Harbor Freight 6000-Pound Lift Thoughts

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SteveHGraham
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Harbor Freight 6000-Pound Lift Thoughts

Post by SteveHGraham »

My shop gets bigger and bigger as I organize it. I am now convinced I have ample room for a lift table.

I'm wondering if anyone here has tried the Harbor Freight 6000-lb. scissor lift.

I was considering a K&L Supply motorcycle table. It lifts 2000 pounds, it appears to be set up better for motorcycles than anything out there, and you can add wings to make it hold small tractors. I figured I could use it as a shop table most of the time and then lift stuff when needed.

This product will run about $3600 when you buy all the things you actually need to make it work. They price it lower, but then you find out you can't do anything with it without accessories.

The Harbor Freight scissor lift can be in my driveway for $1450 plus tax. It lifts 6000 pounds. It has 7 height stops. They designed it so you can move it around with the wheeled pump unit. It's not a table or a motorcycle lift, but you can add a few things and make it do those jobs just fine, and will cost a hell of a lot less than $3600. People say it's the same machine Bendpak sells for more money, except the Harbor Freight version has more stops.

It's hard to see anything wrong with this deal. A little piece of plywood with a 2x4 frame would turn it into a shop table, and a couple of fabricated doodads would turn it into a motorcycle lift. It already works for cars and tractors. It would be somewhat less handy for bikes than a K&L, but the up side seems to outweigh this con by a wide margin.

The other day I turned the giant shelf complex that was clogging my garage, and it opened things up and got stuff off the floor. Yesterday I moved the other shelves 4 feet closer to it, getting rid of over 30 square feet of dead space. It's starting to look like a workshop instead of an abandoned storage unit.

09 29 19 workshop shelves moved closer together small.jpg
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STRR
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Re: Harbor Freight 6000-Pound Lift Thoughts

Post by STRR »

Steve,

There is a great video on YouTube. You can look it up as I don't have the link for it. I was impressed as I didn't know HF sold anything like that. If my driveway was level, I think I would get one just for regular maintenance on vehicles.
rrnut-2
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Re: Harbor Freight 6000-Pound Lift Thoughts

Post by rrnut-2 »

That lifts looks pretty nice. You could make a nice adjustable work table with that. It would also make a nice train loading/unloading lift, with the right top, I would think. I have a Southworth 2500lb, 8ft lift hydraulic table that I use mostly for a workbench and would have a hard time doing without now. And no, I didn't pay full price for it.

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liveaboard
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Re: Harbor Freight 6000-Pound Lift Thoughts

Post by liveaboard »

Machines that lift things are good machines.

Which one is best for you depends on a lot of things that only you can know.

It sounds like the lift table will work for you.
RONALD
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Re: Harbor Freight 6000-Pound Lift Thoughts

Post by RONALD »

I have three Harbor Frate Lift tables, and they all have one problem, when you pump them up to a desired height, they slowly go back down.

My brother, an expert in oil seals, believed it was the rubber compounds the Chinese used.

I have two like the one shown below, and a smaller one used for vises, I think they are 1000 and 500 lbs.

Those two Presto and the Econo Lift, which are electric motor pumped lift tables, that were made in the USA, have no such problems (see a previous post)

Below is one of those HF tables with a testing track mounted on it.

By morning, it would be back down to the bottom.

Of course, Presto, which I bought off of eBay used, was still many times the cost of HF; you get what U's pay for!
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Magicniner
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Re: Harbor Freight 6000-Pound Lift Thoughts

Post by Magicniner »

RONALD wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 9:25 am I have three Harbor Frate Lift tables, and they all have one problem, when you pump them up to a desired height, they slowly go back down.
What happens that makes them safe in the event of a major hydraulic failure?
rrnut-2
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Re: Harbor Freight 6000-Pound Lift Thoughts

Post by rrnut-2 »

My Southworth will drift down as well. My major customer has Presto lifts and they have had 2 from the factory that drifted down. Both the factory and a local hydraulics shop told them that was acceptable. Not for my customer it isn't! They use 2 lifts to pick up a machine and work on it. I replaced the pumps on the 2 lifts, they have 10 in all, and that fixed the problem. Mine, I don't care, I use an aluminum block between the one of the rollers and the frame so it only drifts down to the block and stops.

Since they are not man lifts, they don't have safety's on them in case of a hose failure. If they did, that would cost more.

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liveaboard
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Re: Harbor Freight 6000-Pound Lift Thoughts

Post by liveaboard »

They may not be man lifts but people will be working around them, with heavy objects on them.
If used only to lift before shifting the load to another surface, then that's one thing, but if you're going to use the lift as a work table I think you need to add some sort of mechanical lock to hold the height in place.

It's rare for hydraulics to not leak at all. This sort of thing has a needle valve at the pump, which should close completely. There's still the seal and fittings.
whateg0
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Re: Harbor Freight 6000-Pound Lift Thoughts

Post by whateg0 »

I've not seen any of those rolling lift tables, really carts, that have any kind of safety latch. Real tables do have catches to ensure that it can only fall a small amount. Nobody will be under those lift carts, and they aren't designed for anybody to be on them. It's always been my impression that they aren't "meant" to be used as work tables, so a little bit of leakage isn't a big deal. You put something on them low and lift them to be transferred to another surface that's higher. I know that isn't how they are often used, but that's how they get out of putting safety stuff on them. Much like pallet jacks don't have any kind of catch to keep stuff from falling.

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spro
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Re: Harbor Freight 6000-Pound Lift Thoughts

Post by spro »

Well the point is solid. A brace, an adjustable brace to keep it to the height. Remember two post auto lifts as they raise. Clank clank clank. Those are dogs to keep the height locked no matter what happens. You have to start the hydraulics to get past that lock, then a lever actuates a cable to retract them.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Harbor Freight 6000-Pound Lift Thoughts

Post by SteveHGraham »

The Harbor Freight lift has a stop with seven settings. You don't rely on hydraulics to keep it elevated.
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spro
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Re: Harbor Freight 6000-Pound Lift Thoughts

Post by spro »

Well dangit why didn't say that before? Not everybody is looking up that lift. Of course it was mandatory to have mechanical stops but so many are thinking about leak down. Thinking about different braces, when it wasn't necessary to discuss.
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