Major Rant about HF 2hp DC

[Russianwolf]

Okay, this may have been mentioned before and I'm just too lazy to find it, but I went to the shop to assemble the Dc today and what do I find?

1) not enough hardware to assemble the thing as per instructions.

2) the hardware that I did have wouldn't fit through many of the holes on the base.

3) some of the hardware was of insuffiecient (sp?) length to allow for the use of the provided washers.

4) the length was also too short to allow me to install the bag hanger for the top bag.

Luckily I improvised and used a base that I had made for another project and my own hardware to finishe what I needed.

So, how many of you have a DC on a Maple and Cherry base with a Elm frame?

[LCHIEN]

The shortcomings of the HFDC instructions have been gone over MANY times.

Some time last year, early, because I got mine in January, it was noted in dissuasions here that they had made some changes in the design but not
corrected the instructions.

In fact, IIRC, the base had been originally made with thru-holes but the new design used punched and threaded holes so that the bolts holding down most of the components would no longer need the nut and lock washer but simply screw into the base. It was also noted that the parts lists as a result no longer added up and also there was confusing description of the screws/bolts, you had to count them to see which was which. The swivel casters had all be replaced by locking swivel casters and as a result the wheels would not swivel all the way since the lock levers hit the lip. So its interesting that the instructions over a year later still have not been updated.

There were quite some threads that should be searchable documenting all this.
like this:

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=2952&page=4&highlight=assembly+problem

[ironace]

My HF DC is setting in the middle of the shop waiting to be put together.... I found this site while research what DC to get http://www.cianperez.com/Wood/WoodDo...27s%20HFDC.htm

[jbalders]

My HF 2HP DC arrived about the same time as Loring got his. I had read the horror stories about the assembly. I seem to remember quickly looking through the instructions, and then doing my own assembly without looking at them again by pretending it was a jigsaw puzzle. It went together quicky and I didn't have any problems.

It had the same problem Loring mentioned regarding the casters hitting the sides of the frame. I bent the locks slightly, and no longer have problems. Others have put small blocks of 3/4" plywood under the base and attached the casters to that -- you'd need longer bolts or some other arrangement, though.

It's been a champ ever since.

[jdschulteis]

[. . .]
It had the same problem Loring mentioned regarding the casters hitting the sides of the frame. I bent the locks slightly, and no longer have problems. Others have put small blocks of 3/4" plywood under the base and attached the casters to that -- you'd need longer bolts or some other arrangement, though.

It's been a champ ever since.

I used scraps of 2x in the corners. My "other arrangement" was short lag bolts, 2 from the top holding each block to the base, 2 from the bottom holding each caster to its block. No problem so far.

[monte]

I purchased mine about a year ago and did not have any problems at al with the assembly. Sorry to hear of your problems.

[lcm1947]

Just curious. Why would you ever want to lock the DC anyway? I've never had to do that. Do you guys live on a hill? Just curious, not about the living on a hill but about having or needing to lock down the DC.

[LCHIEN]

Just curious. Why would you ever want to lock the DC anyway? I've never had to do that. Do you guys live on a hill? Just curious, not about the living on a hill but about having or needing to lock down the DC.

Ha, well you definately want the casters to be able to swivel. Some of the posters right after the swivel fiasco said they wondered why their wheels left 12 foot skid marks when they moved the DC.

My guess at the time was that the factory had been offered locking casters cheaper than their old non-locking casters and changed the supplier and model without having checked the fit forgetting about the added lever. That's a roundabout way of saying the originals did not lock - thus the answer would be it doesn't need to lock. (or, maybe they changed to locking because they found it did need to lock... isn't speculation fun? ).

[Russianwolf]

In my case all the nuts to attach the castrers were missing.

[Hellrazor]

Who reads the instructions? Half the fun is doing the work without them.

[sacherjj]

I didn't like the smallish nuts for the casters, so I purchased 16 bolts, nuts, and lockwashers and drilled out the holes to be the same size as the caster holes. I also mounted my Wynn filter today. Very nice. I went with the $91 paper blend filter.

[kmbanes]

There were supposed to be instructions?!?!?!?

kbanes

[wassaw998]

Mine went together smooth with no issues (all parts included), including no issues on the casters. There appears to be a few "variations" floating around, plus some quality control issues, which is not a real shocker considering the source! Don't let me discourage you, but, if I had to do it over again, I'd look real hard at the Delta 50-760 , esp. considering you'd not have to be concerned about buying a quality bag/conversion cart to beat the 30 mic bags on the HF unit...

http://www.deltamachinery.com/index.asp?e=136&p=5815

[BobSch]

There were supposed to be instructions?!?!?!?

kbanes

THAT'S what the sheet of paper was? I thought it was Chineese TP Well, back to the Sears catalog, I guess...

Seriously, anytime you buy something from HF that needs assembly, plan on doing some improvising.

[venkatbo]

... Don't let me discourage you, but, if I had to do it over again, I'd look real hard at the Delta 50-760 , esp. considering you'd not have to be concerned about buying a quality bag/conversion cart to beat the 30 mic bags on the HF unit...

As an FYI...

I think in the latest issue of Fine Woodworking mag, they've rated this particular Delta model as the Best Bang For The Buck & got the Editor's Choice... And with the $50 off at Amazon, you can probably get it for ~250 (HD price match of $300 - $50) - that's ~30 higher than fitting the HF model with a 1 micron bag...

/venkat