You get what you pay for - Chinese drill press

[blueovalz]

Harbor Freight had their big drill press on sale last week. I try to avoid buying Chinese if I can readily find US made tools (which is nearly impossible these days). I purchased the drill press, assembled it and then scrutinized it. It needed some bit of adjusting, which was not a biggie, but I immediately noticed a lot (A LOT) of grit in the rack gear and quill area. So I decided that while I was tightening everything up and making sure it would operate smoothly, I would dismantle the stuff that was "pre-assembled" from the factory and take a look-see. I was horrified to find the grit was sand from the sand-casting process that had not been washed out of the interior of the case. It was mixed in with the lubricating grease on nearly every moving part in the head. I spent 4 hours cleaning this crap out of the head so that this press would last longer than 6 months. Below are some photos of what I had to clean up:

 

These are the grooves that drive the spindle that have the grease/sand "cocktail":

 

Looking up inside the bore of the quill. Sand everywhere (quill bore, spindle bearings, etc). The pepper looking specks are the sand particles:

 

Just a small sample of what came out of the head once I pulled the quill out:

 

The head is finally clean. Now to clean the afterbirth off the table:

[G.I.jonas]

ROFL!!! i mean sorry. Yea i've definately learned my lesson with harbor freight junk.I would say that you are somewhat lucky though,the past two things i bought from them didnt work at all.

[Ledphoot]

I guess I've been lucky. I've been a loyal buyer for 12+ yrs and have had little trouble with any of it. I recognize it as "economy" tools so I use them as such. Keep everything lubed and tightened and try not to over stress any of it.

But in your case that was just poor quality control.. Probably some new guy that was trying to keep up with the assembly line and let something slide. Then quality control ( which is probably non existent on Chinese lines) didnt catch it.

On first discovery I would have hauled it back to Harbor Freight for a replacement and seen if the other was any better.. If not, I'd take it back an get my $$...

[BlackBeaut]

Don't you realise that's precision calibrated bearing material designed to ensure 100% accuracy of quill to head? Good grief mad, get it back in there quickly otherwise your warranty will be invalidated!!!!

 

Oh btw in case I was being too British

 

At least one good thing can be said about Chinese tools, they're crap wherever they're sold around the world, so at least they've got some kind of consistency!!

 

Cheers,

Rob

[lbhsbZ]

You have to look at everything you buy from harbor freight as a "KIT"...something containing most of the correct parts to build a useful tool. Almost none of their machine tools are ready to use out of the box. On the mini-lathe and mill that I bought, the instructions even stated that the machine should be disassembled, cleaned, reassembled and properly adjusted before use. For the money I save buying HF machinery, I don't mind spending half a day going through the thing making sure that it was made right.

[blueovalz]

You have to look at everything you buy from harbor freight as a "KIT"...something containing most of the correct parts to build a useful tool. Almost none of their machine tools are ready to use out of the box.

 

Funny you say this. The "quality ball bearing chuck" has to be CAREFULLY tightened onto the bit or else the bit will wobble around off center. 1 of 6 attempts at this will get a centered drill bit. So now I've bought a good quality chuck (which cost close to $100) and installed it onto the press. Overall, I'm somewhat happy in the end, but "buyer beware".

[Pop N Wood]

Funny you say this. The "quality ball bearing chuck" has to be CAREFULLY tightened onto the bit or else the bit will wobble around off center. 1 of 6 attempts at this will get a centered drill bit. So now I've bought a good quality chuck (which cost close to $100) and installed it onto the press. Overall, I'm somewhat happy in the end, but "buyer beware".

 

interesting that you say that. I have used my HF press for a couple of years now and in just the last few months I have been noticing the larger bits wobbling. The small ones turn fine. It looked like the chuck to me, but at $125 from McMaster Carr I didn't want to just throw money at it.

 

Where did you buy your new chuck?

[datsunlover]

interesting that you say that. I have used my HF press for a couple of years now and in just the last few months I have been noticing the larger bits wobbling. The small ones turn fine. It looked like the chuck to me, but at $125 from McMaster Carr I didn't want to just throw money at it.

 

Where did you buy your new chuck?

 

 

I'll bet the smaller bits wobble to, you just can't see the wobble. If you want a decent chuck that will last a lifetime, buy a Jacobs. Pricey, but like the thread states, you DO get what you pay for. A 'Golden Goose' can be decent too, but a Jacobs would be my choice.

[lesd]

HF tools are indeed kits. I tune up the machine and then they seem pretty good. My drill press is over 4 years old, and still fine. Lathe burned out it's motor controller when I overloaded it, had to replace a $15 part.

If it fails, place in trash and buy another two. Still cheaper than a quality 100% USA made machine.

I'm pro American, and proud of it, but I have come to the realization that they ( the Chinese ) will win. Their products are dirt cheap and the quality is improving faster than the Japanese quality took to become 'high quality'.

In the old days, 'JAP' ( pardon the non PC term ) stuff was considered cheap and bad quality. *now* look where they are.

Sorry for the rant:?

-Les

[evildky]

I had heard of that problem over on the GJ forums, I got an old 40's model walker turner at a going out of business sale for $75, weights a ton and works great

[Tony D]

I have to agree with lbhsbz, look at it as a kit!

My first Harbor Freight Tool finally took a dump last year...never oiled it, ran it with dirty air, ran water through it, finally gave up the ghost in 2006.

 

I bought it for $9.99 in 1986. 3/8" Butterfly Impact Wrench.

 

My Dad was buying their stuff when they were selling the tools separate from the motors (some import restriction, methinks) when they were having parts and machines made in TAIWAN. His stuff is of VERY good quality, and was all bought in the early 1980's. I'll probably get it when he passes away, gawd knows my bro isn't mechanically inclined...

 

Anyway, back to the "kit" comment. I noticed when they started getting stuff sourced from Mainland China, the quality started going south in external finish, etc...

 

I now disassemble everything when I get it home, and repack the bearings, etc. In some cases, I will replace the bearings with good SKF or NTN stuff I get from King Bearing. There WAS a time when the die grinders came with the SAME internals as a Snap-On Die Grinder (NTN bearings included!).

 

I also second the 'get a good chuck'---I knocked their chuck out and use the German Albrecht Keyless Chuck with my MT-2 Adapter on it. I can always stick the collet adapter on it when I need to use it in the Bridgeport.

 

For the money, if you take a few little preventative steps before you put it into service, or very shortly thereafter, you will be rewarded with something that will last a LONG time.

 

True, there was a time when you didn't HAVE to do this with their stuff, but they went from Taiwan to Mainland, and it shows.

 

I do work there (China) and that convinced me to not trust anything out of there just yet. Taiwan I trust a LOT more than mainland China at this point.

 

Now my Bridgeport: $1250 for a J-Model with complete tooling and a shaper attachment was NEW in 1975, and has been in a welding shop gathering dust and cutting slots in aluminum since he bought it from the original owner in 1980. For the price, nothing I could buy at HF could compare. My kid will get this when I die. It will still be tight and working great. If you can find old 3 phase American stuff and buy a conversion motor for single phase, it's the greatest deal on the face of the planet. I bought a 6" hydraulic horizontal band saw for $25 (scrap value) and spent $200 on the Frame 56 single phase motor for it's conversion and absolutely LOVE it! Big, heavy, and made in Kalamazoo Michigan.

 

Now, that Buffalo Drill Press.... Buying things intended for an overhead belt system may be more than most want to tackle. I figure it will look good painted up and just sitting there with the 1 3/4" drill chucked up in it! LOL

[Daeron]

I haven't owned any "real" machine shop tools, but I had to replace a 1/2" chuck on a 30 year old craftsman drill a while back, and harbor freight had a jacobs brand chuck, made in USA IIRC (!) for like $5.. saved that drill for another year, until I used it on the flat roof and sucked gravel into the vent input.. oops.

[grumpyvette]

I bought these, just for grins as a test...

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=40965

 

now I was fully expecting junk!

but I could not believe how crappy these were, they have the words FORGED STEEL CAST into the parts, they fracture (not bend) under pressure and are very obviously cheap cast iron crap

 

the ONLY two products IVE YET found at harbor frieght that are worth the cost, both are low quality but fully servicable tools

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=34924

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44718

[GeeZ]

Harbor Freight opened a retail store in Houston and last Sunday I purchased a few items, including a drill. When I went to check out the clerk asked if I wanted extended warranty. I replied that at $16.99 (18v drill), it was disposable. Keeping that in mind, I went a bought another one for back-up. All I can say is, " it drills!"

[zcarnut]

I remember buying a bench vise from Harbor Freight. The first time I used it, a blow from my ball-peen hammer cracked the vise into pieces. It was hollow and they had even stuffed Chinese newspaper into the void so it would not resonant!

 

Still, I’ve bought several items from them and their $159 twenty-ton press was a bargain and has worked well (and I have used it a lot).

[JMortensen]

My experience has pretty much mirrored all of the above. When I bought my drill press (one of the smaller ones they sell), I had trouble installing the chuck. You're supposed to put the chuck on a piece of wood and drive the spindle onto it with the handle. Well, the handle was held on with a tiny roll pin, so that sheared off before I could even get the chuck on. So I welded the handle to that shaft and then was able to get the chuck on. Since then I've found that when you put pressure on the handle the chuck moves around ~3/16" or so, making it fairly useless for anything but the most general work. So the drill press was a bad purchase.

 

That said, I've also pretty much built my whole car with HF tools. I have an HF press, I made my rotisserie out of three of their engine stands, lately their 4 ton portapower is getting a lot of use, as has a pair of their 4.5" grinders. I've got mostly HF air tools, die grinders and such, although for the important stuff like impact guns I have Matco and IR guns. I've thoroughly abused my 5" vise, and it has held up well. I'm about ready for another tubing notcher, it lasted through most of my cage build.

 

It is clearly not the right place to buy tools for a full time professional, at least not the all day every day tools, but there are jobs that I never would have gotten done without cheap tools, and for that I'm glad I have the HF hookup.

[Tony D]

"although for the important stuff like impact guns I have Matco and IR guns. "

...

"It is clearly not the right place to buy tools for a full time professional, at least not the all day every day tools,"

 

 

Funny thought, I was buying I-R Impact "Tune Up Kits" for our nice IR gun, at $58 a piece. Till I realized the HF gun could be bought for $58 COMPLETE and lasted the same 6 months as the tune up kits in heavy industrial use. For the $58, I started buying a NEW HF gun every six months, and giving the old guns to operators for 'personal' use---that kept them hammerring away on flanges and stuff with their OWN gun, and not using the 'shop impact' which meant the $58 tune up kit in the IR-Gun started lasting a year or more. So I kept my "Good Gun" longer, and they had something just as good for everyday use. Everybody won! At that time, the internals of their $9.99 Die Grinder were EXACTLY the same as the Snap-On AT-100A...SHOCKED ME! Especially when they broke the same way. Incidentally, the older HF Castings were close enough that I could transplant IR Internals to them, rotors, hammers and anvils, vane cylinders, etc... HF on the outside, all IR inside! I did the same transfer on the AT-100 Die Grinder to an old HF Die Grinder case when an operator dropped it and broke the air inlet off the damn thing. That was the LAST time I spend $100 for a Pneumatic Die Grinder. After that, it was HF every day, all day!

 

But as for 'pro use'---I don't travel with my 'good tools' any more. Almost everything is HF bought, if it walks I'm not out $500 for an impact gun! And travelling it DOES eventually walk. Even the TSA has a need for the occasional shiny tool (bastards!) Doing some coolers in Tempe AZ last month on an I-R 4C Centac Compressor, we went to HF and bought 4 of their 4" anglegrinders to put cup brushes on them. For $18 each, you couldn't beat it, and I have so many laying around now I have them with sander attachments, grinding wheels of different grits, cutoff wheels...etc. For the cost to the customer, buying 'disposable tools' for a one-time big job is actually CHEAPER than shipping a job box with 'good tools' to the site. Which is a terrible commentary on shipping costs, but like the impact gun example, once the job is over, there are a BUNCH of electric hand tools that are dirty, grimy, and maybe 50% used up---and off they go to customer mechanics, helpers, kids walking by the open doorway: EVERYBODY is happy.

 

As for wrenches they are nice donors for those wrenches that eventually you need to cut and weld for this particular bolt, or to take the torch to and bend offset to acces this fitting waaay up inside somewhere.

 

For general purpose work, and where you are going to knowingly abuse the tools, buying the cheapest thing that holds together makes me feel much less guilty about what I'm doing to them! And if it survives, it can look forward to a long life of home usage by someone I know. Gawd knows I don't need any more! LOL

[JMortensen]

I haven't bought a HF impact in about 15 years, but the last one I bought put out about 60 lb/ft of torque for the first hour, and it was downhill from there. It pretty consistently would not break lug nuts loose. I was 17 years old and changing tires at Pep Boys at the time, so it was pretty frustrating...

[MrFancypants]

Generally speaking I dont buy anything with moving parts from Harbor Freight, unless it costs less than $25. I find their big equipment like hoists, presses and stands are a fantastic value. You cant beat their die grinders for $5. Just throw them away and buy another if they break. The quality isnt that great but they get the job done for my limited use.

 

I dont think I could get myself to buy a drill press or lathe from them, though.

 

 

 

- Greg -

[lbhsbZ]

Harbor freight is great....you just have to understand what you're buying. When I did construction during and after high school, I used Makita drills. I had 2 of the 12V drills w/ the red batteries. The drills were about $150 each and replacement batteries were about $60 each IIRC. I had about 8 batteries, and 2 chargers, so I could use the drill pretty much all day without running out of juice. Then a couple years ago, all but 2 of the batteries decided to fail completely, and the 2 that still worked were pretty week. I went to Home Depot to check on the new batteries and they no longer carried the NiCad version, just the NiMH versions, which required a different charger according to Makita. The chargers were abotu $30 each and the batteries $70 or so. Enter Harbor Freight. I bought the orange 18V drill for $35, and 2 spare batteries for $20 each. I've had the drill for 2 years now. Every year, I have to take it apart and tighten the screws that hold the clutch mechanism together, but aside from that, it kicks ass. If it ever does quit, I won't mind dropping another $35 for a new drill or $20 for a battery.

 

Their tubing notcher sucks. The first thing I did after I stripped out all the holes and broke the clamp was re-thread everything to 3/8-16 (instead of 8mm), lengthened the slot, and welded gussets everywhere, and welded bracing on the clamp. Now it works properly.

 

The wrenches that they sell suck. I won't buy those...except the ergonomic crescent wrenches, those rock.

 

Also, their Welding gloves, for $2/set. Great for mig welding where you end up cooking the fingers of the gloves anyway.