harbour frieght rotary?

It is worth every penny .... and not one penny more. As usual you get what you pay for.



I have used one and found it to be underpowered and no speed control to keep rotation constant under varying loads.



Some have used and claimed they were fine for their purposes. Personally, for auto detailing I would spend the money and get a quality machine.



Just my 2 cents.
 
I pretty new still, but I haven't had any trouble with mine. Speed control works great. I wastched a Mothers Car Show series on ESPN last week. In a how to spot in a Mothers garage, they had a guy in the background of a shot using the same one.
 
jjstwuk said:
I pretty new still, but I haven't had any trouble with mine. Speed control works great. I wastched a Mothers Car Show series on ESPN last week. In a how to spot in a Mothers garage, they had a guy in the background of a shot using the same one.
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I somehow doubt that, it was probably a de-walt... same color. I have one, its fine for hobby detailing but you may need to follow with a pc anyway so don't look at it as a money saving option.
 
I did see a pic of there detail cart it looked worth the $$$ ..for tools i would stay with a better line..
 
I've got one. I've only used it once. I would say it's fine if you only want to use it for some occasional nasty items a PC can't tackle and are a non-professional. Go with a better brand if you want to use it alot.
 
its a piece of junk......bogs down under pressure, sporadic speed spikes, and over all sucks!!! IMO



i got a hitachi now and it feels better built, performs 100 times better, and is easier to control, no speed spikes.....
 
I used several all summer long when I detailed boats with my buddy. I would never use one on a car because they are not a quality machine. Anytime you have the pad on the surface, it bogs down so as the speed would say 1500 rpm, I may only realistically be going 1000. Also this machine is just very cheap (hence the price) which is why my boss this summer while I detailed boats had to keep buying them. So bottom line is if your looking to do rotary work on a regular basis, this is not your machine. Save up and buy a Makita; You will not be disappointed.



Greg
 
yakky said:
I somehow doubt that, it was probably a de-walt... same color.
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You may need to have your eyes checked, the Dewalt is bright yellow, the Horrible Fright polisher is black & orange. I have both, the Dewalt for buffing out new paint & the HF for grinding old paint off using some fairly nasty looking 3M pads that are capable of sdtripping an entire car with 2 discs to bare metal in a morning.....
 
steveo as everyone mention it bogs under pressure another thing i didnt like is it doesnt state the number(1-6) to speed(600-3000)no chart



but the Hf rotary you might consider is this http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/itemdisplay/displayItem.do ( it wont show up so on the item search feature type in "56407" )this one is more powerful and wont bog down, but the downside is it been discountuned



if your interested i have one like new im selling pm if intrested, reason is i came up on a Hitachi, so i have no use for it.....



another high speed you can consider is Vector there a thread on it but i have never used it ....
 
Why any service business will not invest in good equipment is equall to building a reputation for failure in one way or another.



Bob Geco
 
It has to do with return on investment. A $250 machine will LAST longer than a $30 to $50 dollar machine BUT you could keep 5 or more employees working with cheap CE units and maybe have enough money to have one or two spare units. Compared to having only one really good name brand rotary and hoping it doesn't break.



Derrick
 
Zrex61 said:
You may need to have your eyes checked, the Dewalt is bright yellow, the Horrible Fright polisher is black & orange. I have both, the Dewalt for buffing out new paint & the HF for grinding old paint off using some fairly nasty looking 3M pads that are capable of sdtripping an entire car with 2 discs to bare metal in a morning.....
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That's funny... mine has no black on it except the handle and its more yellow than orange. I guess if you want to split hairs one is more orangey than the other, but you know TV does change colors when you have mega bright lights on? Kinda why people wear makeup on TV. Want me to email Craig, the Mother's guy and ask him what he uses?
 
Derrick said:
It has to do with return on investment. A $250 machine will LAST longer than a $30 to $50 dollar machine BUT you could keep 5 or more employees working with cheap CE units and maybe have enough money to have one or two spare units. Compared to having only one really good name brand rotary and hoping it doesn't break.



Derrick
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Having 5 machines that don't do the job properly because they don't maintain the correct speed to do the job properly just means you wasted your money 5 times instead of only once.



I have never regretted spending more to get a quality tool that works correctly and efficiently. Unfortunately, I have more than once made the mistake of buying a piece of junk, only to eventually buy the proper tool later. The difference was I ended up spending more in the long run because I had to buy 2 tools instead of just paying for the proper tool the first time.



Just my $.02. To each his own.
 
Pep Boys also has one on sale now for $50, I didn't look at it though as I am quite happy with the Hitachi..



I think the Pep Boys unit was made by Vector or something like that.. :nixweiss
 
From everything I've read here, the only cheap <$100 rotary worth bothering with is the Vector. I'm thinking of picking up one of those.
 
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