# Harbor Freight 13" DP (Model 38142)



## USCJeff

Always nice to get a good one from HF. There's not a whole lot to a Drill Press, so decent gamble. I've been happy with their Dust Collector. Only use it between two tools adjacent to it. Same thing as you said, I oculd spend triple for a centralized machine, but it met my needs for the most part.


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## mrsawdust

Knot,
nicely written review. continued sucess with the drill press….
mike


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## Emeralds

Reliable functionality and value, two of the big three. Not being a "tool snob" myself, I don't own any of the truly highend names. I started buying tools in my 20's. Now in my mid 50's I still own and use many of the tools I purchased years ago daily. None are names that would impress but I paid a fair price and am still using them 30 years later.

Happy to hear you've found a good one.


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## mprzybylski

Scott, I was searching for reviews of this model and surprisingly this came up. Hope you don't mind me resurrecting this old post but I wanted to see how your press is doing all these years later. Would you purchase it again? Would you recommend it to someone else? Thanks for the review.


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## a1Jim

Scott your reviews always hold a lot of weight as far as I'm concerned. Thanks for the Review


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## knotscott

Hi Matt - It's essentially unchanged as far as I can tell….still very pleased. It's humble lineage suggests that your mileage may vary, but HF's return policy is good. Bring a coupon! Let us know how you make out!


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## crank49

I have the same machine; bought it about 18 months ago.
I would have to agree with everything you said about this Scott.
Plus I can add that it continues to work well for me after considerable use.

This was my second HF drill press. 
My first was the 12 speed 10" benchtop; model # 44836 which I paid about $100 for.

The 13", 16 speed, model #38142 which you reviewed is way, way more machine.
Anyone considering a drill press would be wise to go for this larger machine. Much more value.


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## mprzybylski

thanks guys, i'm gonna try to pick this puppy up. i too currently have their smaller model that only cost me $50 after coupon but its not really what i need in a drill press. undersized, underpowered, etc..


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## pdalton

Knotscott - I know your review of the Central Machinery (Harbor Freight) 38142 drill press has been up almost 10 years and, from other posts, I believe it's still performing well for you. So I went to the Harbor Freight site to look at it. I certainly was not surprised to see both a bench (38142) and full-standing (38144) version of it listed, but I was surprised to see that HF also has a very similar pair of 3/4HP 13", 16 speed drill press models, the 61786 (bench) and the 61483 (full-standing). I copied the specs to try to figure out the differences from what I though were the pair of the one you have. I found that there not only are a few differences between one pair and the other (e.g., UL vs CSA certification & 7.5A vs 6.6A motors), but that - while they all have 16 speeds - those speeds are different for each of them, even between the bench and full-standing versions of the same pair.

I don't know much about what speed is best for what operation, but I really don't understand why these 4 otherwise very similar drill presses would have such different speeds. Can you explain it?

I couldn't figure out how to copy my Word table here, so I converted it to a pdf; then I couldn't figure out how to add it either, so I converted that to a jpg image. I believe it should appear below now.

Thanks,
Paul


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## knotscott

Hi Paul - Yes, my 38142 DP is still running like new. Unfortunately, I have no clue about the speed differences in the models you listed. It could be something as simple as a typo or error.


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## pdalton

I returned and saw how poorly the chart looked that I posted. So in case anyone is actually interested in any of that information about the speeds of CM drill presses, I'm trying again after having reviewed the posting help, copying the image file to Photobucket and including the Photobook link below:

https://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p377/dpdalton/Compare%20Central%20Machinery%20drill%20presses_zpsvpblf4no.jpg


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