and knowing I had to have one that day I bought the HF (bauer??) for less than 300, really surprised that it has held up as well as it has, but I typically always use HF for single use tools like a ball joint fork or something, hard to pay 5-6x for a limited use tool, northern, as others have mentioned their quality seems slightly better than HF but as also mention you can buy just about anywhere and get comparable prices to northern

I also agree with sidecar about their impact sockets, I needed some deep well metrics, the Pittsburgh ones I got have been flawless, they are slightly "bulkier" than other offerings, but the only place I have noticed a slight inconvenience is removing aluminum wheels that have limited area around the stud/nut

the gripe about both; their adds can be very deceptive, often times HF will have the same item 2-3 different places and different prices, of course they'll have 3 different part numbers and all be different quality, and northern, I was looking at a wall mount IR heater with a 50$ coupoun, get to the store go to ring it up and it is still rings up at the price listed on unit, so I tell the guy I have a 50$ coupon, he informs me that it is already marked down 50, making it 10 dollars higher than lowes everyday price and why did I need a coupon

 

[SidecarFlip]

Interesting. I can do without the adjectives however. I've been through no less than 3 DeWalt cordless drills and many batteries (which are about 3 times the cost of the HF packs), I use the high amp hour packs (comparable to the DeWalt XR packs, 40 bucks at HF, over 100 bucks for DeWalt)

On my 4th Dewalt right now and it's getting sick but I intend to run it until the smoke comes out...lol

Also interesting is the DeWalt stuff is Chinesium as well.

My take is simply for the price of admission, DeWalt is 3 times the cost of the Bauer per tool so I can buy 3 Bauer's to one Dewalt and if they puke, HF takes them back and replaces them, no hassle.

Same applies for their hand tools like sockets.

Nothing lasts forever, including, but not limited to you and I.

Don't care for the Hercules line at all. Might be the color or the smell. I prefer red over blue.

On sockets and such, I feel I gave the impact sockets the ultimate test and they passed with flying colors whereas the Snap-On failed.

I asked one of the employees (associates) as HF about replacement if a socket puked. He said simply return it (socket) and it would be replaced on the spot. Have yet to break one and I've tried.

The one tool I really like I bought a couple years ago and that is the Pittsburgh Hydraulic 20 ton 3 jaw gear puller. I used to cuss and moan and use a lot of PBlaster or acetone and ATF getting disc brake rotors off doing brake jobs. Now I just put on a spritz of PBlaster, clamp on the hydraulic puller, give it 3 pumps or 4 and wham, the rotor comes off and it if don't, 5 pumps will split it in 2 pieces and then it comes off. Use it on Harmonic dampeners too. Great tool. 100 bucks well spent.

Nothing worse than a frozen rotor and unlike beating them off, it don't impart any shock load on the bearings.

 

[dlsmith]

I like to watch that crazy Canuck on YouTube, AvE. He tears into the innards of many items today and has an engineering background that helps you understand what things are made of and what the industry standard is. You have to be able to handle a "little" salty language but his information is really good. (FYI: Skookem Jim was an Indian miner/guide in the NW territories that basically started the gold rush when he showed up in San Francisco with a couple of bags of gold. LOL... You'll hear references to "That Skookem." He's pretty funny.)

I watch AvE all the time. The salty language isn't an issue, but he is a really smart engineer of some kind. He does seem to ramble on or rant a little excessively sometimes. From his stories, he has been all over the world troubleshooting industrial equipment problems.
I cringe when he completely disassembles a brand new power tool, and I'm surprised he gets most of them back together and they work.

There is an old Baldwin narrow gauge articulated steam engine in the northwest that has been restored, that is named Skookum. Google Skookum locomotive.

His wife must be some kind of special woman.

 

[Johnacman]

A couple of years ago my 15yr old Miller mig welder decided to give up. I ended up buying a Vulcan 215 mig welder from HF. It runs on both 120 & 240 volts. I didn't think it would weld as good as my old miller did but I was surprised. It actually welded better. The Vulcan has auto setup for
speed and amperage. It also worked very well on 120 volts which makes it more versatile. I have also bought a few of their Earthquake air impact tools that work fine.