Harbor Freight Metal Shear

I'd love to have a Beverly shear, but until I can get a deal on one I thought I'd give the Harbor Freight (38413) version a try. It's on sale right now for $139.00 so WTH right? Out of the box it's typical Harbor Freight, loose as a goose and covered in oil. After a little bit of cleaning, tightening and adjusting I tried it out. So far I am pretty impressed. It easily cuts 18 and 16 gauge and in a pretty tight radius too. So far so good.

Good to know, how easy were the adjustments?

The adjustments were easy. Out of the box the shear would barely open. There are two adjustment screws on the base blade that allow lateral adjustment. I backed those off which opened the blade gap, then snugged them up slowly until the the shear opened and closed well. I also had to snug up the other bolts because they were way loose. Typical Harbor Freight. Believe me, I am sure a USA made Beverly shear would blow this thing away in fit, finish and operation but until then, this will do.

That's good to know, Mike. Not all of HF stuff is unusable, we have lots of it that works ok...........certainly not pro quality, but good enough for us home type builders.

Don

HF

I have found their stuff to be useful if I ever have a question about whether I will use a certain tool often enough to make it worthwhile to buy an expensive one. I buy their cheap one, if I use it a lot and like it, I buy the better quality one then. If not, then I'm not out much.

I've actually had pretty good luck with HF tools. I've only had issues a couple of times but I am pretty easy on my tools. I do feel guilty not buying American tools so I do buy American whenever I can.

I used this same shear to cut all the aluminum for my speedster. Works great and has not begun to dull yet.

Same deal for me on the assembly. Stuff was loose or out of adjustment but took about 5 mins to get it working right. Great tool for the money.

thought about tryin one now maybe i will thanks

Woodward Fab has one also for about 120..

I've seen them used at some shows and such...but don't own one......so can't give real world experience with it....looks about the same design as the HF one......

Rusty Creek said:

I have found their stuff to be useful if I ever have a question about whether I will use a certain tool often enough to make it worthwhile to buy an expensive one. I buy their cheap one, if I use it a lot and like it, I buy the better quality one then. If not, then I'm not out much.

Click to expand...

thats how i do it too.
recently i needed a 3/16" transfer punch for four holes. (talk about a one use item!)
i bought an entire set for 10 bucks.
it worked fine.
and i got what was needed done.

yeah I'm with you guys, if I am going to use it every day Central Pneumatic or Pittsburg tools isn't really the way to go.....