This Is Going To Shock You So You Had Better Sit Down (Updated)

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You might want to set down any beverages before you read this too.

You aren’t going to believe this.

 

I actually went into a Harbor Freight store today….

And didn’t buy anything.

 

You still there?

You OK?

I know, I can’t hardly believe it myself.

It’s not like I walked in the door and then turned right around and left either.

I went through the whole store, twice.

They just didn’t have what I went in there for and I couldn’t find anything to adapt to my purposes either.

The hardest part was not buying that impulse crap that they have everywhere.

Sure, there were a few things I could have used eventually but nothing that I just couldn’t live without today.

They didn’t have what I wanted in stock so screw it.

What was I after?

I bought a 4 inch diamond wheel a couple of weeks ago and I have been wanting something with a shaft and an adjustable table to mount it on.

This was about the closest thing I could come up with that they offer,

image_20642

But no. None on hand, period.

 

I had one of these not too long ago,

61728_W3

No disc and no way to mount an adjustable table easily, if I could even find one.

I think I used it 4 times in the year and a half I owned it so I gave it to a buddy that could get more use out of it and to try and reclaim some space.

Same with this thing that I had wanted so badly and my wife bought me for Fathers day about five years ago,

97181_I

After I bought that junker 9 inch Belt/ Disc sander and got it all put back together, that little one just sat and gathered dust along with taking up valuable real estate.

So I gave that to another buddy.

That one would have probably suited my purpose if I had taken the belt table off of it but screw it, if someone can at least get some use out of it then have at it. That buddy does a lot of wood work and it is a handy size for him.

So here I sit with an unfinished project.

Of course I haven’t gotten on the internet yet either.

I just thought y’all might be a bit surprised to learn that it is actually possible for me to go into Harbor Freight and come back out empty handed.

See My Shocked Face

 

UPDATE:

Never fear, the internet is here!

Although quite surprisingly difficult to find, after much searching and digging, I did finally discover something that will fit my needs and is still in my price range.

Hopefully it is also going to be a lot quieter, those little belt sanders are noisy as hell.

They are out there and some of them are  either absolute junk, home made or jewelers grade along with a price you would choke on.

This one looks like I can make do with and was cheaper including tax and shipping than the belt/disc sander I was going to get at HF.

$57.00 delivered to the front door.

Sander

It looks kinda like it’s mostly plastic but I am wanting to do rather fine work with it, not grind I beams.

We shall see whenever it gets here.

 

27 thoughts on “This Is Going To Shock You So You Had Better Sit Down (Updated)”

  1. Must’ve had a burr on one of those butt plugs from the other day I’m thinking.
    I’m sure that you’ll manage a way to get it fingered out.

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      • I figure most of us that stop by here are like you Phil. Kinda sick and twisted in the head. You didn’t mention what you needed that grinder for initially and so, I had to go low and have the group pile on just to find out.

        You took it like a man buddy. 👍

        Liked by 2 people

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  2. You know there is counselling for this ailment. Perhaps if your wife helped out and said “don’t buy anything foolish!” That may work.
    To help you out, I think you need to peruse the Lee Valley website, or here in Western Canada, we have Princess Auto, Peavey Mart, KMS Tools and Uncle Weiner’s (for really cheap tools and tool boxes.)

    Liked by 1 person

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    • My wife only notices when I go to buy something expensive and trust me when I say that she says no way more often than not.
      Because money is tight I thought long and hard about this purchase before I told her I wanted to get one. Like over a week I stewed on it but it boiled down to the hard fact that I didn’t have the parts to build one and trying to buy them would have cost more than just buying something already put together.
      When I told her what it was for she had no problem with it. My wife keeps my ass in line just like she should because I can go through money like water if left without adult supervision at all times.

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      • > Way too many zero’s involved there.

        Yeah, sure; but it gives you an idea of what physical mechanical structural design you should be aiming at, regardless of how inexpensively you may achieve it. The resulting grinder should weigh 200-300 pounds. The table should not move when you push a finger on it, or a palm of a hand and apply 50 pounds to it. If it does move you can reinforce it with angle steel trashpicked from discarded bed frames put out on the curb by college students. Reinforce one side of the table. Both sides. In the middle. Twice in the middle. You have ten foot of angle steel, it’s not doing you any good sitting in the shape of a bed frame. The outcome grinding finish on your tool should look like a facet ground on stone, because that implies the cutting edge corner at the top edge of that facet is sharp. Look at the cutting edge under a 10X loupe from a $3.75 set of plastic loupes from Harbor Freight. Also look at the lathe tools you grind. No bigger improvement to benchtop lathe operation than tools which are freshly sharp. Sharpen the tool every 15 minutes; put several tools in rotation. Repeated practice will rapidly make you good at it. You have this much weight of cast iron to apply force, that’s fixed, and the biggest improvement you can apply is the corner radius of the cutting tool. Take a walk on the wild side: spend a weekend doing some lathe project but sharpening the tool at the first sign of dullness.

        Liked by 1 person

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  6. I actually view that as remarkable self control, in spite of the store not having what you really want, you didn’t buy any abstract items, I think you should be commended.

    What? that’s too thick for sarcasm? ok, ok, I’ll dial it back.

    chuckling

    Liked by 1 person

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  7. The lovely little missus one time said she’d follow me to the end of the earth. However, Harbor Freight and the dump were out of the question. Thought I’d try my luck today. Pulled into parking lot far enough away she wouldn’t see Harbor Freight sign. Inside store signs all over the place told shoppers to get into PROPERLY ASSIGNED WAITING AREA for checkout line. So a couple of us who are generally compliant and able to read, rolled our eyes and got into properly assigned waiting area. Normal people never even saw the signs, just got into shortest lines. Those who came into the store 5 minutes after me left 5 minutes before me. After getting back into the car, the lovely little missus accused me of shopping in some store like Harbor Freight.

    Liked by 1 person

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  9. I have one just like the top one first shown. With the one inch belt.
    Only it is a Craftsman brand , so no help there…it is a very useful tool too. Mostly for the disk part.
    The belt not so much…

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  10. What a coincidence Phil, I went to Harbor Freight last Wednesday and didn’t buy anything either.
    Oh, I WAS gonna buy some assorted somethings but Ms 6″ nails at the checkout was too busy having a quasi-family reunion with Moms Mabley for a solid 15 minutes and no other cashier was open. I dropped my shit in a nearby basket and left. 2nd time that’s happened at that store with the exact same result.

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  11. Looks ,a bit like a Mattel toy. Hope it works for ya.

    I too bought one of those green 1 inch little belt sanders from HF many moons ago. It is so under powered that it barely grinds anything much off a bolt or flat bit of steel without stalling. Also eats belts (cheap Chink ones) Going to give to to one son and go find a real Dayton 2″ wide with1/2 horse or more driving it. sadly the lowest price one sees is well above 200 bucks and the used market is very sparse, no one will part with a good grinder these days.

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