Cheap tools on sale
HollyMinkowski
Posts: 1,398
After work I went with 2 guys to a place called
Harbor Tools. They have a great sale on for 2 more days.
I got six 18v cordless drills for just 14.99ea, I'm going to
use them as motors in the big robotic arm I'm going
to make.
It was limit 1 to a customer on the drills so we all got one
and then put them in the car and went back and got 3 more
and checked out at a different counter.
I figure it's a good buy and since I won't be using the
rechargeable paks that come with them I will bust them open
and get the batteries out...they are probably AA nicads
all strung together to make 18v.
I also got a cool electric tool to mount at the end of the robotic arm.
It's a cutting tool that cuts metal and wood and yet it won't cut
through a persons skin! The blade just buzzes, it does not rotate.
So I can have a metal cutting monster arm that is not so dangerous
to people.
This power tool was just 34.99!
I got a bunch of other junk, some LED flashlights they were almost
giving away, a small drill press, a big box of zip ties, a box of
hot glue sticks...and a mini lathe for 399.99 ...yes a real lathe
in miniature size! I have a guy that promises he will teach me how to
work it. I won't say it's beautiful, but it is sort of cute in a
Toy-machine-shop-for-elves kind of way
If you have one of these stores in your town then you will find
something to buy at this sale.
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- Some mornings I wake up cranky.....but usually I just let him sleep -
Harbor Tools. They have a great sale on for 2 more days.
I got six 18v cordless drills for just 14.99ea, I'm going to
use them as motors in the big robotic arm I'm going
to make.
It was limit 1 to a customer on the drills so we all got one
and then put them in the car and went back and got 3 more
and checked out at a different counter.
I figure it's a good buy and since I won't be using the
rechargeable paks that come with them I will bust them open
and get the batteries out...they are probably AA nicads
all strung together to make 18v.
I also got a cool electric tool to mount at the end of the robotic arm.
It's a cutting tool that cuts metal and wood and yet it won't cut
through a persons skin! The blade just buzzes, it does not rotate.
So I can have a metal cutting monster arm that is not so dangerous
to people.
This power tool was just 34.99!I got a bunch of other junk, some LED flashlights they were almost
giving away, a small drill press, a big box of zip ties, a box of
hot glue sticks...and a mini lathe for 399.99 ...yes a real lathe
in miniature size! I have a guy that promises he will teach me how to
work it. I won't say it's beautiful, but it is sort of cute in a
Toy-machine-shop-for-elves kind of way
If you have one of these stores in your town then you will find
something to buy at this sale.
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- Some mornings I wake up cranky.....but usually I just let him sleep -
Comments
I haven't checked if they have any soldering stuff though... Can you confirm that, Holly?
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Quit buying all those fixed voltage regulators, and·get an Adjustable Power Supply·for your projects!· Includes an LED testing terminal!
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They did have some pistol style ones with high wattage
but I don't remember the price.
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- Some mornings I wake up cranky.....but usually I just let him sleep -
Those are cheaply made drills and the battery are no different
That if you are going to use the motors that will work for you I have some of those drill
One note do not use battery with more than 1800 millamp hour you will·fry the motor I have try this before with these drills·o no··watch out here come the smoke···· just
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··Thanks for any·
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Sam
-dan
Everytime I go there, my wife calls it " Harbor Fright "
... because of how scary the next months credit card bill is
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I have not opened it yet, perhaps
I could return it and get a digital.
I charged and tested one of the cheap drills.
At 18v the thing is strong enough I think
it could power a nice electric scooter!
It can drive a 3.5" deck screw right into
a fence post without straining at all!
Should make for a very powerful robotic
arm. I will have to use optical encoders
for position data....not as easy as using
steppers but steppers this strong would
cost $$$ I think,
My BF suggested using auto starter motors
to make a really big robot arm..LoL
I'm going to use hardwood pieces to build
the arm, it's easy to shape, cut and finish.
Harbor Fright... I love it
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- Some mornings I wake up cranky.....but usually I just let him sleep -
a prop based controller and VGA terminal
for programming arm movements and including
all the cheap drill motors, hardware, wood parts
and plans that it would sell well on ebay.
A nice video of a huge wooden robot arm
crushing stuff and moving very quickly would help.
Once painted with gray primer the wood will look just like
metal and should be very sturdy.
The whole thing would fit in a box UPS could deliver.
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- Some mornings I wake up cranky.....but usually I just let him sleep -
It can be hit or miss with some electric/electronic tools.
I bought a regular, old-school corded drill there on sale for $12.50 (!) ... I used it lightly only twice - and the on/off/speed trigger broke! Wow - I don't think I've ever seen a corded drill break.
But I bought an inverter-based plasma cutter from them too for ~$700 (same powered size at a US manufacturer ran >$1400) ... however, I tracked down the schematic before to make sure the critical parts had enough headroom... looked OK... it's been running great for 5+ years getting used 1 to 10 times per month... so you never know for certain with that place.
And, one more, if you buy some bigger thing - like a truck trailer - plan on spending 2 - 3 days putting the hundreds of nuts and bolts together. hehehe
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to be a power buyer you have to sign up for one year its 20 bucks but they let you use it on your first order I bought a 2 stroke 1200 watt gas generator for 89 bucks the same one is in my northern catalog for 119 but be warned you will get tons of tool and farm equipment catalogs for the rest of your life
Right on. For most tools I won't even consider Harbor Freight. Most of their power tools are... well not that good. These days all my cordless tools are Dewalt, wouldn't dream of contaminating my cordless inventory with something from HF. They are great for hacking though.
I have one of their mini lathes. If you are willing to disassemble it and polish the ways etc, it works quite well. Out of the box it is Smile. So you save money on it but have to invest your time to get it working up to par.
A decade ago I bought one of their metal cutting bandsaws, still works fine to this day.
A lot of the stuff from HF is made at the same factory as stuff you will pay more for at other stores - like their trailers.
Rich H
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The Servo Boss, a 12 channel servo tester kit from Gadget Gangster.
I have no idea what that means but it sounds cool
They had a huge lathe there that dwarfed the little one.
But for anything I am likely to do the little one will suffice I think.
I'm wondering if I can use it on plastic and wood as well as metal?
I will get on that mailing list!
I wonder what sort of voltage you would get from the dc motors
in the drills if you bent a suitable handle and fastened it in the chuck
and started spinning it around? Instant generator....the way it is
geared you would be turning the motor pretty fast.
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- Some mornings I wake up cranky.....but usually I just let him sleep -
Not so much wood due to the grain and the type of tool needed but plastic, certainly. Delrin is one of my favorite materials to machine, easier to clean up the mess too. ABS works well too, even nylon is ok.
The ways are the the point of contact between the sliding parts. Gibs are used to remove the play on the ways.
Rich H
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The Servo Boss, a 12 channel servo tester kit from Gadget Gangster.
You'll need these;
Mini-Lathe.com
LittleMachineShop.com
Rich H
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The Servo Boss, a 12 channel servo tester kit from Gadget Gangster.
Rich H
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The Servo Boss, a 12 channel servo tester kit from Gadget Gangster.
I really like the mechanical over the electronic. The battery on my digital died shortly after I got it (maybe 6 months?), and and just didn't have a good feel. Now the mechanical one, well, that's comfy...
That fan is wonderful!
I also watched the vid of the cam on the helicopter
and that is also very cool.
And thanks for those links.
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- Some mornings I wake up cranky.....but usually I just let him sleep -
Thanks, Thanks and you're welcome!
Rich H
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The Servo Boss, a 12 channel servo tester kit from Gadget Gangster.
······ In the electric motor repair shop I work in we all buy the air drills and die grinders from Harbor frieght. They are cheap but we usually get at least a year out of them before we break them or leave them on a job site and never see them again. We have tried the better ones but as rough as we treat the tools it is more economical to go with harbor fright.
I tend to use Harbor Freight for items that I will only use occasionally and get my everyday tools elsewhere.
Servo magazine has mentioned using the the gearboxs and motors from cheap electric drills as robot drives.
Ron aka sailman58