Warning: Harbor Freight hand clamps are truly terrible


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Old 12-22-09, 01:45 PM
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Warning: Harbor Freight hand clamps are truly terrible

First, I am a fan of Harbor Freight. I have made good use out of a compressor bought there, a few air tools, some other bits--oh and their huge 12" sliding compound miter saw. For me their quality and price point works pretty well.

However, PLEASE do not buy their Ratchet Bar Clamp/Spreader (black with orange) (- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices). These are truly absolute crap.

I bought two of them recently because I loved the Erwin blue clamp I bought from Lowes a few years ago and wanted some more quick-clamps. Well, I got these on sale recently for a couple bucks or three bucks/piece. I destroyed both of them almost immediately simply by clamping with one hand. They have metal lengths but pathetic little plastic handles that snap at the joint. Contrast with my Erwin I can get both hands on that bad boy and it has not failed me yet.

BTW, on the same day I bought two of their 4' long aluminum bar clamps for $8 (- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices). So far I am liking these. They appear quite strong and I have clamped down pretty tight on several bits of wood while gluing. They were cheap enough that I feel I still made out well despite throwing the money in the toilet on the junky ones.
 
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Old 12-22-09, 03:58 PM
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As always, you get what you pay for. I have some of those clamps that you seem to despise and I find they work just fine for light-to-medium- work. I have no doubt at all that I could break them fairly easily if I tried to pull a warped two-by-four straight.
 
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Old 12-22-09, 04:05 PM
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As always, you get what you pay for.
This isn't always the case. I paid something like $11 for my impact socket kit from Harbor freight, about 1/3rd or 1/4 the price of kits at home depot and it's given me nothing but faithful service, ditto on my compressor, too
 
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Old 12-22-09, 04:48 PM
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So what's your point other than some HF tools are okay and others are not? I think I paid about $10 for a punch and (cold) chisel set from HF and I would have been better off just buying some 60 penny spikes at the local lumberyard. The air hose coupler studs I bought at HF were so sloppy they didn't work in my high-quality (read expensive) coupler bodies so I took them back and got my money refunded.

On the other hand, I've purchased many other items at HF and they seem just fine for my intended use. When I first looked at the clamps you dislike I knew they weren't for any kind of hard use. Just last week I got a power miter saw and a biscuit joiner from HF. They don't look like they would last for a month in commercial usage but if they last for the couple of hundred cuts I need to make for my project I'll be happy.


Oh, I used standard hand sockets on impact wrenches for years and never broke one, that doesn't mean that impact sockets, whatever the price, are an unnecessary item.
 
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Old 12-22-09, 07:48 PM
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So what's your point other than some HF tools are okay and others are not?
I thought my point was clearly spelled out in the first post; the clamps that I'm talking about are extremely weak.

I have to disagree that these clamps are worth anything at all. Perhaps clamping foam together but if they cannot withstand the force from a single hand they are not just low duty, I think they are zero duty. If you had, for example, some glue setting and thought you were going to clamp some surfaces together and one of these broke I think you'd find it quite frustrating Just this evening I was again using my Irwin and also my aluminum HF ones, which are in fact not just a lot cheaper but a lot stronger in clamping force than the long metal one I got from lowes that require a hand twist (like a screw driver).

Anybody with experience with HF knows that some things they are extremely competitive on. Notoriously they have, for example, great compressors for the price and impact sockets. Notoriously also their battery powered tools are not great (the batteries), but as I had not read anything about their clamps I thought I'd make this post for anybody considering buying them.
 
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Old 12-23-09, 04:14 AM
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I have also experienced what Skoorb's is talking about. While I agree the clamps mentioned above are not as well made as others of the same type, I feel they have their place. I use mine to just hold pieces together while running screws. Just the other day I was Glueing up some boards and ran out of clamps. I turned to the Harbor freight ones and started clamping. Well you can guess what happened. When adding too much pressure the clamp started to twist and almost break.

Complete junk? Nah, but can they can do $3 worth of work.
 
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Old 12-23-09, 04:51 AM
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I've been buying tools from HF for the last 25 yrs. Overall I've been very satisfied. 95% of what I've bought has worked great.............. but you have to use your head for more than a spacer for your ears. While they sell a lot of decent tools, they also sell some junk Carefully examination of the tool and it's specs should give you a good indication of how well it will preform.

My 1st cordless drill came from HF, it worked great but had a cheap charger. I'm sure it would still be usable IF you could buy a replacement battery.
 
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Old 12-23-09, 05:06 PM
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Didn't you try them in the store? I did, and that's why I haven't bought any.
The things are in the open, you can pick them up, and try them. The whole thing is your own fault.
Go to Home Depot and get a set of 8 Irwins for $25, or, try the MIT brand at ACO.
 
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Old 12-23-09, 05:19 PM
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I must have been lucky. The clamps I have work just fine for their intended uses. I recently used a pair to clamp a backer piece of 2x4 to a piece of plywood so I could drill a 1 inch hole through the plywood. Darn thing clamped so tight I almost thought I was going to destroy the clamp getting it off.

Now would I use this clamp to help me form steam-bent frames for a boat hull? No way!
 
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Old 12-23-09, 05:35 PM
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Originally Posted by StrippedScrew
Didn't you try them in the store? I did, and that's why I haven't bought any.
The things are in the open, you can pick them up, and try them. The whole thing is your own fault.
Go to Home Depot and get a set of 8 Irwins for $25, or, try the MIT brand at ACO.
Well heck this is like blaming me for buying a car and not testing the gas cap and when I get home and pop the gas cap the car explodes. Certain things I just assume to work.

I would love to get 8 irwins for $25 but I certainly haven't seen that kind of price anywhere!
 
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Old 12-23-09, 06:26 PM
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Wish we had a HF here but we have a similar chain that sells nearly the same stuff.
I have been buying quite a bit of these type of import tools and as said you need to put them in their place.

They allow you to accumulate a very large collection of sometimes seldom used tools for a very small price.
You need to appreciate the use they are designed for and not try to extract $28.00 of quality from a $3.00 clamp.
If you need to exert this much force then you should be spending the $28.00 and if you can not afford it then find another way.

My grampa use to clamp mutliple boards with a jig set-up using pins and wedges that he made from scrap wood.

I have about 24 clamps likely the same type you have and when I need extra force I supplement them with a couple of bar clamps.
You need to lower your expectations when you only pay a small dollar for a tool.
 
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Old 12-23-09, 06:55 PM
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Originally Posted by Skoorb
Well heck this is like blaming me for buying a car and not testing the gas cap and when I get home and pop the gas cap the car explodes. Certain things I just assume to work.
No. It's more like buying a car without test driving it first.
 
 

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