That Harbor Freight smell. - Page 1

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - That Harbor Freight smell. (Page 1 of 2)

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:42:12 PM EDT

What is it?

It's the same smell in all the stores, and when you bring home a tool, it smells the same too.

Is this what China smells like? WTF is it? It stinks.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:43:18 PM EDT

[#1]

HF near me doesn't have a distinct smell.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:43:30 PM EDT

[#2]

The sweat and toil of hard working Chinese toddlers. They're kind of like Santa's elves, only they're three years old and Chinese.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:43:53 PM EDT

[#3]

Tears from 4 year old Chinese children.

Too slow.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:44:34 PM EDT

[#4]

That's true! I can't identify it but I've definitely noticed it. It must be some kind of Chinese packing grease that prevents your Pittsburg tool from rusting on the boat over. It's a slow boat, remember?

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:44:51 PM EDT

[#5]

That is what dead Chinese children smell like.

ETA: waaaayyyyy too slow.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:44:58 PM EDT

[#6]

The smell of junk.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:44:59 PM EDT

[#7]

I know of what you speak. I always thought it was the poorly refined crude protectant/lubricant they coat everything with, the stuff that soaks into the brown paper everything is wrapped in.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:45:08 PM EDT

[#8]

Its something in the plastic and rubber parts. Nucular waste perhaps???

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:45:55 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
Tears from 4 year old Chinese children.

Too slow.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:46:03 PM EDT

[#10]

I know what you mean. It is from the oily plastic. Shit stinks.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:46:07 PM EDT

[#11]

Around here they smell like rubber, worse than a tire store.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:46:23 PM EDT

[#12]

It's those little rubber wheels.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:46:34 PM EDT

[#13]

Read the thread title and knew it would be post full of the tears and sweat of Chinese children.

I was correct

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:46:56 PM EDT

[#14]

Yeah the cheap oil smell. Say what you will about HF but I bought an electric impact gun and it rips off lug nuts like a champ. The aluminum racing jack I bought there is also fantastic.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:47:24 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:

Around here they smell like rubber, worse than a tire store.

I fucking love how tire stores smell.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:47:29 PM EDT

[#16]

my wife and I just had this discussion today. She bought some rope for some type of craft and it smelled really bad.
I bought a press and when I took it out of the box the grease smelled like human feces.
I think the smell is China.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:48:01 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Tears from 4 year old Chinese children.

Too slow.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_la0258dJVO1qzmm04o1_500.gif

Best...Episode...Ever

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:48:44 PM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
HF near me doesn't have a distinct smell.

you buy to many HF tools. your house reeks of it but your used to it lmao

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:50:00 PM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
Yeah the cheap oil smell. Say what you will about HF but I bought an electric impact gun and it rips off lug nuts like a champ. The aluminum racing jack I bought there is also fantastic.

I concur.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:50:21 PM EDT

[#20]

Sars grease and bird flu

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:52:54 PM EDT

[#21]

I've shopped HF long enough now that the smell is already established in my memory banks as something I savor. Much like the tire store smell. It evokes memories of yesteryear.

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:57:32 PM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:
What is it?

It's the same smell in all the stores, and when you bring home a tool, it smells the same too.

Is this what China smells like? WTF is it? It stinks.

Rubber.. Work at a tire plant and you'll really get familiar with it...

Posted: 3/9/2013 7:58:49 PM EDT

[#23]

Smells like Chinese baby sweat

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:03:55 PM EDT

[#24]

Probably the rendered fat of dead Chinese people used as a preservative/ rust preventative

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:05:16 PM EDT

[#25]

I recently got a HF StormCat 900w generator and it smells like 'win'.

Chris

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:06:54 PM EDT

[#26]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Tears from 4 year old Chinese children.

Too slow.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_la0258dJVO1qzmm04o1_500.gif

Best...Episode...Ever

Of anything.

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:07:32 PM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:

Quoted:
HF near me doesn't have a distinct smell.

you buy to many HF tools. your house reeks of it but your used to it lmao

Hey man, I got a plane to build! I ain't wasting money on Snap-On!

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:10:30 PM EDT

[#28]

A couple of years ago I got a box of architectural submittals from China... I opened the box and there was that smell.
It was like they had packed the air of Shenyang and had it shipped to us. So, that small you smell...
Is the smell of China.

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:11:54 PM EDT

[#29]

I know exactly what you mean. It's Chinese cosmoline and rubber. It's the smell of Victory.

Chinese victory over the West.

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:12:03 PM EDT

[#30]

China has a distinct aroma. And every once in a while you get a hit of feces.

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:14:38 PM EDT

[#31]

It's the smell of productivity. It's rare to smell that in America.

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:16:07 PM EDT

[#32]

Quoted:
China has a distinct aroma. And every once in a while you get a hit of feces.

I thought it was butt cheese and old sneakers.

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:17:15 PM EDT

[#33]

Quoted:

Quoted:
HF near me doesn't have a distinct smell.

you buy to many HF tools. your house reeks of it but your used to it lmao

Hey man, I got a plane to build! I ain't wasting money on Snap-On!

I'm listening.

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:23:38 PM EDT

[#34]

First time I smelled that HF smell was a pair of Cheap Taiwan Jungle boots I bought.

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:24:49 PM EDT

[#35]

I have a feeling the White House has had the same oder since Barry and Chewbacca moved in.

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:28:12 PM EDT

[#36]

Quoted:
I have a feeling the White House has had the same oder since Barry and Chewbacca moved in.

That's AfroSheen with a touch of Nile Musk the Wookie bought on the corner from the guy who has the cheap incense too.

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:35:06 PM EDT

[#37]

your thread title made me chuckle, because it is so true.

smells like rubber chinese ass.

ETA: wait, you sniff all your new shit too?

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:35:46 PM EDT

[#38]

Glad I'm not the only one that has noticed.

Come to think of it just about every piece of Chinese junk I have ever unboxed has the same smell.

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:41:52 PM EDT

[#39]

Quoted:
Glad I'm not the only one that has noticed.

Come to think of it just about every piece of Chinese junk I have ever unboxed has the same smell.

Norinco guns smell like that too, straight from the factory.
I think they boil down political prisoners and stray dogs to make Chicomsmoline.

Posted: 3/9/2013 8:56:04 PM EDT

[#40]

Like the Russian ass when you open a spam can of 7.62x39. I can't get the smell off my fingers. My wife thinks I have a Russian girlfriend.

Posted: 3/9/2013 9:05:01 PM EDT

[#41]

I haven't noticed the smell in the stores, but I did buy a set of oil filter wrenches there.

The kind with an adjustable rubber strap, I couldn't keep those wrenches in the house without double bagging them in plastic grocery bags.

They smelled like industrial rubber coated cancer.

Posted: 3/9/2013 9:09:55 PM EDT

[#42]

Some sorta Petrochem preservative, that must be cheaper than rice, because they put the same shit on all of thier tools, machine parts, and any other damn thing that might rust.

Had to snag some 80 series Roller chain last year on a Sunday, and got the china shit from TSC, because they were the only place open.
The whole shop reeked of that crap for days.

Head into any one of the "Discount gloves and tools" shops, and they stink just like Harbor freight, from all that shit outgassing.

It would be interesting to see the MSDS for whatever the shit is, and then have it analyzed to see what it REALLY is.
Probably some sort of nasty, Toxic as fuck, Chemical waste.

Posted: 3/9/2013 9:17:26 PM EDT

[#43]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Yeah the cheap oil smell. Say what you will about HF but I bought an electric impact gun and it rips off lug nuts like a champ. The aluminum racing jack I bought there is also fantastic.

I concur.

Meh. We have broken about 6 of those things irreparably. I make sure I don't put as much as a toe under a car when one is holding it up now. I guess they are ok for home use.

I think the smell is a combination of mineral oil and really poorly vulcanized rubber.

Posted: 3/9/2013 9:20:58 PM EDT

[#44]

Smells like the outgassing of low grade plastics. And yes, it is kinda what China smells like, or at least Shenzhen.

ETA: Don't get me wrong, I love the hell out of my EarthQuake impact ratchet.

Posted: 3/9/2013 9:24:04 PM EDT

[#45]

Quoted:
Like the Russian ass when you open a spam can of 7.62x39. I can't get the smell off my fingers. My wife thinks I have a Russian girlfriend.

Russian girls smell like 7.62 x 39 rounds?

I feel oddly aroused.

Posted: 3/9/2013 9:24:21 PM EDT

[#46]

My local HF has "that" smell too. I just thought they kept fucking up and shipping over Chinese toddlers with the knock off Cresent wrenches

Posted: 3/9/2013 9:26:52 PM EDT

[#47]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Yeah the cheap oil smell. Say what you will about HF but I bought an electric impact gun and it rips off lug nuts like a champ. The aluminum racing jack I bought there is also fantastic.

I concur.

Meh. We have broken about 6 of those things irreparably. I make sure I don't put as much as a toe under a car when one is holding it up now. I guess they are ok for home use.

I think the smell is a combination of mineral oil and really poorly vulcanized rubber.

I guess it depends on which one we're talking about. Mine has never let me down and outlasted my brother's Craftsman aluminum racing jack.

Posted: 3/9/2013 9:27:53 PM EDT

[#48]

It's what all the guns shows in the early 1990's smelled like.
All those MAK-90's

Posted: 3/9/2013 9:30:51 PM EDT

[#49]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Yeah the cheap oil smell. Say what you will about HF but I bought an electric impact gun and it rips off lug nuts like a champ. The aluminum racing jack I bought there is also fantastic.

I concur.

Meh. We have broken about 6 of those things irreparably. I make sure I don't put as much as a toe under a car when one is holding it up now. I guess they are ok for home use.

I think the smell is a combination of mineral oil and really poorly vulcanized rubber.

I guess it depends on which one we're talking about. Mine has never let me down and outlasted my brother's Craftsman aluminum racing jack.

Silver and blue aluminum job with a carry handle on the side?

Posted: 3/9/2013 9:32:15 PM EDT

[#50]

Quoted:
I know of what you speak. I always thought it was the poorly refined crude protectant/lubricant they coat everything with, the stuff that soaks into the brown paper everything is wrapped in.

This

When we get shipment of machined parts from China or Taiwan at work, they smell the same. It's the oil.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - That Harbor Freight smell. (Page 1 of 2)

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