Last Minute Gift Ideas From Harbor Freight Under $50

Harbor Freight is a quality source of countless pieces of equipment for the doer in your life. Whether your loved one is an avid home mechanic with a range of interesting gadgets or a routine tool user with an eye on some of Harbor Freight's new product releases, tools can be an easy pickup as a last-minute gift. Fortunately, Harbor Freight's considerable catalog and frequently low prices make the outlet a solid choice for an additional, inexpensive gift or for finding a few cost-effective products to deliver a series of high-impact presents.

These five tools and accessories from Harbor Freight range across its numerous in-house brands. All of them are slightly niche picks, meaning they may not already exist in your family member or friend's toolbox. Each one brings important functionality to the fore, allowing for an expanded range of capabilities. This might fall within the tasks they typically set for themselves or serve as an entry point into a new subsection of the work they take on. All of these products have also received very good review scores from Harbor Freight buyers, lending credence to their value to a frequent tool user.

The Hercules 18-inch Tool Bag is an ideal gift for tool users who have everything they require for the job but not enough carrying capacity to easily take their gear with them. This tool bag features 28 pockets alongside an adjustable padded shoulder strap and reinforced carrying handles. The interior offers plenty of space to toss both power and hand tools in while gathering up the equipment you need for a job. The pockets also make it easy to organize your gear when a bit more order is required. The bag is made from water-resistant polyester material with heavy-duty stitching throughout its construction. The bag's zipper is ready to handle anything you might throw at it.

Lots of home improvers and hobbyists will have workbenches, storage shelves, and even toolboxes available to them. But a tool bag delivers a different kind of storage and organizational capability that many people fail to bring into their collection unless specific needs arise. Therefore, gifting one to a dedicated home improver or hobby tool user can make an immediate difference in the way they carry their equipment around and organize it when not in use. As an example, I don't have a bag like this and instead use buckets to gather up gear when moving tools to tackle a job. The tool bag is listed at $25 and carries a 4.8-star average rating across 976 reviews.

Professional mechanics often can't work without a robust code reader nearby. Home mechanics and even those looking to improve their general car maintenance can benefit from the addition of a simple code reader to their garage collection. These tools come in many formats, but one that can be particularly useful and makes for a great gift is the Zurich ZR-BT1 Bluetooth OBD2 Code Reader Dongle. Rather than acting as a full-sized unit, this code reader is a Bluetooth-connected dongle that hooks into your car and relays information back to your phone or tablet. This allows for diagnostic tasks that don't require wires or cords, allowing you to move around the car freely instead of remaining tethered to the vehicle's diagnostic port. Best of all, this code reader is listed among Harbor Freight's clearance deals at the time of writing, with a price reduced to $49.97, bringing a highly versatile scanning solution within the $50 threshold.

About 402 reviewers have given this product a 4.3-star average rating, and 86% of buyers recommend it to others. Reviewers note that this scanning equipment is easy to set up and relays information back to your device of choice for convenient assessment that can be used in the garage or on the go. Many note that it does far more than you would expect from a tool priced at this level. The dongle works via an app that you'll need to download to your device, but there are no subscription costs or added hidden fees to contend with. Using the tool is as simple as plugging it in, downloading the software, and getting to work.

Quality sanding equipment can vastly speed along whatever task you might be working toward, but sanders are a little finicky. Personal experience with these tools and details stemming from conversations with others tend to point to the same basic problem: Sanders just don't last as long as you'd hope. Numerous potential points of failure exist in the typical sander. I've personally had tools in this category that experienced motor death, sanders that ended up with dust clogging the battery port and making it extremely difficult to attach or remove the power source, and one that suffered damage to the edges of its hook-and-loop pad and therefore could no longer hold sandpaper in place. This seems to be common, and not specifically user error on my part, although that may also play a role.

Personally, I'm a fan of a corded and inexpensive model. This approach reduces the impact of many of these problems and also addresses another issue in that cordless sanders tend to drain batteries rapidly. In this regard, the Hercules 2.4 Amp Orbital 1/4 Sheet Sander is a tool with huge promise. The sander delivers a 1/16-inch orbital action with an electronic soft start that preserves the motor for better longevity. The sander can achieve 15,000 OPM, and Harbor Freight notes that it offers "superior vibration dampening" technology alongside a counterbalance system and an ergonomic grip. Buyers with experience holding this tool have excellent things to say about it. About 92% recommend it to others, and 288 reviewers have given it a 4.6-star average rating. The $45 price tag also does a lot of heavy lifting.

A solid set of gripping tools is a must-have in any toolbox. Regardless of the typical projects you tackle, pliers remain high on the priority list for just about any kind of task. Lots of hand tool users will have combination pliers or even a basic set of needle nose grabbers. But pliers are just as underrepresented in a toolbox as they are instrumental. Because they can be used in a range of tasks beyond any particular plier set's primary use case, many tool users are content to use their grabbers, cutters, and snips across job types that go well beyond what a tool was actually designed to accomplish. The Pittsburgh 6-Piece Precision Pliers Set is an inexpensive set of precision pliers that can change this conversation dramatically. The 6-piece collection is listed at Harbor Freight for just $12, making each one essentially a $2 tool. Each one is small in its overall build size, making it the perfect solution for work on delicate electronics in particular. This makes them ideal for automotive work or for those working on building their own computers or other equipment.

About 522 buyers give this precision set a 93% recommendation rate and a 4.5-star average rating. Price is one of the primary selling points, as you would expect. However, for this low cost, users note that you'll get a versatile and highly functional set of pliers. The collection features high carbon steel construction for heavy-duty use and durability, as well as a spring return that supports easy cutting and comfort grips to make their use even more enjoyable.

An interesting piece of equipment that many consumer tool users won't already have in their collection is the Icon 10-inch Long Reach Pistol Grip Pliers. This tool features a multi-directional groove pattern and flat nose for enhanced grip on all kinds of fasteners and other material you may need to grab. However, the pistol grip layout of its handles is really where the tool derives its unique nature. The curve in this pair of pliers' handles allows it to be gripped either as a standard set, closer up the shaft and just under the nose, or from a farther distance and with a straighter wrist. Harbor Freight notes that it can be handled from three total gripping positions. This gives users a greater range of motion when grabbing things with the tool as well as the potential for a firmer grasp when necessary.

The pliers are made from forged alloy steel and feature spring-assisted handles that make the tool easy to use with one hand. The ergonomic, non-slip cushion grip adds comfort and allows for increased grabbing power. Around 162 reviewers have given this a 4.9-star average rating with only a handful of reviews below a perfect 5-star score. Around 98% of buyers recommend it to others, with some saying it's a game changer in their workshop or that it's the most versatile pair of pliers in their collection. At $22, this is a cost-effective gift option with plenty of value.

Each of these Harbor Freight products has been reviewed by at least 100 buyers. They all have good or great overall user ratings, with the lowest averaging a 4.3 out of 5 stars. The products listed are also slightly niche selections that find themselves adjacent to the typical tools and equipment that many users will already have but distinct enough in key areas to potentially offer something new to even users with a large collection of gear.