Stjohn's RV-7

Went to Harbor Freight in Lomita. Harbor Freight is insanely cool. I was Charlie Bucket in the Wonka factory while they were getting my stuff out of the warehouse. They got EVERYTHING a mechanically inclined mad scientist could ever want or need. So many dangerous and wonderful things to pour money over. Thankfully, the lawyers haven’t litigated hardware stores into the ground like they did with GA, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to walk out of there with half the stuff they’ve got.
But my 2 main purchases were the 34″ radial drill press and 12″ bandsaw. I didn’t shoot a lot of pix, because the drill press was slathered in machine oil and I didn’t want to grime up the camera too much. But here’s the basics:

the drill press in the box. It’s big, it’s heavy, it’s metal. w00t!

here’s the table assembly. Sort of. This thing is a copy/close relative of the Grizzly/Shop Fox/Craftsman version, probably all made in the same Chinese sweatshop. Table angles 0-90 both ways and rotates 360.

And this is the finished product. This freakin’ thing is HEAVY. The instructions for assembly are less than clear, but if you’re buying one of these, it’s probably safe to assume that you can solve a puzzle or two. The motor is only 1/3 hp, but it had absolutely no trouble going through a 1/8″ steel shelf bracket, and it bored through aluminum angle stock like a laser cannon. The slick thing about it is that it’s got like 17″ of reach, swings 180degrees, and the head can tilt 45 one way and 20 the other or something like that, so there’s not too many parts I can think of that I can’t put a drill to at the proper angle. Let the fabrication begin!

Here’s the bandsaw in its box. I think I saw this on somebody else’s RV site, and I liked the fact that it has a 12″ throat and that it’s very, very cheap. Although in the store it was $20 more than on the Internet, it was still worth it. Having said that though, this thing is one of the most poorly made pieces of gear I’ve ever bought. The manufacturing quality is right up there with die-cast metal toys. The paint is already flaking off the metal table, and the fit of the parts is crap.

Still though, once this was assembled, I was able to manufacture a stiffener like the previous ones in about six minutes, because crap as this saw is, it goes through thin aluminum like a blowtorch through lard.