HEADBYTES

[makin chips]

Funny ... I just saw a rather good how-to Utube by a widely & much-heralded builder/instructor/porter ... seems he was backcutting a valve using a harbor freight drill and a bench grinder ... seems to work for him.

I gathered he was quietly demonstrating how one can do the job right; even without the best machinery.

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Gotta admit My eyebrows raised a little when I saw the HF equipment in that shot as well. If only because I would have assumed *V's shop would have had equipment since long before HF became so mainstream.

Hmmm, "product placement" perhaps? Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Someone buys a cheap tool and you think product placement? I think thrifty shopper. No reason to spend $300 on a drill to use as a valve spinner when a $25 will work just as well. So will the next 12...until you finally reach that $300 threshold. Your wallet getting too fat? I never have that problem. Just the opposite actually. Lol!

Considering the luck I've had with their stuff, I'd be willing to try that over having a $300 paper weight in 6months because the motor burnt up. At $25, I can buy 11 more and use those for the next 15 years lmao

[Carnut1]

Funny ... I just saw a rather good how-to Utube by a widely & much-heralded builder/instructor/porter ... seems he was backcutting a valve using a harbor freight drill and a bench grinder ... seems to work for him.

I gathered he was quietly demonstrating how one can do the job right; even without the best machinery.

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Gotta admit My eyebrows raised a little when I saw the HF equipment in that shot as well. If only because I would have assumed *V's shop would have had equipment since long before HF became so mainstream.

Hmmm, "product placement" perhaps? Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Someone buys a cheap tool and you think product placement? I think thrifty shopper. No reason to spend $300 on a drill to use as a valve spinner when a $25 will work just as well. So will the next 12...until you finally reach that $300 threshold. Your wallet getting too fat? I never have that problem. Just the opposite actually. Lol!

Considering the luck I've had with their stuff, I'd be willing to try that over having a $300 paper weight in 6months because the motor burnt up. At $25, I can buy 11 more and use those for the next 15 years lmao

Some guys have the same idea when it comes to die grinders. I tried a h.f. die grinder.... Horrible runout no torque and motor overheating in no time. I will stick to more expensive tools. Less trips out too. Thanks, Charlie

[MotionMachine]

My ex-partner bought cheap drills regularly for guide honing and reaming. Shortly after I bought him out and my new guy came in, he dug out a box full of dead drills. I immediately bought a Milwaukee. That was 1996. It still works like new and has honed thousands of guides, among other things.

[Krooser]

I have a Craftsman 1/2" drill that I got for Christmas in 1966... still my "go to" corded drill.

My HD corded drill is a 40's/50's vintage B&D...

I remember having Craftsman electric tools that you could take to the Sears store and they would send them out to be rebuilt... cost usually less than $10.00 as I recall.

[cv67]

Last drill I bought was in the 90s, DeWalt. Still tight after all these years-
THeres so much hackwork on Utube I dont see how a noob can tell what good work is and isnt..heres a hint
The guys who know what they are doing wont be making those videos, they got bills to pay.

[BOOT]

My ex-partner bought cheap drills regularly for guide honing and reaming. Shortly after I bought him out and my new guy came in, he dug out a box full of dead drills. I immediately bought a Milwaukee. That was 1996. It still works like new and has honed thousands of guides, among other things.

I have 3/8 & 1/2 Milwaukee's that have horrible run-out, my 1/2" Makita is waaaaay better.

[Dan Timberlake]

Hi makin chips,

I too have some HF stuff because the price was irresistable. Some is quite serviceable, after some tweaking. Some besmirches cr*p's good name.

Once again, I would have assumed *V's shop would have mostly equipment sourced since long before HF became so mainstream, so would need only occasional replacements.
To see 100% of the machinery in the video HF just seemed too much of a coincidence.


I'd been eyeing The HF benchtop belt disc grinder for a year or more. Finally got one. Lots of vibration in operation, and the disk had so much axial runout it was pretty much unusable. I tried truing it up a few different time, a few different ways with little success. I lost track of when the basic warrantee was up, and too late I dug into the machine. Everything of importance is on one spindle. One bearing seat was wildly eccentric, and the material was strange looking like it had been badly weld repaired, and "machined" with no regard to maintaining concentricity.
The nubbin the disk sander plate mounts to with a setscrew is very undersized ( or is the bore in the disk oversize?), and there is a flat for the setscrew that is so wide the support and location for the sanding disk is highly variable.
What I'm calling the spindle is item 54 on page 16 here -https://manuals.harborfreight.com/manua ... /97181.pdf
If I'd brought it back, maybe I would have bought 5 and test run them at home to see if the pick o' the litter was

[tchapps88]

Digging up an old post for sure but I know headbytes vanished and left a lot of pissed off customers at the end. I discovered this pass summer he got into an argument with his neighbor and shot and killed her then was shot by police when they showed up and later died. A pretty wild ending for ole headbytes.

https://youtu.be/-Cwibn0eB1Y?si=DpAg5qrIJu5Oqccg

[Justa1time]

Sad state if affairs. I watched his videos a few different times. He was one of the early YouTube folks demonstrating porting.

Bryan

[1980RS]

Headbytes ranks right up there with the "premier head porter" here in MN (which will remain un-named) that I dropped $1700 on a set of Bowtie heads that I had done. They were awful when I tested them on my car. Picked up .003 at the track no matter how I tuned the car, when he promised his heads were worth 3 tenths over my heads with everything else being the same, lol. I did not sue him, I did the next best thing, kept over 100 people from getting work done by him. He threatened me with court action one day for bad mouthing him, but I told him "go for it, the judge will like seeing you again" Haven't said 2 words to that head hack since. It was a lesson well learned on my part.

[Bob M]

Digging up an old post for sure but I know headbytes vanished and left a lot of pissed off customers at the end. I discovered this pass summer he got into an argument with his neighbor and shot and killed her then was shot by police when they showed up and later died. A pretty wild ending for ole headbytes.

Wow! I was into watching his videos years ago, knew he was a little squirrelly and screwed some customers but never knew he was that friggin nuts!

[FuelieNova]

I remember when I found his channel on YT in the early days, I didn't know what to thank about him . Reminded me of a used car salesman.
I wish I knew who the porter in Mn is.... I live in MN. I only had two sets of heads and they both came from Spier in Kansas. Nothing but great things from here.
Tom