Does anyone have any experience with the small drill presses available from Harbor Freight? I am interested in using one for case preparation, very light duty. Are they just a POS that is serviceable, or a total POS that will self-destruct? The one's I have looked at seem to be structurally rigid, but I am unsure of the electro-mechanical side of the apparatus.

They work just fine.

I very much appreciate your input, OlBiker. Now I can wait for them to put the 12-speed on sale (240 RPM).

I have a table model from HF&T that I bought for about $39.95. I use it mostly to chuck my deburring tool in, but it does fine for most any drilling job. I drilled a couple of 3/4" holes in a quarter-inch thick angle iron the other day and had to be careful not to bog the motor down, but for forty bucks it does fine. HF&T is also pretty good about taking merchandise back if you get a lemon.

By the way, if you don't have a 6" electronic caliper from HF&T be sure to buy one when they go on sale for $16.99. They work like a champ.

Thanks for the input, Stonecreek. It looks like the caliper is on sale currently at $15.99.

At what RPM are you deburring? I can get a 5-speed drill press at the local store on sale now, but the slowest speed is 620 RPM.

I occassionally buy odds and ends from there..

several years ago, we bought a wood plainer from them to use for projects for Cub Scout Day Camp...

We were putting them thru a lot of heavy work.. and 3 times we had them burn the motors up in them in less than 30 days...

We took them back to Harbor, and they replaced them with no questions asked... so they stand behind their products well...

The final one we have for Scouts has been chugging happily along for 3 or 4 years now...

I think the first year we fried the motors on 3 of them was probably based on overworked and operators not being familar with how to run one..

But you have to compliment them backing up what they sell!

I buy from:
Brownells
Little Machine Shop
MSC
J&L
ENCO
Boeing surplus
Garrett Wade
Lee Valley
Woodworker Supply
ebay auctions
------------------------
But no longer will I buy from:
HF
Grizzly

quote:

Originally posted by Winchester 69:
Thanks for the input, Stonecreek. It looks like the caliper is on sale currently at $15.99.

At what RPM are you deburring? I can get a 5-speed drill press at the local store on sale now, but the slowest speed is 620 RPM.

I use the slowest speed, but I don't know what that is. It is slow enough, but I wouldn't mind if it were slower.

Thanks for all of the input, guys. It has really been helpful.

Seafire, looks like the key is to "test" the thing during the first 30 days. Thanks for the help.

Stonecreek, I'm assuming your press is a 5-speed. Thanks again.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:

quote:

Originally posted by Winchester 69:
Thanks for the input, Stonecreek. It looks like the caliper is on sale currently at $15.99.

At what RPM are you deburring? I can get a 5-speed drill press at the local store on sale now, but the slowest speed is 620 RPM.

I use the slowest speed, but I don't know what that is. It is slow enough, but I wouldn't mind if it were slower.

You could probably jack around with the pulleys and the motor and get it to go slow. I managed to get a two speed motor off of an old washing machine to work on my Taiwan floor model and the bottm speed is about 200 rpm. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if it ran slower. These drill presses typically have some vertical lost motion in the quill rack and pinion but other than that the work pretty well. The vertical slop will allow the drill to dig in as it breaks through the back side of a drilled hole.

During my working years I've purchased many hundreds of thousands of dollers in power equipment of all sizes. More than not you get burned when you start to penney pinch.

The same is true to a lesser degree in home use power tools. The quality of the Craftsman brand power tools that I bought years ago has served me well. The ten inch ,4 speed (400 to 3000 rpm),1/2" chuck, 1/2 HP. Has done it's thing for more than 20 years and maybe longer. It is used almost every week and is as tight as the day I brought it home.

I think I paid a hundred and a quarter for it back than. That breaks down to about $6.00/yr. Not sure what it costs today but wages have more than doubled since the 80s. I can not brag on anything I've ever bought from Harbor Freight. roger

Roge,

I don't think anyone is going to argue that quality is definitely worth the expense in most situations...

But Harbor Freight is pretty decent for stuff, that one might not be using all the time...

If I get 20% of the life span out of an item, that an expensive one would yield, yet I only paid 20% of the price.... and it was something that I really don't use that often... I am not going to complain too loudly...

I've had some Sears items go south right out of the box... but like Harbor Freight, Sears backed it up, so I really wasn't that concerned...

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:
The quality of the Craftsman brand power tools that I bought years ago has served me well.

From Sears I just got a Lennox high tension hack saw and Starrett bi-metal blades. That works so well that I have not bothered to get a metal cutting band saw.

My wife got a set of Crafstman wrenches 32 years ago when she was in college and rebuilt her Fiat engine. I still use those wrenches.

My father bought a set of Craftsman wrenches 50 years ago. I still use those wrenches.

One of my metal lathes is a 69 year old Craftsman. I chambered an M70 in 270 and a VZ24 in 300WM on that lathe. Very accurate lathe, but underpowered.

Yeah, Sears has some crap, but they have some good stuff too.