myself included sometimes misses the power of the iterative process
by that i mean and refer to making and selling things and improving on past designs and past mistakes and making the quality go up
i avoided hf for years and years as the stuff used to be dangerous
but over time and by feedback from customers they have improved upon the quality
due to their business model they gone slower than some it is also due to the regulatory body that can enforce safety
compare tools to cars to airplanes to jet engines to rocket engines for example
look at an old car and that straight steering column point right at the driver
not trying to sell hf stuff but some of it is completely suitable for the job and the price removes a lot of the risk and far as i know they let you return stuff i usually will not bother unless it is a high priced tool
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Some stuff is still a crap shoot. I went through five routers with them only a couple years ago only to finally demand my money back. Every single one had visible runout and two actually had spindles that felt loose in the bearings. I bought an identical (except for the plastic color) import router on Ebay and it was perfect. Its mounted in one of my small router tables semi permanently.
I've got a 7x12 metal cutting bandsaw from them I now use every single day that I think is a fantastic tool. Pair that with the price when using a 20% off coupon and the value is huge. While my much older 4x6 HF bandsaw is not in the same quality class as the 7x12 I did use it for several years in my working shop every single day to break down aluminum and steel bar stock. SuperCut blades (the more expensive bimetal blades) sold by Harbor Freight for the 4x6 last and cut every bit as good as the Starrett blades I tried.
I've got two HF lathes. One is a modern 7x and it s barely a toy. It took more work than it cost to make it into a good mini lathe. The other is a
30-40 years old 8.5x and it?s a tank. It has zero features, but its got only a couple ten thousandths runout and I use it several times a week with a 3C collet closer. Even with the collet adapter installed its got less than half thou runout. If it had a quick change gear box it would be a "good" lathe. I use it nearly as often as my bigger badder 14x40 from Precision Mathews.
One of my absolute favorite T-handle hex key sets came from HF many years ago. I would put them up against my Bohndus set of screw driver handle hex keys. More recently two of the worst (nearly dead soft) t-handle hex key sets came from HF too.
I've got a large tap and die set I bought when HF first opened here in Yuma. Its been good. Sure I broke a few taps from ham handedness, and I just plane wore out a couple dies. For somebody a little less professional who used them with more care they might have lased a lifetime. More recently I bought a set to carry in my service truck and after finding several common sizes where just wrong I threw the set away.
When it comes to HF always keep your receipt and always check the tool out thoroughly when you can still get your money back. Some are fantastic, and some are turds.