I’m not a big fan of cheap tools. As far as I’m concerned, you don’t need to shell out for the top of the line tools, especially for only occasional use, but at least by something in the lower to middle range of reasonable industrial/pro quality rather than the gutbucket junk.
A company I worked for years ago, in an effort to cut costs, bought some drill bits and other items, like tie-wraps, from HF that where absolute garbage. The drill steel was so soft it dulled and cutter tips snapped within the first few uses. They were so bad that they make Milwaukee’s current Taiwanese crap drill bits seem like they are well made. The tie-wraps were so brittle they snapped like dry tinder, even in warm weather.
The only thing they bought that was any good was a “Pittsburg” 3-peice-aluminum pipe wrench set. As I recall it had 18, 24, and 30”wrenches. They seemed to hold up all right, at least as far as electrical pipe work goes.
I know of another company that tried those cheapo power tool brands that HF sells like, Chicago Electric, Jepson, etc… and they turned out to be junk.
I’ve tried a few myself over the years and learned the hard way that you only end up risking hurting yourself and then have to replace them again anyway as they will fail when you need them most. The only way I could see supplying your employees with these cheapo tools is if you have a high loss or job theft rate in your area, because I don’t think even tool savvy thieves would steal that junk.
