HF dust collector put together.

[imahic]

Back before we left to work this last storm I bought HF dust collector on sale. Last night after the shop warmed up I got out there and thought I would put it together. Still trying to get the shop cleaned up but I figured it would be easier to move around with the casters on it than to move that big old box around. Wow! that was a first for putting together something from HF. The instructions were minimal at best. The very first thing it had me do was put the casters on. I had checked the parts list and while it listed the parts it did not list how many of each you would have. After getting things sorted out so I could look thru them as I put it together I tried to put the casters on. It said to put a hex screw with sizes what I now believe to have been metric. Let me mention now that I don't savvy metric too good. The only HEX bolts I had enough of to put the casters on were too big for the holes and would have prevented the casters from turning. Luckily I had some pan head phillips bolts so I used them. I finally got the thing put together with a lot of guesswork. The screws I had left over must have been what they intended to use for the casters but the head was so small it was barely larger than the hole it was supposed to go thru. Add to that the fact that those HEX screws they talked about were a rounded pan head phillips similar to what I used. The casters are trash and do not turn well at all. I'm gonna have to fix that when I get a chance. Otherwise it looks like the dust collector might work just fine. I fired it up after I got it put together and it runs and has a lot of suction so we'll see what happens. I have assemble lots of things before but those were some of the sorriest instructions yet. Glad I am somewhat mechanically inclined enough to figure it out.....lol. Gonna work out there today and do some rewiring. Bought a couple of sub panels yesterday to run for lights and outlets so I can free up some slots in my main panel.

Mike


Mike

[TDHofstetter]

Dang - it sucks (no pun) you ran into so much trouble. Mine was pretty easy to get together (heavy as heck to move down the steps & out to the shop afterwards, though). I wonder if maybe they put the wrong bag of hardware in with yours. If I recall correctly, I had to mount the casters with the bolts pointing upwards instead of downwards, but all the hardware fit right.

Pulls a huge amount of air, doesn't it?

[brburns]

Harbour Freight manuals are minimal, caster's arn't the best. But the DC works. That's what matters.

FWIW, the switch on mine burnt up this weekend. Odd since I've been turning it on and off with a shop fox remote for 2 of the 3 years I've had it. hadn't even flipped that switch in 2 years.....Oh well, I just bypassed it. That is probably the best possible thing to fail on it as far as I'm concerned.

[imahic]

To tell the truth Tim, I didn't even think about turning them up like you talk about. I don't think it is the bolts causing the problems since I turned it up and can turn them fine by hand. With weight on they just seem to stick though. But as you say , it DO suck some air....lol

Mike

[brent]

Mine had one of the rods missing that hold up the green ring between the bags. It also had a cut in the flex hose that goes from the the impeller to that ring. I tried to find the part number on the diagram, but they had changed the design and not the manual. I eventually, after a few phone calls, was able to get the correct part sent and a replacement for the hose.
Since then I have mounted in on top of a cyclone, and just added a Wynn filter to it. It has worked great for about six or seven years.
That is one HF tool that I would (and do often) recommend.