Harbor Freight 12 Ton Shop Press - What Are They Thinking?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 19 вер 2024
- Having need for a small shop press to do an upgrade on the Odyssey and short on time, I headed to Harbor Freight to see what they had to offer. I picked up their 12 ton shop press and while it got the job done and the price was obviously good, there are just a few things that surprised me.
Dunefest Website: www.dunefest.com
Home Page: www.oddballorv.com
Facebook: / oddballorv
Odyssey Clothing & Apparel: oddballorv.squ...
It was 160.00 dollars. A machine shop isn't going to buy one. For a guy who works on ATV's it is fine. We farm and frankly we appreciate Harbor Freight. There stuff isn't perfect but you are a handy guy. Make a few modifications and you have a perfectly serviceable press for cheap.
Generally I agree but with a couple of very minor tweaks it would significantly improve the function and safety probably with very little cost increase.
@@OddballORV they may well could do that. I know they shave every corner they can but that is the very thing that keeps the stuff cheap. We own a ton of Snap On but honestly on the farm where it could be lost or damaged we are pretty thankful for them lol.
I got the 12 ton press yesterday and it now it does come with a one piece handle with a grip on the end, and there are two bolts that go through the bottle jack plate and secure it into the sliding cross member. So it looks like they improved it recently
That is great to hear, especially the bolts to keep the bottle jack in place.
@@OddballORV I think these kinds of videos is what actually improves HF and the industry -- so many thanks for making one!
CONvid lol
@@oseaghin Thanks! This type of video isn't my usual type of video, I'm focused solely on vintage Honda Odyssey and Pilot's but my experience with this press caused me to think it was worth done a video on. Just my own personal experience to share with others. I'm glad that so many people have found it informative.
In other words, a couple minor tweaks and it’s fine. Ya want some cheese to go with that “Whine”.
When I purchase a product, I'm expecting it to be good out of the box. I'm not expecting to have to make some "minor tweaks" to make it "just fine". The point of the video is that there are some very minor tweaks that would make the press great out of the box. Others who have commented have already pointed out that current versions of the press seem to have addressed some of the issues already. As a home jobber, I appreciate being able to find videos on products I'm considering purchasing and seeing all of the positives and negatives about the product so I can make an informed decision.
I thought it was a good review and if harbor freight is watching that is awesome and free feedback for them to make it better
I for one appreciate people like you that make reviews like this. It contributes to better quality consumer products, and as an industrial designer and product design engineer myself, It goes an extremely long way.
The HF press is so cheap you can't beat it. Most people I know make small modifications.
For the bottle jack, drill two holes and put bolts in it to the plate.
On the X Arbor plates use the rubber grid grips and that will keep it still. Could make a plate rail for around $24 with 1/8" 2x2 hot rolled steel angle iron and a few bolts
Good suggestions. It's been a while since I did this video, I should probably do an update with all of the suggestions people have offered.
One roll of duck tape will solve all his problems, thanks for the review.
Duck tape, fixes everything from the crack of dawn to a broken heart. That's what my pappy always used to say!
I have thousands of dollars in snap on tools, but have bought icon tools , wrench, screw drivers. I'm here to tell you , there's nothing wrong with them, they've really stepped up their quality
Yes, for the price, hard to beat and the quality is much higher than what you would get from Lowes or Home Depot house brands.
good review
Thank you! I hope you found it informative.
Thanks for the info. I’m looking at getting the 20 ton press tomorrow and knowing what to expect is extremely helpful.
Glad you found it helpful. It has come in handy a couple of times for sure but I will be doing some work on it to make it safer to use at some point. Hope it works well for you!
I use two 1/4'' beam clamps on the top beam and two broom holders to hold the handle when not in use.
An interesting idea.
Take the cost of steel. channel. angles etc. price them. and then your timeto build it. and you will have spent well over $300 to build it yourself.it is well worth the money to have to make a few mods to it to make it viable tool that's what harbor freight is all about. giving us "Poor" guys something we can work with to get the job done!. that we can actually afford.
Very true.
Mine came with a one piece handle and hex cap screws to bolt the jack down.
It seems that they have made changes since I made this video.
Dude …. Go get your old lady and have her work your press … she’ll prolly complain less than you
What a fascinating comment. Glad you watched!
Trolls seem to like you, or they just have more time than good sense.
MEH, yeah it's junk but it will get you through on a project. I bought the 20 ton and it had addressed all of your complaints except the powder coating. With coupon it was 216.00. Every piece of shop equipment you buy from hobofreight is a project in itself. Buy a media blast cabinet and find out...
If space wasn't an issue for me, the 20 ton might have been on my radar. Good to hear it addressed most of the concerns I had.
Love the disk brake setup. Looking foreword to seeing that video.
I noticed it right away when the video started.
Don't think you will be able to run the stock rims though. Not much clearance unless calipers on the outside of rim.
What I did on my stock front brake set up was make a slightly longer arm on the master cylinder for the front brakes. It made a huge difference.
Hope you are running avgas.
Fuel pump must put out 4.5oz in 10sec at idle.
Don't idle or do a "drive way tune-up" for very long. The transmission AB gear don't get lube unless you are moving because it's a splash lube system. I over fill my transmissions on my three oddys.
Thanks for your comments! Disc brake video will be coming out in the next week or two so stay tuned. Yes, stock wheels won't work, I already have aluminum DWT wheels though. I am aware of idling and the transmission, I intend to do a video on that at some point in the future.
Maybe watch some other mods updates and see how to drill 4x 1/4" holes on each plate and install a press pin on them? That way they can never fall off.
Thanks, I have a few ideas on what I want to do but lot's of other projects to tackle beforehand.
They watched ur video and fixed these issues
That would be cool if that was indeed the case.
Old model I guess. I just bought one yesterday and the faults found on this video are non existent in my model also a 12T same brand color except my bottle jack has a plate welded on beam that supports the jack steady with 2 hex bolts and rod is also 1 piece now.
Glad to hear they fixed the issues.
I'm on 4:13 and as soon as you brought up the black 2 things they give you for a table and mention how slick the crossway channel is.
I stopped it and right away totally "agree" . What were they thinkin. I just put the 20 ton together this morning, and I thought how are these going to stay on there. so slippery. I had to take 2 clamps away from my C-clamp inventory and leave them 1 on each piece. They so easily could of just made them with some 1/4" or less holes in a few spots to line up with holes matching in the sideways channel a
person could drop in some hold it pins
and now I stopped it on 5:50 I didn't have a 2 piece handle but there was to attached piece to hold the handle when not in use.
so under, or rather on each side of the 20 ton decal on top there. I had to cut 2 pieces of angle about and 3/4" long and grind the edges off & weld at least 1 side on each to the channel bottom lip. that works slick . can't miss the handle now.
And mentioning grinding / I wonder if your going to cover this? 4 edge's of the channel had to be rounded off, the back ones behind it can stay pointy & sharp. I don't care about the ones behind, as mine is against the wall lined up by my welder .
Yeah, that was one of the really surprising things to me is how slick that paint job was and how easily the plates moved around. I'm just a casual home jobber so I'm not working in steel toed boots. Whenever I use the press, I always keep in mind how easily those plates could fall on a toe.
I'm having a difficult time visualizing what you are describing for some reason.
I used anti slip strip tape to hold the arbors still
Excellent idea!
Tighten down the eye bolts all the way. That way the springs will have tension and hold the jack in place better.
That is a work around for sure. The bigger question is, why didn't they include a simple bolt in the first place?
I understand your frustration, but the way I look at it is it's incredibly affordable to get the HF 12/20Ton shop presses and that savings gives you tons of room to modify it to your liking.
I've made $200 20Ton presses work like $1500 Drake presses. Just takes a bit of modifying.
What many do on the HF line is:
• change out bottle to a Air one so you can hook up air to bring it down to the bearing/bushing and then switch to hand controls for feel.
• Add a wench with a couple pulleys on the top to lift the base plate up or down to quickly change pins to different lengths without having to hold up plates and other press accessories that are heavy.
• Rolling wheels to easily bring out or put away when needed.
• 1/8" floor box plate to replace the two legs with Class 10.9 bolts to give it far more structural strength and adding 1/8" hot rolled mild steel to the sides and frame. Some even add steel in the split base on beams. This makes it much harder to bend the beams you press on so they can't fold on themselves. Turned one into a 30T press with a pressure gauge on top.
You got the old version there somewhere..they updated it to part # 60604 about 5-6yrs back. Better mounting for the jack, better arbor plates, more solid construction
That is interesting. I made the video shortly after purchasing it. If they updated it 5 or 6 years ago, not sure why I was unfortunate to end up with an old stock unit.
Surprisingly they sell both old/new versions til this day I think.
Gotta buy it the part/sku # to get the right one
Looks like you got the older style press. Take it back and ask for the new style. They've made some improvements to it.
Water is to far under the bridge at this time. I hardly need to use it anyway, I just wanted others to be aware in case they are looking to purchase.
I am surprised the other guy on the other channel showed the complete installation it is pretty simple can be confusing
but make sure when you put the legs on make sure the cross piece also goes on you may put the legs on it forget the cross piece then you have to go back take it all apart again
I'm not entirely sure what other guy on the other channel you are referring to.
I noticed in a previous video you don't have any shock savers.
You need these because if you blow a rear u-joint you WILL bend your rear shock.
Don't see the vent mod on your engine either when you did the rebuild on that engine.
Shock savers are on the to do list. I didn't pull the entire engine and so didn't elect to do the vent mod. I follow the recall service manual for the amount of oil to use. Might be on borrowed time but until I am ready to pull the entire engine, it will have to do.
The press you received seem to be an amalgamation of two different press designs sold at HF.
This is an older video, from what others have said, it appears they made some changes in the last year or so.
I bought a 12 ton HF Shop Press over 30 years ago. Did several mods, knob on bottle jack relief screw, welded the handle solid, drilled guide pin holes on plates to keep them locked in place and riser plates. Added an accessory tray and locking casters. Most recently made a press brake, it only has 1", 2",,3" and 4" fingers. I can bend 3/16" x 6" steel to 90 degrees angles. I have replaced Corvette axle shaft bearings, pinion bearings. Has done everything I needed a press to do.
Nice, sounds like you got your money out of it for sure and you got it dialed in proper with all of those mods.
Also you have the old model
This video was a couple of years ago. I understand there have been several changes since.
Before I even began to watch this I saw the broken torsion spring on his garage door. Am I really going to take the opinion of a mechanic whose garage door spring is cracked in two?
You know the irony? I was a garage door installer at one time in my life. Yup, just let the one spring do the job for about a year or two because we don't use the garage on a regular basis and I'm the only person that ever used it. Some garage doors operate with just a single spring. A two spring door provides an extra element of safety but if your opener has the power, it will still operate just fine with one spring. No, I'm not suggesting anyone do as I did so don't take it that way.
You can rest easy though, I eventually did replace the Spring so all is good.
Obviously dude you no mechanic to be complaining about the things you were complaining about.Period.I saw nothing wrong with the press but operator.Take care.Toughing up some 👍🏼
Mechanic? No, a real mechanic wouldn't be messing around with a Harbor Freight press if they didn't have to or their livelihood depended on it. A home jobber that has an occasional need for a press, yup that is me and who the video is meant for.
nothing keeping this thing in place although i cant remove it
You are a broken spring away from it falling out and on your foot. Considering how much the spring is stretched in use, a broken spring is not unlikely. HF actually did make a change on future versions and added a bolt for this. Having a bottle jack drop on your foot from four feet is enough to do some damage if it ever worked. Unlikely, yes but impossible? Absolutely not especially in the volumes that HF probably sells these at.
There are 2 different models of these presses. You got the crappier version. This video shows the differences between the versions: ua-cam.com/video/iKulnOpmI_c/v-deo.htmlsi=NEO1HiBZb8-x6Fol
As far as the press plates, just weld a couple bits of steel on the bottom side(even drilling in a couple dowel pins) to keep the plates centered.
The better version of the press(60604) has a longer, thicker handle; as well as having the bottle jack better affixed to the crossbeam.
Wow, that sure explains why so many people said they had updated the model. I wonder if they just did a revision on it and at one point had both versions in the supply chain. Thanks for the video link.
@@OddballORV Both versions are still in stores. Whenever you see multiple sku's for an HF item, they're from different suppliers.
How do you decide what tonnage you need?
I'm mostly a hobbiest so I just went with the one that was in my budget which is good enough for most of what I do.
You could take care of all your grips with a little work and things you have laying around the shop fora few extra dollars
Some day I probably will. I did this video months ago when I needed it just for one quick job. Busy at the moment with many other projects but the next time I need to do something extensive with the press I will likely do some work on it.
in Beijing is watching this video they need to improve their welding though several places on my unit the weld before it flattened it is almost like spikes that might hurt you two places I know of I haven't looked over...... and if you want to get particular when they ground the holes along the large long shafts it doesn't look good to leave the grind marks maybe you should have used another tool or ground the whole thing up and down up and down
Rough welding is kind of what you expect for something at this price point. However, it does do the job for casual shop needs and so it works well enough for my needs.
I think HF actually watches these videos.
That would be interesting to know for sure but definitely glad the changes were made either way.
Ive had one for decades and used it for almost every purpose imaginable. Never had a problem. If you dont like the coating, remove it. It is an overseas cheap item. Expecting it to be perfect is a bit delusional.
Forge On!!!
Perfection is not what I expected at all, but some of these issues could have been addressed very easily (and I understand might have been in current versions). It gets the job done and it is simple enough to fix things but people should be aware of them before they buy hence the video.
Looks like the press was designed for an amputee. If your scared of it falling on your toes, get one of those steel toed shoes for $200.
If I used it on a regular basis and didn't make any changers to it, steel toed boots would be a good idea.
Where can I buy replacement hydraulic hydraulic press leaks
It's just a standard bottle jack, you can buy the same bottle jack at Harbor Freight I believe.
You realize this is 140 bucks as opposed to 4-500 hundred right? You’re gonna get an inferior product it’s just a matter of how much you’re willing to give up on quality vs cost. It’s still a good deal if you’re on a budget
Sure, but for maybe an extra $5 they could have addressed some of these problems. From other people's comments, it sounds like they actually did make some changes for the better in later versions.
there's two model of the 12-ton press..
I only saw the one model I have at my local store. Did your store have both models on the floor?
@@OddballORV no that's the thing. The model that they had on the floor is the one that I thought I was getting. Didn't know they had more than one model and they don't tell you that. Only when I brought the one back did they tell me about the numbers on the tag.
thank god you never worked in a welding shop wow obviously you have never used a press
Indeed, I do not work in a welding shop. What do you think I was wrong about in regards to the video?
Wow. Wahhhhh. I don’t know what you were expecting. For that price point, you know it’s gonna need some tweaking. So hit those plates with sandpaper, so they don’t slide around so easily. Use your other jack handle. And then after bitching and moaning about how the jack is going to fall out. And then you can’t even get it out when you tried. If you can’t work with stuff like this, then go spend 1000 bucks or more on higher quality.
For a few dollars more, these issues could have been addressed and it would be a great tool without these problems. It still is a great tool for the money and anybody using it is likely going to have the skills to address the problems I noted. I just wished I had the benefit of watching a video pointing out these issues before purchasing so I could have weighed other options before making my decision.
As far as not being able to get the jack to fall out in the video, I had enough tension in the springs that made that more difficult and that is what you saw. Someone else could very easily not tension the springs like I did and it would fall out. Or, if one of the springs broke, it would fall out. It's a failure point and a way for injury that need not exist when a simple bolt could solve the problem.
Ah hell, some people should just stay away from tools . lol Or just buy a Van Norm for five grand or so . Do you understand it's under 200 bones ? lol
If you read through other people's comments, it turns out there are actually two different styles of this same press that can be purchased. Some people have suggested they updated the press and addressed most of these issues and that I just have an older one. Other people suggested that there are two different manufacturers that make the press and each doesn't it differently and it is just what your HF has on the shelf for what you get.
Either way, while the price is good and the press does what I need it to do (mostly stand in the corner and collect all of my magnetic based lights I have in the shop) for just a few dollars more they could have bolted the jack to the plate, provided a better handle and braced the bottom feet better. All things that are actually addressed in the second version of the press if you are lucky enough to get that one.
I wish people would realize nobody cares about anything else except the thing they are watching the video for. For talking about all that stuff no one cares about I give a thumbs down.
Yet this video continues to get views. What is your UA-cam channel so I can watch it and comment and give thumbs down?
@@OddballORV it’s called “Your mom gives thumbs up”