Here's a review I wrote for a different board when I picked one up back in late '06:
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Finally broke down and ordered one of those import Harbor Freight Beverly shear clones. I'd wondered about the quality myself, and it's been asked about here, so I figured I'd give you fellows a full rundown.
Bottom line? It's an import piece of s**t.
Bottom line, expanded: It's an import piece of s**t, but with a little effort, can be made to work reasonably well. After about two hours of fiddling, mine seems to be pretty decent, but with an issue or two.
Pulled it out of the box (where it had broken loose from the styrofoam packing and rattled around a bit- no damage though) and cleaned off the smears of Cosmoline-like grease.
Immediate impression: The blades were nowhere near adjusted, and the upper jaw was sloppy and rattled like an old barn door. The two bolts (for the front blade clamp and the one that holds the handle on) are somewhere below Grade 2, and probably in the vicinity of Grade Velveeta.
First, remove the lower blade completely, and clean off all the grease.
Next, tighten up the two halves of the upper arm. Snug the rear (pivot) bolt first- tighten 'til the slop's near-gone but the arm will still move without too much effort. A little drag is okay, because there's paint in there, and it'll wear loose in about ten minutes.
Then snug the front bolt- this one's got a locking nut, so loosen it, tighten the bolt 'til most of the slop is gone, then lock it in place with the nut. Now lube the two bolts and the gear rack. Get sloppy, you're going to have to wipe it off in a few minutes anyway.
Now, drop the lower jaw back into place, and see if it sits flat. Mine rocked- the casting was nowhere near flat. I had to put a shim of 20 ga sheetmetal under the rear-left corner of mine. Then use the two adjuster screws (they come through the casting from the left, and you'lln get a little screwdriver in the box) to set the blade to within... oh, I'm guessing about .020" or so. I haven't found an "official" spec yet.
Now, my blades are rough ground and were probably done by hand. The lower blade's edge is slightly convex, so the best I can adjust it is to have about 20 thou at the start of the cut, it's nearly touching in the middle of the cut, then it widens back out to 30 or 40 thou at the end of the cut.
The casting where the blade wedges into at the back is pretty rough, and the blade will move when you tighten down the clamp. Expect to have to make a couple of tries to get a decent set.
My blades are ultra-hard; in fact, so hard they're brittle as glass, and they've already chipped a couple of times. Order extra blades, and if you have an experienced blacksmith around, you might think about having him draw back a temper on them. I'm going to try and regrind mine, but keep in mind, the upper blade isn't adjustable. Grind it back too far and it'll get close to the edge of the jaw casting.
Now, after all that, how does it work? Not bad, actually. Even with the chips in the blade, it cuts fairly nicely. Making a very straight line takes a little work, because the slight curve of the blade wants to make a slightly-curved cut, but if you follow a scribe line, you're okay.
It'll sail through 20 ga with almost no effort, and 1/16" with considerable effort, if you keep the cut close to the throat where the most leverage is.
That said, while it's functional, and really not all that bad for $90, I think I'm going to save up and get a real, live Beverly B1 from somebody like these guys.
Last, after some use, the paint will wear through and the upper arms will loosen up again. Either dismantle the upper arm and wipe the oil/paint residue out, or just zap it with a can of brake cleaner and blow it out. Relube and readjust the bolts. I've adjusted mine twice so far, and all I've done is chop up some small bits of scrap.
One quickie mod I did: As delivered, the jaws only opened enough to use about 2/3 rds of the blades. I snipped off a bit of the gear rack as shown here:
... With a cutoff wheel. Not much, just an eighth inch or so, and at a slight angle. That allowed the blades to open up a bit more, so as you can see in the top photo, almost all of the blades are usable.
As a further mod, both upper jaw pivot bolts are rough machined and in rough drilled holes. There's some definite fore-aft slop as the jaw is worked. I might take the thing back apart, and carefully ream or rebore the holes, then make new bolts to fit the new bores. Oddly enough the bolts are American 7/16-14 thread, so no problems there.
Hopefully this'll help anyone interested in picking one up.
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As a fresh update, I've used it extensively since then, typically on nothing larger than 18 ga, though I have snipped a few small pieces of 16 ga, maybe even a bit bigger.
It still works quite well, and has required no further adjustment. It's still not great, by any stretch of the imagination, but for the price, it ain't bad.
Doc.
