Review - Arbor Press

This is a review of the Harbor Freight 1 ton arbor press (Central-Machinery - item#3552 ), pictured to the left. I should note that this review is based on my initila un-boxing, inspection, and minor modifications. I have only owned the arbor press a few days as I write this (Aug. 16, 2014), so I am not yet in a position to discuss how it performs in actual use.The purchase cost was $40 (on sale, plus a 20% discount coupon - regular price is $70); there was no delivery charge as I purchased it at a local store. My initial impression is that it is worth what I paid for it; if I had paid full price I think I would not be as satisfied.

Fit and Finish

The finish on the press is, in a word, serviceable. To put this another way, nothing has been done that is not absolutely required to enable the press to function, and pretty much every possible corner has been cut. The press requires some minor assembly out of the box, some adjustment of the gib screws, and some lubrication - having done that the press should function as required. However, only a little bit of work can improve the finish and operation significantly, as will be seen below.

Let's start with the press as it comes out of the box (picture to the left). The only assembly absolutely required is to insert the pinion gear/handle, and fasten the locking collar by tightening a set screw. The gib screws on my unit were loose and required adjusting (no big deal), and lubrication is needed. The manual includes a parts list, but is otherwise pretty useless.

However, I highly recommend complete dis-assembly, cleaning, and inspection, as well as the other modifications detailed below.

Also, right away we can see some questionable manufacturing decisions: The pinion gear is chrome plated, and the bearing surfaces for the gear/handle are painted! Neither of these are critical concerns, but they do show even simple masking was eliminated to cut manufacturing costs.

I simply threw the painted gib strip away, and replaced it with a brass strip (see photo to the left). In addition, because the gib screws are rolled threads and have "cupped" ends, I used my bench grinder to flatten the ends of all of the gib screws.

The side gib screws contact the side of the rack directly (no gib strip), so I made small brass plugs from 0.25" brass rod (0.100" long) so that the contact point would be brass on steel instead of steel on steel.

For the "thumb screw" for the handle, I made a similar plug, but out of UHWM plastic instead of brass. The thumb screw is basic but workable; however the stamped out metal tab was left with the stamped edges rough, so I used my grinder to remove the rough edges and smooth out the pin holding it in.

The plate and the surface it rests on were both ground flat, and the plate sat nicely on the base with no rocking. Aside from painting and grinding the surfaces of the plate (both sides) no further work was done on the plate, so the edges of the slots were left ragged and sharp. It only took a few minutes with a hand file to clean these up.

The photo to the left shows the ragged edges before filing.

The lever handle is a simple chromed metal rod, with rubber caps instead of ball ends; another cost cutting measure I assume. I don't know how well the rubber caps will hold up in use, but if they wear out I'll just made some ball ends.