henrik_o
06-19-2007, 12:38 PM
Awaiting shipment of PRSAlpha I’ve been doing some rounds of purchasing to accomodate the new machine and machining area in the shop. Yesterday I took delivery of the Häfele HPC cart, which has been mentioned in several discussions on this forum. It’s the panel cart with tiltable table and adjustable height.
(I know this is not strictly a shopbot thread, but since the operation of the shopbot machine puts certain demands on the operators, and since this is a product that has great promise for those procedures, I’ll wager that it qualifies for posting. If not, please remove.)
Overall, I really like the design. It has great promise, and the price was unbelievably good -- I paid $345 including shipping from Häfele US to Häfele Europe and to my door. Having assembled the cart, I must however say that the build quality is horrible. I don’t know what’s going on here, I identify Häfele with high quality products that often involves paying a premium, so the price made me a bit suspicious. Still, I would have expected much better, even for that price. I know that other users on this forum utilize this product, and I would like comments on what your experience is, did I happen to receive a ‘Monday’ specimen, or is this the general build quality?
Materials are ok, not great but ok. The welding is below par. It will probably stand up to the abuse we’ll inflict on it, but it’s still worse than what we could do ourselves, not being a metal shop. Finishing is poor, certainly far below the finish on other Häfele products we have purchased, and the nice ferrari reddish color doesn’t quite make up for it. The assembly instructions are so-so, they work but there are some things not mentioned in them that should be. The release pedal had far too much lateral play, so we had to shim it. The horizontal stops did not have a securing nut, so we had to provide that as well. The carriage bolts intended to serve as a semi-lock for the vertical position do not really work at all, we will have to install something we think up on our own. Also, where the jack pedal impacts the car they had glued on a small rubber pad -- a nice detail, if they had actually placed it right and if the glue was not so poor that it came half peeled off right out of the packaging (I realize complaining about this detail sounds petty, but I mention it exactly because this is the kind of detail I’m used to Häfele not only thinking about but also getting right.)
Given the price, I can live with all of the above. It still feels odd, this being Häfele-branded, but ok, gotta look at the price. I know it sounds like I’m complaining, but I’m not, not for $345.
What’s really borderline for me however is the following:
1) The lock mechanism which secures the table in the horizontal position was seriously misaligned, causing the spring-loaded pin to be blocked. We had to file off not one, not two, but three millimeters on the table unit to make it lock. Not a big deal perhaps, given that ten minutes of filing made up for it, but given how important this mechanism is for safe operation of the product it was a huge surprise.
2) The oil cylinder (the pedal pump jack), was compromised on delivery. We haven’t opened it up, but we will have to, because it’s leaking. Due to this, it fails to action up to the listed height -- it peters out and loses action a full two inches before specified max height. This makes the whole cart useless for us right now, since we can’t get lift to the level of any of our machining tables. I don’t know what’s wrong with it, but it cannot have happened in transit, it must have been this way on shipment.
3) At least two of the oil nipples were broken on delivery. We can rectify this on one of them with minor repairs, but the other one is permanently damaged. This, also, cannot have happened in transit, not the way these items were packaged. They must have shipped out like this.
In closing, I would like to be able to recommend this product. I really like Häfele Sweden and Europe, I like the quality, service and care they give to the customer. The design of this product is great, there are some minor things I’d take issue with and feel are unnecessary compromises, but overall it has great promise and is a great productivity-enhancer for an even greater price. I’ve taken it for a test ride and though the faulty cylinder issue makes it non-productive for the moment, after our modifications I will say that this product will allow me to do what would previously have been impossible when alone in the shop (weekend work etc) and will make many regular hours work procedures that are now two-man turn into one-man jobs, or make two-man operations a lot faster.
What’s the experience of other users of this product? Is this what one should expect, or did I receive a bad apple?
(I know this is not strictly a shopbot thread, but since the operation of the shopbot machine puts certain demands on the operators, and since this is a product that has great promise for those procedures, I’ll wager that it qualifies for posting. If not, please remove.)
Overall, I really like the design. It has great promise, and the price was unbelievably good -- I paid $345 including shipping from Häfele US to Häfele Europe and to my door. Having assembled the cart, I must however say that the build quality is horrible. I don’t know what’s going on here, I identify Häfele with high quality products that often involves paying a premium, so the price made me a bit suspicious. Still, I would have expected much better, even for that price. I know that other users on this forum utilize this product, and I would like comments on what your experience is, did I happen to receive a ‘Monday’ specimen, or is this the general build quality?
Materials are ok, not great but ok. The welding is below par. It will probably stand up to the abuse we’ll inflict on it, but it’s still worse than what we could do ourselves, not being a metal shop. Finishing is poor, certainly far below the finish on other Häfele products we have purchased, and the nice ferrari reddish color doesn’t quite make up for it. The assembly instructions are so-so, they work but there are some things not mentioned in them that should be. The release pedal had far too much lateral play, so we had to shim it. The horizontal stops did not have a securing nut, so we had to provide that as well. The carriage bolts intended to serve as a semi-lock for the vertical position do not really work at all, we will have to install something we think up on our own. Also, where the jack pedal impacts the car they had glued on a small rubber pad -- a nice detail, if they had actually placed it right and if the glue was not so poor that it came half peeled off right out of the packaging (I realize complaining about this detail sounds petty, but I mention it exactly because this is the kind of detail I’m used to Häfele not only thinking about but also getting right.)
Given the price, I can live with all of the above. It still feels odd, this being Häfele-branded, but ok, gotta look at the price. I know it sounds like I’m complaining, but I’m not, not for $345.
What’s really borderline for me however is the following:
1) The lock mechanism which secures the table in the horizontal position was seriously misaligned, causing the spring-loaded pin to be blocked. We had to file off not one, not two, but three millimeters on the table unit to make it lock. Not a big deal perhaps, given that ten minutes of filing made up for it, but given how important this mechanism is for safe operation of the product it was a huge surprise.
2) The oil cylinder (the pedal pump jack), was compromised on delivery. We haven’t opened it up, but we will have to, because it’s leaking. Due to this, it fails to action up to the listed height -- it peters out and loses action a full two inches before specified max height. This makes the whole cart useless for us right now, since we can’t get lift to the level of any of our machining tables. I don’t know what’s wrong with it, but it cannot have happened in transit, it must have been this way on shipment.
3) At least two of the oil nipples were broken on delivery. We can rectify this on one of them with minor repairs, but the other one is permanently damaged. This, also, cannot have happened in transit, not the way these items were packaged. They must have shipped out like this.
In closing, I would like to be able to recommend this product. I really like Häfele Sweden and Europe, I like the quality, service and care they give to the customer. The design of this product is great, there are some minor things I’d take issue with and feel are unnecessary compromises, but overall it has great promise and is a great productivity-enhancer for an even greater price. I’ve taken it for a test ride and though the faulty cylinder issue makes it non-productive for the moment, after our modifications I will say that this product will allow me to do what would previously have been impossible when alone in the shop (weekend work etc) and will make many regular hours work procedures that are now two-man turn into one-man jobs, or make two-man operations a lot faster.
What’s the experience of other users of this product? Is this what one should expect, or did I receive a bad apple?