i have a harbour freight drill press that was under water for about 2 weeks last years when the floods hit south texas. plugged it in today and the motor wants to turn the shaft but won't. belts are off so i know its the motor. i can hear it straining but no go. is it history? can i soak the innards w/knocker loose for awhile and hope for the best or ????

John,
Maybe you could put a pipe wrench on the shaft (with it unplugged) and see if you can turn the shaft freely? If not maybe you can get it to turn with a little persuasion??
If no luck there I'd say its a trot line weight!!!
Hope this helps,
Noel

Sound like the bearings have had it, they usually aren't that expensive.
Even if you broke it loose the damage is done to the bearings and you won't be able to rely on them.

I'm not a great fan of Harbor Freight's quality. I've seen too much negative feedback. If you want to go for a reasonably price import, I like Grizzly a whole lot better.

Spencer Has it right. Stop trying to run the motor or you'll fry the brushes.

Spencer Phipps wrote:

> Sound like the bearings have had it, they usually aren't that
> expensive.
> Even if you broke it loose the damage is done to the bearings
> and you won't be able to rely on them.

you're talking about the bearings on the shaft right? are they pressed on? would a new motor be cheap enough to not worry about this one?

Rich Levy wrote:

> I'm not a great fan of Harbor Freight's quality. I've seen too
> much negative feedback. If you want to go for a reasonably
> price import, I like Grizzly a whole lot better.

no doubt. but i hate to throw away a working unit ( assuming i can get it to work) just to say i own a better brand. i've had a harbor freight sander that was pure junk so i agree w/your assesment of them though. this drill press i inherited.

I have drill press that is also of similar quality, but from Northern Hydraulics.

The A.C. motor on your drill press is most likely a brushless induction motor. It also mostly likely has frozen bearings as someone already mentioned. They shoul dnot be all that difficult to replace. Some motors also use a starting capacitor. The best thing to do is to take the thing apart and clean out the motor as best you can. Many auto starter and alternator rebuild companies (see yellow pages) also rebuilt motors if you want to go that route. If worse comes to worst get another cheap motor from Harbor Freight - they stock some sizes or can order one for you...

Do not power the thing up if it is not turning - you will burn the windings out if you do so for too long.

Lou