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Harbor Fright Down Grades Quality Again

Harbor Fright Down Grades Quality Again

I've got a couple Harbor Fright Drill press. One is a floor model. Its not wonderful, but its atleast 15 years old and it works. Once you learn a few tricks you can drill decent holes. The other is a 12 speed bench model. In some ways its better than the floor model. I keep a tapping head in that one. I tap a lot of 10-32 holes in aluminum with it. It was the smallest least expensive drill press I could find that had a regular MT2 taper, and it works great for what I use it for. Tapping holes.

Lloyd gave me a good deal on another tapping head a little bigger than the one I had. I figured I would set it up, and just leave a 1/4-20 machine tap in it since that's the second most common hole I tap. I was thinking another one of those Harbor Fright 12 speed bench toppers would do the trick, so I started hunting for a coupon or a sale. Finally I found an outfit that would "sell" me a coupon for it for $5. Since it would save me $40 if it wasn't bogus I figured it was worth a shot. I printed my coupon and checked on-line to make sure the coupon code was good. Off to Harbor Fright to buy my drill press. There were none on display, but there was one below in a box. I opened up the box to make sure everything was there, and noticed the head didn't look right. I checked further and found it doesn't have an MT2 taper anymore. Its got that stupid fixed BT16 spindle taper instead. The one that is on the smaller cheaper drill presses. Just to be double sure I looked at the manual. Yep. They downgraded the unit a LOT and didn't lower the price.

I left the coupon on the box for the next guy.

Reply to
Bob La Londe
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I have a friend who calls it "Cheap Ass Tools". Everyone knows what he means.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

If you need a #2 Morse Taper or even know what one is, you are most likely beyond the Harbor Freight quality of tools.

For tools I plan to use once or very rarely, they seem to work.

Remove 333 to reply. Randy

Reply to
Randy333

Check here for coupons (in case you didn't already) and of course you can always ask in that forum it you don't find one:

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I hear you on the quality downgrade. You have to check every time to make sure they haven't made changes for the worse... I always read through the review comments beforehand. Some of their stuff is really bad, not even worth what you pay for it :)

They've got a more expensive 13 inch bench model but in perusing the manual it doesn't say what the taper is. At least I couldn't spot it...

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It's on sale for $249.99 and 20% off would bring it down to $200. Lots of -20% off coupons around.

Reply to
Leon Fisk

Okay, I **had** to do this:-

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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

The spindle taper is listed as MT2 in the specifications list on the right side of the page in the first link, I needed to scroll down a bit but it is there.

Reply to
David Billington

Yes it is. Missed it, went straight for the manual and it doesn't seem to be listed there...

Thanks for pointing that out. I doubt if Bob is still interested though. What he already went through puts a mighty bad taste in your mouth...

Reply to
Leon Fisk

I haven't bought anything yet. I actually like the old one I have. It does the job I bought it for. I would like another one just like it, but alas that seems not to be possible. I was actually playing with the idea of bolting four of them to a steel rolling table and just leaving each one setup for a different process. Looks like True Value may be importing one under the Master Mechanic label, but it doesn't say what the taper is.

I'm still shopping. I have two drill presses and two mill drills for manual operations now, so I can wait until I find what I want. 12" and/or 13" machines are an option, but they really are bigger than I need for this setup. I'll keep an eye on CL, and next time I go to Phoenix or San Diego (where there are more used machines than Yuma) I'll drive my truck and do a little shopping.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

nice.

I took a friend over to the harbor freight and warned them the smell of the place would be intense. We eventually had to leave for fresh air. I can't even imagine what the prison/school sweatshops that churn out that awful rubber and plastic stuff smell like.

The tools there are all pretty appalling except for maybe the impact driver sockets. I didn't check the too carefully, but they appear OK to use.

I did poke around at the 15 inch-ish drill to compare it to the Clausing I'm trying to get working again. Everything down to the decals was crooked on the HF drill press. I did get some orange Goop on the way out. The tiny

18" metal brake is still sort of tempting, maybe next time.

A few weeks ago I picked up a Roper-Whitney strip bender. Not sure if that's the correct name but it will clamp down metal strips upto 2" wide and bend them upto 90 degrees. I'm not sure of the rating, but it opens up over a 1/4" and takes a 1" pipe for the handle so it's pretty tough. It's 12" square less the handle and made of welded and machined angle iron with a large cylinder of better grade steel for the part that forms the bends.

Reply to
Cydrome Leader

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