Fixing a Harbor Freight style Arbour Press.

[tonyfoale]

I recently got this cheapo chinese Arbour Press

Click on thumbnails for full size pix.

I tend to look at these cheap tools as a kit of parts delivered assembled to ensure that you receive all the parts for subsequent fixing and proper assembly. In this case I was not disappointed, there were a few things to fix before use.

I prepared a PDF file describing the problems and the fixes.

Arbour Press faults and fixes

Update:

This morning I made the steel press plate. It is larger and I have made it square to give the maximum possible support to the workpiece. I ignored the width of the slots in the original plate and made them to suit what I expect to be most used. I wanted to clear shafts of 10 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, 17 mm, 20 mm and 25 mm. So I cut slots of 11, 16, 21 and 26 mm each with the minimum necessary length to match the widths.

The following photos show the new plate, firstly just the plate and secondly the plate with the original for comparison.



The PDF has been updated to include the new plate.