exactly. i bought my winter floormats from big lots, lol, 'caus i know imma only use em for a year or two, but for $8 who cares? the jack we bought from HF is a differant story, that was originally the "beater" jack, but somehow it outlasted whatever the "better" one was, and still works great.

 

I know there are many types and kinds of spring compressors out there. I wanted one I could trust so I bought one at a swap meet. I also made my own from a poece of all-thread, a plate I slide in through the spring coils, and two large washers and nuts. You slip the plate in through the spring, slide the all-thread up through the plate and shock hole, thread on one of the large washers and nuts then tighten till the spring compresses.

I thought about buying one (okay both) of the ball joint tools HF sells. I'd put them to good use.

 

even though i am a "dedicated" ,lol, home depot employee, i think hf might be my favorite store. bought my 29.99 buffing wheel and pads today

 

i would never buy tools from HF either, but i love the aluminum floor jack. perfect to take to the track plus will fit my car cuz it's lowered no more using 2x4. this weekend i'm going back for polishing pads for my new dremel tool i picked up from walmart.

 

I have had mixed luck with HF. I have some craftman tools and some HF tools. Of course you get what you pay for but the way I look at it. If you want tools to abuse or you are only going to use it once every three months then sure HF is a great place to shop. If you are more of the weekend worker then craftsman is the way to go. And if you are doing it every day for a living then Snap-On is the way to go. All depends on what you what and how much you want to spend. I have a HF heavy duty drill that I bought from there for punishment. It is what I use for heavy drilling, wire wheeling, etc and in a year's time it has not failed. But I have bought some stuff from there that after afew uses it quits. So it is kinda like a 50/50 shot in the dark with them. But of course I do like to go in there and look

 

I was thinking the same thing about the jack I just bought.

It's light weight and small enough if I was going to a car show say in Indiana this jack could go with me.