Harbor Freight Drill Press
I'm looking for opinions on the Harbor Freight 5 Speed Drill Press. I received a flyer in the mail with a coupon making it $40 instead of $80. Is it even worth it at this price? I generally try to stay away from anything you have to plug in at that store, but the price seems hard to resist.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Paul-Marcel St-Onge on -
Usually when it comes to things with a power tail from Harbor Freight, I do a search on it. Woodnet has a posting that cross-compiles a ton of postings about HF products and lists the gems. The 16 speed drill press (not the one you mentioned) is very highly regarded on that list with a comment that many posters were previous owners of name-brand DPs and prefer the HF model.
That said, if you have a model number, search for "harbor freight gems" and find it on the list. I recall a better list I found long ago that I can't seem to find today. That list included gems, not great but not disappointing either, and avoid. Naturally that version of the list would be better in case your DP is on another list. I'll look further for that list.
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Permalink Reply by Beechwood Chip on -
This sounded like a good deal to me, so I checked it out on the HFT web site. The five speed $79 drill press says "2-inch spindle stroke". Does that means that you can't drill a hole deeper than 2" without moving the table? Would that be a problem in practice?
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Permalink Reply by David Hostetler on -
Do you have an item number?
Remember that Harbor Freight simply rebrands many of the same tools that others are selling with a different paint job for a lot more money...
FWIW, some of their stuff are real gems, and some is real garbage...
Look up HF gems, and see if you can find the item # on the lists that pop up...
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Permalink Reply by Jason Small on -
Thanks for the replies. I couldn't find the model advertised on the gems sight. Unfortunately, my kids decided the harbor freight ad was a good target of scissors, and it was thrown out. Though I see it in their online ads, it's not the same price. I may head to the store tomorrow anyway to check it out so I'll know more about it for the future.
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Permalink Reply by Dan Avilla on -
They likely have a stack of ads as you enter the store.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Small on
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I received a $50 coupon in the mail last week, so I took a trip over. I also have a 20% off coupon, though they can't be used together. I was standing there trying to figure out what the differences are between the two 5 speed drills (I can't figure it out) and saw the 12 speed next to them for $110. Take 20% off of that, isn't too bad. Still, it's not too far from a "brand name" drill at that price, so I decided to hold off, since I don't absolutely need one right now. If anyone wants one , 20% coupons are in "This Old House," and I think "American Woodworker."
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Gregoire on -
i have bought a lot of 'non power' tools from HF and have been very happy and so has my wallet!
and the only power tool i have from them is the Chicago multi function tool
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=67256
and it works awesome but i dont have a lot of hours on it yet to know how long it will last.
HF does sell some kind of extended warranty plan that covers stuff really well you could check
into with the savings you got back?
but for the price of $40 you wouldnt be out much if it did crap out on you!
good luck
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Permalink Reply by Jason Small on
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I picked that up too, for $30. The blades did not last long at all, and there's a bit of vibration. I'm not sure how they compare to the more expensive multi tools, but I've purchased a Dremel blade to compare that. Still, it does seem to work fairly well.
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Permalink Reply by Doug McKirdy on -
Over the years (lots of them), I have bought a lot of stuff from Harbor Freight. The general quality of things has steadily improved. When I buy from them, I expect that about 40% of the powered stuff will be returned. The only thing I ever returned twice was the 4" angle grinder (it seems that the brushes don't like stucco/masonry dust). The failures were my fault, and I told them what I had done, but they replaced them anyway with no argument.
I have had one of their 5 speed drill presses for about 20 years with no problem other that I keep losing the chuck key (fixed that with the magnet from inside an automatic transmission pan stuck to the top of the machine and the key sticks to it also). I don't use the drill press every day, but it has seen some abuse!. The 2" spindle stroke is seldom a problem. What is most anoying to me is the length of the shaft. It is metric sized and threaded, so I can't find anyone to make me a longer one. The model is SKU-1844.
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