Harbor freight Mig wire...stay away!

[youngnstudly]

I like to shop at Harbor Freight and they do have some excellent tools. Not everything is worth it though.

I don't know that I would ever use the term "Excellent" when talking about Harbor Freight, but "less junky" might be somewhat accurate. I notice that a lot of their tools and items are of similar quality to the "Made in China" items that Lowe's and Home Depot sell (for more money). I use 2 of the "wire wipers" on my dad's Miller after having trouble with the weld quality on one particular roll of name brand wire from the LWS. It too had some sort of light coating on the wire which was giving me "fits."

I have to say that I am happy with the aluminum floor jack and jack stands that I have from HF. None of the casters from them have given me issues either, so I suppose you're right about them having some decent products. I still hate them and what they stand for, but it's not like there are that many places selling tools and supplies which say "Made in America" on them anyways. More of the "good China" versus "bad China" debate.

I like your press modification! That should really come in handy and seems like a nice upgrade over the non-modified version. I've been thinking of how handy a (smaller) press would be. It always seems like I need to press something apart, or together.

[Steve]

I like your press modification! That should really come in handy and seems like a nice upgrade over the non-modified version. I've been thinking of how handy a (smaller) press would be. It always seems like I need to press something apart, or together.

Thanks. The air hydraulic jack really changed the personality of the press from being a pain in the butt to use to looking forward to the next project so I can use it! I've been squashing things for the past few hours just to see what it can do. It will flatten a penny pretty good and will break apart a bowling ball. Alkaline batteries squash to almost dime thickness. I even made some orange juice with it this morning. I took a stainless steel bowl and put a plate on the pressure pin and it squashed the daylights out of a few oranges. It was good! Going to build a can and oil filter squasher. That will make my run to the metal recycle folks easier.

I bought this to bend some metal for an enclosed motorcycle I am going to build. Got a Swag Offroad press brake coming soon. I too also have things that needed to be either pressed together or apart and it never fails because usually I need it done when the local auto parts store is closed.

I had an older press and it sure got its use. But the air hydraulic jack makes using this one a whole lot of fun.