Just as a warning of how they operate.

I purchased a Sand Blast Cabinet from them (model 45411) less than a year ago. Last week I went to order some nozzles for the gun in this cabinet. I've gone through at least a dozen of them already (as they are the biggest wear item and don't last long.) But, guess what. They told me they discontinued the nozzles for this cabinet. You can still buy the cabinet from them (DON'T) but you won't get any nozzles for it!! Plus thier attitude was that "they didn't care.")

If you need tools, go to someplace reputable.

Shroom my friend, we need to do two things here:

1 - Get a few of us to harrass them long enough to get you another pack of nozzles. I'll gladly assist.

2 - Bombard the media with this info that the company is going down the tubes right before our very eyes, and that folks that bought the kits are gonna lose big investments. I'll glasdly assist in this as well.

Give us all some focus and some targets (email, websites, mailing addresses) and we'll hammer them.

I used to buy my nozzles there too since they were the only place that carried em (even though I got the gun elsewhere). Then I got tired of replacing the nozzle every day or two so I bought a carbide nozzle online for like $30 and havent needed to replace it yet. Eastwood sells the same nozzle for like $75 or so, I think. I can try to find the place I bought it if you want me to.

Nash, Actually I sent a nasty [censored] letter to the company President. Although I don't really expect any response.

Just really getting tired of places selling products that 6-months later you can't get parts for anymore! (I could get on my soapbox here, but I won't.)

CD, Yes please. That would be helpful.

Thanks guys.

TPTools here in town makes the SkatBlast line of products and sells all the equipment and supplies for bead blast cabinets. I think I just saw an ad for 3 carbine nozzles for $99. Anyway, if you want to check them out: tptools.com

Todd

I bought a packet of a dozen nozzles from HF about a year ago but they don't fit my gun. They are cone shaped and kind of pointy at the end. I think that they might be the ones you're after. I'll see if I can find them. Send me a PM if you want them.

Thanks Todd, I'll check them out.

Dave, Those don't sound like what I need. These are just straight round steel tube about 1/2" in diameter and 1-1/2" long.

This is the one I bought, Bert, but I think I bought it from CH directly http://www.aircompressorsdirect.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=221&source=froogle

Todd,

I have to ask: Does your FGF member name TPLS69bird have anything to do with the TPTools store you refer to? Its JUST a question my friend.

CD, Right shape but doesn't give any dimensions though. I'll have to call (or ?) them to see if they might fit.
Thanks.

Nash-

Nope. tpls69brd refers to my bird being a '69 convertible. That's all. I wish that I had some association with the company. I would have an easier time acquiring tools and equipment to restore the bird.

Todd

my guess Nash ,is that it refers to a ToPLeSs69ird...

Hhmmmm.......good point Bjorn.

i have bought alot of tools at harbor freight and for the price i cant complain.go take a tour of the nearest snap on truck and you will see.

Right on the money, Bjorn!!

The prices at Harbor Freight are good, but I just have a hard time supporting foreign manufacturing. . .

Sorry to say, we would be back in the stone age right now without all the tech stuff we buy from overseas. It's a sad thing. I don't know exactly how we got there but we are 'there'. Might as well buy from the cheapest/best supplier because it's aweful easy to slap a 'made in USA' sticker on a foreign content product. Like our American(not) cars.

Actually alot of the Tech stuff things are invented in the states and they just improve on the idea.

We have a Harbor Freight store a few miles from here. It is good for things like surgical and work gloves, throw-away paint brushes, and some non-stressed tools you seldom use. I made the mistake of buying a cheap "Dremel-like" tool there this year. First, I found that the chuck has poor tolerances. Then, on my second small project I noticed a burning smell. Within seconds the thing was smoking and spitting out motor fragments. A trip to the local Home Depot and I have a real Dremel now.

They also sell DeWalt grinding wheels for $1.50, while Lowes has them for $3

They sell alot of different sanding/ grinding wheels, & disks cheap. I bought a da sander there last summer. So far so good. The best thing about that store is they'll generally take stuff back if you tear it up.

What about their floor jacks, anyone try them? I just had the seals go bad in my 2 year Craftsman model so I'm looking for a good new one. I won't be buying a Craftsman, that's for sure.

i bought one of those alumumum racing jacks from harbor freight for 79.00.so far,so good.i have a real nice heavy duty steel floor jack but i cant maneuver it around anymore cause im afraid i will reinjure my back.

I've got a couple of their jacks. Don't expect much if you buy one. The handle keeps coming out on one of them and it leaks oil constantly. On top of that, they are throw-aways (like most jacks available today) they are not made to be rebuilt.

I bought their largest alluminum jack (3 ton) two years ago, so far so good. No problems and reasonable price $99. I figure with the low prices on this stuff if it only lasts 2-3 years anything beyond that is a bonus.

I agree with both JimC and 68 firebird400.

there is a sale in town this weekend from the distributor of HF. i was also thinking of buying the blast cabinet from them. if you want me to, ill check to see if they have the nozzles you are looking for. i will however need a photo as i can only guess by a discription of what your looking for.

andy

No thanks Andy,
I got my hands on some that will work.

Also not a bad place for rechargeable batterys.

I had the same experience with the Craftsman "SUV floor jack". At around two years age and a dozen uses on the bird, it wouldn't raise or support weight and it was weaping at the pump handle piston end of the power head. I found the instruction book and visited Sears online to buy a new power head. They listed the part as costing the same price as the new jack. And then it was not available for order anyway. There was a section for customer reviews on this product and comments were all unfavorable. One owner reported one of the steel wheels it rolls on "exploded".

I took the jack apart. There was black enamel paint through the innards trapped in the power head seals. The black paint that the jack exterior was finished with was loose as hard black slivers inside the works. There was also dust or grit drawn in through the unprotected seal on the pump handle input power piston. The Harbor Feight jacks have as similar design. They don't have a rubber boot to keep dirt from being drawn inside.

Just taking my jack apart, cleaning up debris inside and assembling it brought it back to life. I cleaned the inside of the cylinder with 400 grit and jack oil. There was nothing broken or worn out. I cleaned all the o-rings with jack oil and paper towels. They weren't ruined, the were just dirty.

If you still have yours, you might be able to repair it.

i buy alot of stuff from my local harbor freight and they have stood behind the items that broke so far.for the price and the way tools get abused in my junk yard;i can't complain yet.

You have to put it into perspective. If you are going to use the tool everyday for a business, HF is probably not the place to go. But for a hobbiest, the price is great for the right parts. I too bought a blast cabinet from them. I used it for a year and the gun got all messed up. I bought a new gun from TP tools as someone mentioned earlier in the thread. Now I have quality components where they count and very inexpensive parts where they don't count. I also bought a pistol grip air die grinder for $16. It lasted 3 years and just failed last week. Dissapointing, yes, but it lasted 3 years for $16. Its all perspecitve.

That's one way to look at it, but I have a quality air compressor that is 30+ years old (replaced cylinders 4 years ago), an air impact that I've owned for over 20 years and it was used when I bought it, and sockets and wrenches that I've had for more than 20 years. I bought a lot of my "expensive" tools used and spent very little on them. The annualized cost on my air impact is about $1 a year and declining.

Early on I bought WEN and Performance Tool and other import junk and it's all been discarded for being broken or worn out. And there's little worse than having a cheap wrench round out or round off a particularly stubborn bolt when nothing but a hand tool will fit!

well vikki,those rare occasions i usually have to break out the smoke wrench or the snap on or mac tools i have stashed away where they wont get lost or stolen

I agree Vikki, for the tools I use all of the time, I have quality tools (MAC, Snap-On and some Craftsman for convienence). But for the specialized tools that I won't neccesarilly use often, the break you get in the wallet is nice.

For the tools I don't use often, I find they are often available on loan for free at the local auto parts store. Hard to beat free...

You are spot on Vikki. When I was buulding a house, I bought tools I saw the experienced contractors using. And I don't mean the day workers hanging in front of the home center. I mean framers and craftsman who did this for a living. Milwaukee red handle tools, Bostich nailers, and Emglo air stuff that I bought are still with me today. I have 80 tooth Freud carbide miter blades that can halve a cat's wisker. I paid dearly, even mail order, but I paid only once. Quality tools can last a lifetime when cared for properly. And they usually have repair support behind them instead of discarding and replacing at additional expense. I wired an entire new house using a Milwaukee 3/8" drill with augers where electricians would use a 1/2" 8 amp drill. My brother's 3/8 drill couldn't bore the first hole when he came to help out. It sat there in the wood buzzing and smoking.

You regret the price of quality tools the day you buy. You regret the price of junk every time you try to use the tool. Eventually, if you have an interest in this stuff, you'll end up owning the quality tools. That is when purchase of cheap tools first delays your ownership of what you wanted to start with. A used trades person level tool is a much better bargain than a new import piece. I now collect used stuff on eBay when I can find it instead of import stuff.

Well said!

I have a nice collection of 10" Freud blades, and as I have done a couple of professional and several personal projects requiring cordless tools, I've gotten my money's worth many times over out of my De Walt 18v kit and 24v recip. Dismantled an 1831 timberframe (cut just about every flooring, siding and toe nail with the De Walt) and the 1/2 drill made a lot of holes before the chuck started slipping, with a new chuck it's like a new drill. The batteries were going through 6-8 power cycles a day for 3 months and none failed, though a few have reduced run time after 7 or so years of such use. Also built two decks, a chicken coop, a tree house, a wooden swingset, a shed, and everything I could do with corded tools but liked the convenience of cordless. My neighbor is on his third set of cordless tools in the same amount of time, and his are only used for light duty household work. I get a laugh when he has to recharge the battery to use a tool that's been sitting in the tool chest.

Quality tools often cause less vibration and are better balanced, especially important when you use them all day.

I'm still waiting to find a nice, lightly used Metabo grinder.

Vikki, Metabo cut offs are a godsend. I use mine constantly. Its a must for fabricating. I think I picked mine up used for about $75 about 10 years ago when I was still woking as an ironworker. That's a tool that I have really made out on.

As for the blast cabinet, its a box made of sheet metal with a tapered bottom, plexiglass window, and a set of gloves. With more free time, I could have made it myself. The only functional part, the gun, did fail, but I still have less than most cabinets even after replacing it with a USA gun. I have since noticed that TP tools is selling an import cabinet with the US gun. That is pretty much what I have now. But I don't use it that often. I only use it to clean up parts before powder coating. If I planned on using it continuously, I woud have looked into a pressure cabinet instead of a siphon cabinet...and the compressor upgrade that would go with it. I don't think a tool store would loan me a blast cabinet. I did on one occasion go into a tools store and use their display shop press to press a new arbor bearing into my 1956 craftsman table saw. Got a few strange looks from other customers as I assembled the saw right there on the shop floor.

Just "testing the merchandise" for suitability, eh? Wonder when the next time you'll need to do that will be?

I have one of those old saws too, tiny little tilt table. It's on the third motor now since my grandpa assembled it from a Craftsman "kit". It's excellent for moldings (with appropriate jigs) because of the small blade/slow tip speed and the ability to take the saw to the work instead of the other way around, without compromising finish quality.

Yes, I did mean Metabo cutoff...on that deconstruction job we used it as a grinder as much or more as a cutoff. Either way, heckuva tool...

The big differences between the Metabo and a normal 4" grinder is the fact that the guard allows a 6" cut-off wheel. Also, you can flip the washer over and use the grinding wheels and flap discs. To use the cut off wheel on grinder you have to take the guard off, or use a 6" grinder which would be a beast.

I am in need of a shop press in the not too distant future, but will probably build that. Anything safety related, I will not use a cheapo tool. That's just asking for trouble. The nice thing about the table saw was that the arbor bearing was just a water pump bearing. I just ordered a replacement, had some threads cut into it and pressed the flange on the shaft and the bearing in the housing.