Reparing the HF Electric Roatry Hammer

LOL -- Aaah, the dreaded curse of becoming one of the many HarborFreakin'Fools who bought HarborFreight Tools!

Bosch is excellent stuff, you won't be disappointed. My Bosch jigsaw is superb, nothing else on the market touches it in performance. It will easily cut a pencil line in half and that's on ¾"-1" boards!!

My harbor freight experience has been about half and half. Some of it was junk that fell apart the first day I used it hard while other stuff is still going after years of use. Most of my friends have had similar experiences as well.

My experineces has been mostly positive. Only a few of my tools have bitten the dust over the years. But then again, I've only used them lightly and intermittently. When they do break, there are no repair parts that can be obtained. The tools are throw away, or else put in a pile for robotics components. For the tools that get heavy usage or used in critical projects, I'll go with the quality brands.

I can attach the supplied SDS chuck and just use the tool as a heavy duty drill. Since I bought it at auction, I only paid a couple bucks.

I had an HFT jigsaw that lasted about a week, Chicago brand I think. I then went out and purchased a Dewalt jigsaw which I have used to cut 1/8" aluminum. This tool is bullet proof. After the jigsaw I bought a Dewalt corded drill, Dewalt makes great tools. I have read many good right ups on Bosch tools in woodworking mags.

But not to disparage HFT, certain tools they sell are good. Like vises, micro mill and mini lathe, I also have a HFT mini wood lathe. With a little work I got these tools working well. There mill and lathe bits are garbage though.

Mikebits said:

I had an HFT jigsaw that lasted about a week, Chicago brand I think. I then went out and purchased a Dewalt jigsaw which I have used to cut 1/8" aluminum. This tool is bullet proof. After the jigsaw I bought a Dewalt corded drill, Dewalt makes great tools. I have read many good right ups on Bosch tools in woodworking mags.

But not to disparage HFT, certain tools they sell are good. Like vises, micro mill and mini lathe, I also have a HFT mini wood lathe. With a little work I got these tools working well. There mill and lathe bits are garbage though.

Click to expand...

DeWalt is owned by Black & Decker. Many years back B&D wanted to improve their saw division and DeWalt saws was flailing about.... merger time! Since then they used the DeWalt name to bolster sales and it has worked. Many DeWalt tools are mfgd. by OWT, One World Tool a southeast Asian co. Regardless, they are quite good for reliability and sturdiness. Every tool mfgr. has it's flagship product. It's rare when a tool co. can produce a consistent line of high quality, high reliability powertools. Bosch, Porter Cable, and Milwaukee are three that live up to that fact. DeWalt has some awful performing models where the B&D Firestorm consumer line actually performs better! I own a DeWalt radial arm saw from years back. It's nearly production grade quality and with its Freud blades, cuts like a razor. My Delta floor tools are either made in Brazil or the US, and not their far east garbage models. I will admit that I bought a HFT 3/8" chuck, right angle drill. It has worked flawlessly. Then again, I use it rarely but for those sparse uses, it's handy and works well.

The one thing I like about HFT is some of the unique tools/gadgets they offer. Just last night I stopped into their store and bought a cable lubricator tool. It allows you to slip a cable like on a bicycle, lawnmower, tiller, etc. and it firmly grasps the cable housing while allowing you to force oil into it without the mess and overspray... all while the cable is still intact on the machine! No removal necessary! The price? $2.99 Even their hydraulic brake bleeder tool kit is better than the popular MityVac brand that is all plastic and has been know to break. The HFT model is all stamped metal, even the guage housing and costs $10-15 less!