By Joe Hindy/Jan. 23, 2024 10:30 am EST
Harbor Freight periodically releases new tools to their storefront. Sometimes, the sales and items are so good that physical buildings have problems keeping things in stock. Fortunately, you can almost always get it online and have it shipped if you prefer it that way. After all, Harbor Freight started life as a mail-order company back in the 1970s, so ordering online is right in the company’s wheelhouse. The company carries over 4,000 items, and most stores can’t hold that many things.
The latest set of new tools and items launched right around the holiday season and several since then. There were several dozen products overall ranging from glass-reinforced body filler to a 13,000-watt tri-fuel portable generator. The company dedicates a whole webpage to the occasion, but it is quite a lot to sift through. There are in-hand tools, automotive implements, generators, tool storage, and a lot more. All in all, there were about 200 new items released overall.
To help celebrate the occasion, we’ll round up some of the best tools we were able to find while scrolling through. Most of the new items are from in-house or long-time Harbor Freight brands like Central Machinery, Icon, and U.S. General. People who only shop at the bigger hardware stores may not recognize them right away, but they are Harbor Freight mainstays.
Central Machinery Media Blasting Hood
The Central Machinery Media Blasting Hood is a good place to start. Blasting hoods are useful for a variety of tasks, but mostly it’s for protecting your face from flying debris while sandblasting things. It features a window where you can see what you’re doing along with filters to prevent you from breathing in the various sand, dust, and other debris flying around your head. It’s also good for protecting your shoulders and head from other abrasives like power washing.
It features a one-way exhaust port so the air you breathe out has somewhere to go. Matching that is a ⅜-inch air regulation connection that you can use to hook up a fresh air supply if you want to. Additionally, you can replace the window lens once it gets beaten up enough. The hood is made primarily of canvas while the window is polycarbonate. It’s not the highest-end hood we’ve ever seen, but it should be right at home in a DIY setup. After all, not everyone can afford a $1,000 hood.
You can order the blasting hood from Harbor Freight for $24.99. Per Harbor Freight, it should compare favorably to blasting hoods twice its price.
Central Machinery Benchtop Abrasive Blast Cabinet
To go with your new blasting hood, here is a benchtop-abrasive blast cabinet. For the uninitiated, a blast cabinet lets you use abrasive media like glass or sand to remove paint, rust, and other such things from parts, workpieces, and other smaller items. This one is by Central Machinery, the same company that does the blasting hood, although you technically won’t need the hood for this machine. It is pre-sealed with a large window where you can see what you’re doing. The bottom has a funnel-like structure to collect the sand, glass, or whatever media you intend to use.
This one has a 30-pound capacity, and it fits right on top of most studier workbenches. There are attached gloves you put your arms in so you can hold the equipment and maneuver your media safely and comfortably. Additionally, it comes with an LED strip across the top of the cabinet which, according to reviews, is quite bright. In terms of use, it’s pretty self-explanatory: A door on the right side opens with latches. Toss in your equipment, latch it back up, and then you’re off to the races.
You can pick up the benchtop abrasive blast cabinet for $199.99, which is a pretty good deal considering how expensive these things can get.
Warrior 11 ¾-inch Flexible Extension Hex Bit Holder
Let’s take a step back from blasting things and take a look at something a little more universal. The Warrior 11 ¾-inch Flexible Extension Hex Bit Holder is essentially what the name implies. It holds hex bits and it’s flexible. You connect one end to your drill or other hex-holding apparatus. Attach a bit to the other end and you can maneuver the holder into hard-to-reach spots to screw things in or out as needed. As the name says, it’s just under a foot long, so make sure it’s long enough for your application.
The holder includes a ¼-inch hex for holding bits along with a locking, magnetic, quick-release bit holder. According to its spec sheet, it’s specifically designed to flex and hold at greater than 90-degree angles, which gives it a lot of versatility. Finally, the shaft doesn’t spin with the bit, so you can hold onto it and keep it secured while you’re doing your work. Warrior says this is designed for drills and impact drivers, so it should hold up under typical drill or impact driver use.
It’s also not too expensive. The holder clocks in at $17.99, which isn’t a bad price.
Icon Master Incherchangeable Puller Set
The Icon Master Interchangeable Puller Set is a nice set of tools if you need to pull things. It’s designed for any matter of use cases, including alternators, generators, power steering pulleys, crankshaft pulleys, timing gears, pitman arms, harmonic balancers, and more. It features a two-jaw design and is rated to pull up to 10 tons with six inches of maximum reach. There is no one-size-fits-all to puller sets, but this one is spec’d out well enough for use in most home garages or workshops.
The tool set features hardened chrome-moly steel construction along with a manganese-phosphate coating for corrosion resistance. The jaws are reversible for inside and outside pulling. All told, there are 64 total configurations that should fit most things you need to pull, including jaws, yokes, and pressure screws of varying sizes. Plus, you get a nifty carrying case for the whole thing that fits every part of the set. There aren’t a ton of reviews for it online, but the few there are praised the set for its versatility and quality.
You can pick up the puller set for $199.99. That’s not a bad deal considering that some sets go for two or even three times more than that.
Hercules 20V Brushless Cordless, ¾-inch Impact Wrench
Looking for a new impact wrench? This one might be right up your alley. It’s a ¾-inch impact wrench. For those who don’t know, the difference between an impact driver and an impact wrench is the size of the hex drive. Impact drivers are for smaller screws and usually have a ¼-inch hex drive. Impact wrenches use a larger, square drive and are designed for larger nuts and bolts. Generally, they are also more powerful since they are used for more industrial-style work.
This one comes with a variable-speed trigger so you can feather the trigger for a lighter touch. It’s spec’d for 1,650 lb-ft of torque at speeds up to 1,850 rpm. That gives plenty of bolt breakaway power. In addition, the impact wrench has auto-shutoff to prevent overrun and an auto-tighten mode to prevent overtightening. Plus, it comes with standard quality-of-life features like an LED light for better visibility and a friction ring anvil design for superior bit holding. Hercules also offers a five-year warranty for additional piece of mind.
It’s available at Harbor Freight for $199.99 for just the tool. However, Harbor Freight is running a deal where they’ll give you a five amp-hour battery for free, alleviating the need for you to buy one yourself.
Bauer 16 Gallon Wet/Dry Vacuum with Cart
Wet/Dry vacuums are universally useful tools for any homeowner, regardless of technical skill. They can clean up a variety of messes from spills in the basement to sawdust in the workshop. Bauer makes one such machine with a few extra features. It boasts a 16-gallon capacity along with a helpful cart attachment that lets you push or pull the vacuum. It doesn’t seem like a big deal until you vacuum up several gallons of liquid from somewhere and then have to drag the thing to a drain to get rid of it. Then the cart attachment makes a lot more sense.
In terms of attachments, they are plentiful. You get a wet nozzle, a utility nozzle, a crevice tool for those hard-to-reach places, two extension wands, and a dedicated floor nozzle. Like many wet/dry vacs, there is also an exhaust port where you can connect the seven-foot hose and make it blow air instead of suck in debris, adding to its versatility. Online reviews lament the size of the dust bag but generally praise the vacuum for its excellent suction power.
While there are cheaper vacuums on the market, the $139.99 price tag for this one is reasonable considering its excellent power.
U.S. General 30-inch Service Cart with Drawer
Service carts are another universal tool that would be at home in almost any garage or workshop. They store various tools, cleaners, or gadgets while being able to roll across the floor to a desired location. U.S. General makes a pretty good one that is now available for purchase. It’s a 30-inch cart that boasts 3,780 cubic inches of space between the top shelf, bottom shelf, and included drawer. On top of that, it comes in seven total colors, including gray, red, black, blue, green, orange, yellow, and white. The paint job is solid as well.
In terms of features, it’s a service cart so there’s nothing too crazy here. You get a rust-resistance powder-coat finish along with four-inch solid rubber casters. Two of those casters lock to prevent the cart from moving around. The drawer locks and there are two keys included with your purchase. Otherwise, what you see is what you get. A solid service cart that’s useful or more than just tools. One reviewer on Harbor Freight’s website uses it to hold their various sewing machines and sewing tools.
It is a tad pricey at $139.99, but it holds 350 pounds, and the color options are vibrant and fun.
Icon Professional SAE and Metric Angled Open-End Wrenches
Icon makes two sets of wrenches that are worth talking about. They are functionally identical in terms of price, features, and number of included wrenches. The only difference is that one uses metric and the other uses SAE sizes. Each set comes with seven total wrenches ranging from 10 millimeters to 17 millimeters for the metric wrenches and ⅜-inch to ¾-inch for the SAE wrenches. Each wrench has two angled heads, and the company boasts that you have four total angles to tackle the nut or bolt you’re trying to work with.
The wrenches are made from forged and hardened chrome molybdenum steel with a polished chrome finish that helps resist corrosion. Icon says that there is no size skipping, so you should have the exact wrenches you need provided they’re within range of the wrench set. Both sets also come with a tray to hold the wrenches along with a lifetime warranty from Icon. They should be strong enough to tackle even professional tasks and the angled heads do make a difference in tight spaces.
The SAE set and the metric set both cost $69.99, putting you at a cool $140 if you want to buy both of them.
Cen-tech 9-function Digital Multimeter
Much like wrenches and shop vacs, a multimeter is a good idea for any homeowner’s garage or workshop. There are myriad professional uses for one, but there are also a bunch of home uses for it as well, such as checking electrical outlets or electronics to see if they’re providing power. This one by Cen-Tech is a little basic, but sometimes basic is all you need. It comes in a noticeable blue colorway with the standard red and black cables.
The multimeter comes with an easy-to-read, 6,000-count display. It also supports up to 600 volts and up to 10,000 µF. Some multimeters can do more, but unless you’re an electrician dealing with industrial applications, 600 volts is more than enough. The device is also capable of retaining data after a test, so you don’t have to sit there holding the cables in your outlet while you struggle to find your pencil or smartphone to write down the values. Otherwise, you get all the features of a typical multimeter, including various modes to test varying types of electrical current.
This is also one of the least expensive tools on the list, clocking in at an affordable $19.99.
Braun 1,700 Lumen Multi-Purpose Zoom LED Flashlight
Last up on the list today is the Braun 1,700 Lumen Multi-Purpose Zoom LED Flashlight. It doesn’t take much to extoll the value of a good flashlight. Anything that helps you see in the dark is a welcome tool in any toolkit. This one is pretty good. It uses LED lights, so it gets brighter than a lot of other flashlights. Braun also includes a machined aluminum barrel that feels hefty in the hand. You can just as easily hit something with this flashlight, which is nice.
For features, it has a zoom function that lets you focus the light for varying distances. You can reduce the focus of the light to get a wide range of light over a short range or focus the beam and point it up to 530 feet away, according to Braun. That’s probably further than anyone will need it, but over-preparing isn’t a bad thing when it comes to flashlights. For quality-of-life features, it has a ridged collar to prevent rolling when set on a table or workbench. The flashlight can run for up to 12 hours before the batteries require changing, which is fairly reasonable for a flashlight this powerful.
The Braun flashlight costs $22.99 at Harbor Freight, which isn’t a bad price for a flashlight this powerful.
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