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There's a Northern Tool store going in about a mile from my house. It's big, probably 10,000 sq ft. I don't know anything about them. Is Northern along the same line as Harbor Freight? I looked them up on line and they have their own house brand and it looks a little better quality than HF. Looks don't always tell the story, They also carry name brands. I checked welders and they have Hobart and Lincoln. Didn't do any price comparison against Lowe's but they seem in line.

If it's a good store I'll be in heaven.

They are good especially for trailer stuff. They may not be the cheapest but they have good to excellent things. They are putting in one about 4 miles from me also. Suppose to open in Sept. Russ

I got my welding bottles and some other stuff from them, back in the day. They're sort of like Tractor Supply Company, except they do mail order.

They also ship to Canada, whereas Harbor Freight doesn't even recognize Canada as a billable destination (but I'm not bitter).

Northern Tool is good stuff. They have made in China cheap tools but they also have nicer, more expensive versions of the same thing.

Ditto what the others have said. I have bought quite a lot of things from Northern Tool. I think the company is based in Minneapolis.

Harbor Freight is unusal for sure, they will sell to Canadians, but you have to ship to a US address and you also have to input that that US address as your credit card billing address as well, then the order will process normally.
But, right after you finish your transaction you then have to call Harbor Freight office with your transaction number and tell them to manually switch the billing address from the US shipping address and input your Canadian billing address.
Then the item will ship to the US address and be billed to your Canadian address.

The other thing is you will have to pay US state taxes as they will not remove them for leaving the country, even though they know the item will eventually come to Canada, but for purposes of the sale it goes to the US state orginally shipped to, so is not tax excluded.

Al

Well thank goodness they don't make it complicated or anything!?!?!?
(If y'all couldn't tell, the sarcasm dial is set to 11 on a scale of 10. I don't think anyone could blame you folk "North of the Border" if you said to H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks with HF altogether!)

Hope they open soon. I just trashed the clutch on my Skil 18v drill. Still have the sander and sabresaw. Whoever came up with that twist torque adjuster on that thing need a good butt kickn.

Yea, pretty good stuff and no freight if you pick it up at the store (a big deal here in the sticks) I think they will put HF out of biz.

Much better store than Harbor Freight.

I've had good luck with drill bits, wrenches, sockets and saw blades from Northern Tool. I've never had to order anything on line since there is a store in Tyler, TX that I go by on the way to my parent's house, so I can't comment on shipping.

WOW....with all these comments I'm pumped. Come on Northern Tool!!! A big boys Toys-R-Us.

I get my welding bottles from Northern Tool. I originally wanted to use a local welding supply place, but the ones I found had very limited hours (i.e. 9-5 on weekdays, 10-5 on Saturday, and closed Sunday). I found it more convienent to have the normal retail hours of Northern Tool, and it turned out to pay off. I ran out of welding gas late on Saturday with a lot of work left to do, and was able to swap out bottles that night and continue working all day Sunday. Just something to keep in mind.

I've bought little things from them (wire brushes, welding gloves, a bolt on trailer tongue wheel, etc) and they've all performed as expected. Their prices are a little higher than Harbor Freight, and a lot of their stuff looks the same, like the auto darkening welding helmet.

I have a welder (MIG 135), drill press, bench grinder/belt sander, and a few other tools from Northern. I got my welding bottle there, too, but wish I'd had the patience to wait and get it on eBay instead, I would have saved a boatload.