Harbor freight inspection camera ?

tturner · #1 08-15-2010, 11:15 AM

Harbor freight has a wireless inspection camera on sale for $89.99.

http://www.harborfreight.com/wireles...tor-66550.html

Does anyone have experience using this to borescope aircraft cylinders? If so are you able to get the camera head thru the spark plug hole with the mirror attached? How was the picture quality and ability to focus in the cylinder and see the valve heads? Are there better solutions than this product in the under $300 category?

PCHunt · #2 08-15-2010, 11:24 AM

That looks very similar to the HF one that I tried. The head was too big to go through the spark plug hole on mine.

I returned it.

Tony Spicer · #3 08-15-2010, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PCHunt

That looks very similar to the HF one that I tried. The head was too big to go through the spark plug hole on mine.

.

Heres a customer review:

"The down side is that the dia. of the camera head is 18 mm and will not fit down the standard automative spark plug hole. This is another application I bought this camera for but was not able to use for that need. If they offered a 9mm camera / cable attachment (which will fit through a spark plug hole) as an option they would sell thousands more. The OEM manufacturer of this camera does make this 9MM cable option for this camera but apparently it is not made available to HF. Too bad."

Might be worth the trouble to chase down the 9mm cable.

Tony

Mel · #4 08-15-2010, 12:19 PM

I have one and like it very much. Yes, it is too big for cylinder bore-scope, but there are many other places it comes in handy for inspections.
Side note: If you carry it on the airlines, you will get to meet TSA personnel. Especially at DIA.

cfiidon · #5 08-15-2010, 01:11 PM

I bought a Rigid scope a couple of years ago and popped for the additional smaller head. I used it to scope the cylinders in my IO-550 and it worked fine.

But you do need the smaller head.

Don

Doug Rohrer · #6 08-15-2010, 07:17 PM

I bought this tool and tried it out on my Lycoming O-320. The head will fit through the spark plug hole with just a little filing on a small protrusion on the camera. However, the mirror attachment makes it too big to go through. Also, the focal length is fixed at a distance too long to allow clear pics inside the cylinder. Save up and buy a real borescope.

SabreKGB · #7 08-16-2010, 01:44 AM

I bought this exact one at Harbor Freight and promptly returned it the next day.

Getting a clear picture is near impossible and the quality is about what you'd expect from the price. A blur is all you'll get if you try to scope anything with this piece of junk. I thoroughly recommend not buying it, and if you do, save your receipt!