New Harbor Freight down the Street

I'm glad that the nearest HF is 25 miles away. It's bad enough that within 5 miles from the house there are:

Lowe's - 2 of them
Home Depot - 2
Advance - 2
Autozone - 2
PepBoys - 1
NAPA - 3

I drive by HF 20 times a week, they are less than a mile from my office. Northern Tool is less than 5 minutes from the office. I can almost throw a rock and hit Lowes from my house. Tractor Supply is 10 minutes.

No wonder I'm always broke.

In all honesty though, I only stop at any of them when I need to. I haven't been in HF in over a month. I did stop by Lowes tonight; naturally, they didn't have what I was looking for.

I sell professional grade tools for a living, but I also have a HF a mile from home. If I don't have a tool I need in stock on a Sunday night, there is really only one option.

HF story: a customer was using a HF hammer at the Toyota dealership he worked at. The sucker shattered and sent shrapnel deep into his shoulder. He went to the emergency room where they took some blood. Yup, failed the drug test for the weed he had the previous weekend. Was out for two weeks on leave and came back to a pink slip.

Harbor Freight: When you absolutely positively gotta have a cheap, potentially dangerous tool RIGHT THE HELL NOW!

I do stop by HF on an average of once a month. But I try not to buy tools there. Or at least not tools that I want to continue using for years to come that could break, etc. Those major items I have bought there have been things that don't break or are simple to fix. example their bench top blast cabinet and their floor model too, and their 12 ton shop press. I usually go there to buy things like glass bead for blasting, 1X30 inch sanding belts, and other items like that that I don't call a tool in the normal sense of the word.

Enyar wrote: Side note: Your local Lowes/Home Depot may now start accepting your Harbor Freight 20% off coupon...mine does.

How do they do that? They don't sell the same brand items.

stanger_missle wrote: Be prepared to come home with 1000s of zipties and 100s of feet of heat shrink tubing and maybe a meat slicer

This forum needs a "Like" button. This had me laughing out loud. SWMBO didn't see the humour in it.

NOHOME wrote: I pray that neither a HF nor an Eastwood branch opens up withing 50 miles of my house. Buying tools is an addiction that I struggle with every day. Wish I could say I was in recovery.

You don't need a Harbor Freight, you already have Princess Auto.

In reply to DeadSkunk:

I speak from experience. The whole damn store is an impulse buy. Doubly so if you have a 20% off coupon.

Oh, I understand. There's a 20% coupon sitting on the kitchen table right now.

DeadSkunk wrote:

NOHOME wrote: I pray that neither a HF nor an Eastwood branch opens up withing 50 miles of my house. Buying tools is an addiction that I struggle with every day. Wish I could say I was in recovery.

You don't need a Harbor Freight, you already have Princess Auto.

And hence a "Problem". I don't go to Princess without adult supervision. You have seen my shop...you know I could get by with a beer fridge and a hammer...but I can't help myself.

True story, I once impulse bought a Lincoln 185 TIG welder while waiting in line to check out of the welding supply store where I went to buy gloves. I had no idea how to TIG weld, but somehow, at that moment, could not envision a future without this device.

I did the same thing again a few years later with a new Lincoln Mig welder.

We can talk about the English wheel at another session.

I mean who doesn't do this eh?