The chicgo tool challange...

[suptscottyb]

I challange anyone to find a source of replacement parts for Chicago Electric tools.
I can find parts for any other brand. I mean how much are they worth if you can't fix them?
Are they cheap enough to be truely "throw away"?
That just goes against everything I was taught....

 

[Jim k]

Bought a Chicago electric body grinder, it ran rough and threw alot of sparks from the brushes.
got about a half hours use out of it before it self destructed.

 

[Eddie in MI]

Yes, they are cheap enough to throw away. Just go to Harbor Freight and get a new one. Chicago Electric is the house brand for power tools from Harbor Freight.

 

[Anonymous-0]

To be honest getting parts for all tool brands suck. Once I had three broken stanley ratchets. They wanted them shipped for replacement. I got back new guts for three ratchets but I no longer had the ratchets to fix.
Chicago tools are so basic you often can fix them.

 

[railhead]

Bought a Chicago Elec 1/2 elec impact gun, used it once and it self destructed. I didn"t take it back for one reason.....I deserved it for darkening the door of that pi55 smelling sewer of a "store". Haven"t been back in harpor freet in any city since. The thought of the way those h3ll holes smell turns my stomach. To have a good reason to never go back in that 5hit hole, 49.99 was a BARGAIN.

 

[TyTX]

Yes they are cheap enough to throw away.

I bought a 4.5" grinder for about $15 and used it for a couple of years before it started making funny sounds. I bought another one for about $15 and now have two. One is dedicated to the cup brush and the other hosts a zip cutter. The cup brush still makes the funny sound but both work fine and still do the job.

What more can you expect from a $15 grinder?

They're worth my money.

 

[mj]

Check it out; click the link.
HF Manual s

 

[S. Crum]

Lots of talk about guys swearing by cheap tools. "I"ve had mine 5 years!" Ok so you have and it has about an hour"s worth of use on it in 5 years, 15 bucks well spent. My Milwaukee tools (yes the ones I use to feed the family) are a few years old and have hundreds if not thousands of hours on them. Parts are available locally although I may have to wait a day or two. Never had one "self destruct" only start running poorly and need 5 bucks worth of brushes or a 7 dollar bearing. 115 bucks well spent.

 

[Tim B from MA]

Cheap enough to throw away? Yes, I think that it the general idea.

I have only tried one HF electic tool - a half-inch electric impact gun. I've uused it to change 2 dozen tires, including on my F-350 and it does a fine job and is still working. So far so good, but when it goes, I'll probably replace it with a name brand.

 

[Lanse]

Yep. Thats the idea. I bought a battery charger from them and it has held up jest fine. I was short on cash. I will NEVER buy any hand tools from them, I buy all craftsman screwdrivers, hammers, pry bars, drills, grinders, saws, etc.