Harbor Freight Tools Question

Does anyone know how or where harbor freight comes up with their tool designs? My co-worker and I were talking that we think they may just be old designs from black and decker, dewalt, milwaukee, etc. that the manufactureres sold off once they came up with a new design. We thought they probably bought the molds for pennies on the dollar which was why they could see an 18volt cordless drill for 20 bucks with a battery and charger (like in the current flier). Anyone have any idea how they come up with these designs or really how cheap (as in quality) some of the electric items really are?

I'm considering this $20 drill, at worse you pitch it when you're done witha big job because you will easily get 20 bucks use out of it. I dunno, just curious what others think.

It's actually really cheap to reverse engineer tools and have them reproduced in China. I have this Harbor Freight angle grinder from Chicago Electric that I've used many times without problems.

I know several companies that reverse engineer products and just contract it out to be reproduced in china. Anything from motherboards to RCA cables.

I bought some tape measures from the traveling toll sale about two years ago. My brother in law was up on a ladder calling of measurements. After the third piece of wood I cut was a1/8 inch short He came down off the ladder. We compared tape measures and found my new tape measure was 1/8 of an inch short compared to his craftsman. I promptly threw away the five tape measures I bought from the traveling sale.

HF should be your outlet for disposable tools, cheap, work well, but not well made. Great for the price.

coolnsx said:

HF should be your outlet for disposable tools, cheap, work well, but not well made. Great for the price.

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That's how I view them, cheap and disposable.