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I recently acquired a Drill Master 94203 1" to 2-1/2" Hole Saw Set from Harbor Freight Tools to bore some large holes after my old Ace Hardware set was discovered missing. (Long story, problem since solved). As often as I have been using a hole saw, I figured a cheapie wouldn't be a bad thing. I was wrong.
The good.
The steel cups are nice and straight, and if it was completely up to the cup, this would drill nice, perfectly straight holes exactly where you want them.
The injection molded case is nice for keeping your bits and pieces organized.
Everything you need is included, however...
The bad.
The set screw threads in the arbor were stripped out from the factory, making it impossible to tighten the set screw onto the pilot bit.
The pilot bit was bent from the factory, meaning once the set screw problem was taken care of by rethreading the hole and adding a new set screw, the saw still wouldn't drill a straight hole.
The solutions to the bad.
Using a machine tap, rethread the hole for the set screw, and replace the set screw with the new larger size. Pick your tap size and set screw size carefully, there isn't a lot of material to work with here.
Replace the pilot bit with a decent quality bit. I matched up the bit with a same size old mismatched Ace Hardware bit I had in a toolbox. I ground a flat spot for the set screw to tighten down to, and installed it. NOW the hole saw set works fine.
Long and short of it, don't waste your time, unless money is really that tight, and you have a tap set handy, and even then it is a pain to deal with... You will be far better off with a better quality set...
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I bought the large and small sets on sale to make bird houses out of scrap pallets and other boards.I did not wish to use my name brand hole saws in used wood where I could possibly hit a nail,a staple or dull them on the sandy dirt impregnated wood as some was very dirty.I have used them from the 1" to the 5" sizes with no problems so far.Now all I have used them in is soft,measured 5/8 to 1 inch Pine and Fir.I have been very gentile in my use.So far I have not hit a knot or any metal and all is going well with them.I would buy them again for this.
Now for HF set screws and bolts.I was going to buy some extra metric set screws to keep on hand to fit my hole saws and drill press.Also a longer bolt for the Drill Press.Ha!These are not standard metric screw threads!I bought a assortment of standard metric set screws and a bolt like fits everything else metric.No good with the Harbor Freight stuff so far.alfred
dbhost commented
I think I have an old VA arbor somewhere...
Like you mention, the cups are actually fairly decent. Not great, but worth the $$ if a pinch...
Certainly worth the cost of you can force them to work and are boring holes in questionable stock....