Harbor Freight

Dual rock tumbler worked fine for me. 100 pieces 9mm and a pound of pins. Lots of advice in reviews on how to tune the shaft and keep it oiled.

Also bought a vice for working on rifles.

Garbage Freight aka Harbor Freight is a mixed bag.

You have to be very careful what you buy there. That said, their quality has improved over the years.

If you look at the calipers that’s the reloading companies sell they’re the same Chinese ones as HF. I have a couple of pairs of HF ones that I use. They work fine.

just use the HF 20% off coupon and you’ll be fine.

Other items I’m not sure about but many brands use the same suppliers sometimes like the calipers you can tell, other times you can’t.

I have purchased a lot of digital calipers over the years---they go bad I get another $10 coupon & am back in business

Unless you want to spend the money for a good set of calipers from Brown and Sharpe, Mitutoyo, or Starrett then the Harbor Freight calipers will get the job done. I have used plenty of mechanics hand tools from HB over the years without much issues. Now some of their electric tools aren't all that great. It all depends on what you get and how hard you are going to use the tools.

I`ve bought stuff at HF. To be fair, not all stuff fell apart or broke . A lesson learned. Money not well spent.

Dual rock tumbler still going strong, for $25 and $5 for extra belts and it’s more than paid for itself in cleaning brass.

I have used a lot of their tools. You get what you pay for. Most of their stuff is cheap, it works but usually doesn't last long.
I buy mostly things I will only need to work one time & then I won't care if they break.
I have been surprised about their drill presses. I bought the little 8" press & a cross slide vice to do the AR lower 80% build. I have done about 20 now & the only thing that needed replacement was the drive belt. I originally bought it to do the drilling on an AK build & it handled that like a champ.

I’d agree you can’t find a better drill press for $70

I have a drill press, and 20 ton press from HF, and they work well enough.

I’d be very very hesitant to purchase anything from them requiring real precision.

But then again, rcmodel said their calipers were good to go!

Much of the stuff sold by HF is the exact same equipment sold by more established brands, minus the sticker. Delta Tool is a great example of this.

Their ultra sonic is one I wish I had bought years ago instead of the Hornady I got. I haven't heard anything bad about it.

Tumblers are fine, but the dual drum NEEDS upgraded drive belts. Look up harbor freight tumbler belts on Amazon, there's a seller called RTumbler who sells a 5 pack of good belts for under $10.

The 0-1" digital micrometer is VERY accurate if you want to measure to the 4th decimal place to see what the true size of bullets are. The calipers... I would get a dial caliper and skip the digital ones.

Skip the digital scales, get a Lee beam scale.

There’s some things that are good enough, and there’s some things that are trash. Very few things from there are truly good.

I have a dry media tumbler and have used it for 10 years or so and I have nothing negative to say about it that I wouldn’t say about all of its competitors. Yeah it’s loud, they all are. Yeah it’s dusty, nature of the beast.

Calipers are comparable to my better calipers. I have mitutoyo from work and cheap junk for home. I got a Hornady set of digital calipers and a polymer Lyman dial caliper in a bench buy a few years ago. All of them check out OK on the 1-2-3 block my quality dept uses to calibrate the work scales.

AK Hunter said:

I bought the little 8" press & a cross slide vice to do the AR lower 80% build.

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I did the same. I didn’t really care for the cross slide vice until I did major work tightening mine up and trying it. It’s a rough casting and it needed polished. The drill press has been replaced now with a 15” swing arm Clausing with a 1 horse motor that handles up to 5/8 shank. I am actually milling on that unit, the HF unit would never be rigid enough for what my big drill does, but i AM going to repurpose the HF drill into a baby lathe. It’s a winter project.

I buy my walnut tumbling media from Harbor Freight. 25 pound box for 25 bucks with a coupon. Works good & fast hdbiker

The general rule is never buy a tool from HF for an application where it could kill you if it breaks. I have a couple of the cheap digital calipers and a 0-1” micrometer from them that are accurate enough for my needs. If I get a measurement of .308 off a 30 caliber jacketed bullet from a known maker then they are accurate enough for my reloading needs.

I bought a couple of their Pelican-style gun cases and like them.

I’ll buy tarps and clamps at HF, but anything there is a real crap shoot... with the odds tilted in favor of crap.

Good luck getting started. It is a bit pricy to get into in on day one, but it pays off in the long run .

Stay safe.

Most of the stuff I have bought there are pretty good deals. Mostly hand tools, tarps, rope, boxes of cheap fasteners, grommet tools, etc.

For reasons that escape me, people will try and compare grade 5 bolts to the cheap boxes of nuts and bolts HF sells and then complain about the quality. Of course they are a lesser quality than an expensive fastener but the vast majority of the time the cheap one works just fine.

Same with their tools. Most of their hand tools are just fine for everyday use. They come with a lifetime warranty in most cases anyway. To be candid, I have had more craftsman tool problems than HF.

The electric corded and battery powered tools have not been up to snuff though until recently. Their recent battery tool lines are every bit as good as upper grade consumer lines like ryobi.

Want a real bargain? Look into their tool carts.

I’ve had no issues with HF tools. I’ve never used any of it for reloading but I’ve used them for other things without complaint.

I started out many moons ago with a plastic Lyman caliper, and I lived to tell the tale. As you advance, you'll know when it's time to upgrade.

HF is China-made cheap stuff all the way. Look at flea markets or Craig's List. I found a calibrated Mitutoyo caliber for $5 at a flea market - top quality

The double drums wet tumbler works great and i dont even use Stainless steel media I just run the cases with hot water dawn x4 and about 3/4 of a 9mm case of lemy shine per drum. I’m fairly new to this as well but im very happy with the results.

here’s a batch just out of the tumbler

Cheap digital calipers are like cheap digital scales and about as accurate. + or - something for accuracy and they aren't going to last.
I use cheaper dial calipers at home, the kind with covered racks to keep the dirt out. They last forever.
I use Mitutoyo's for digital calipers at work and cheaper dial calipers at home for reloading, I know what I have with them. Some of my cheaper dial calipers are 15-20 years old and still work just fine.

I have a magnifying lamp from HF that I use all the time and it works very well. Have digital calipers from them and they are ok. bought various tools from them over the years and have had pretty good luck overall.