WEN 12-Inch Benchtop Drill Press, Variable Speed, Cast Iron with Laser and Work Light (4214T)

I'm a retired Tool Maker. I purchased this drill press because my lovely Delta DP350's variable speed transmission failed and Delta stopped offering spare parts for it, I had to Scrap it out. ouch! So, I carefully reviewed all the available Drill Press offerings. This Wen 4212 has the best feature set and the best price, my worry was that it's made in China. I called Wen ( who actually answered the Phone which gave me confidence that they support their products ). The Press was shipped to me, it arrived very quickly, assembled quickly and worked beautifully. I'm pleased. I use this Press on every project, I use it every day, it's as smooth as butter in operation. I'm accustomed to a Big Clausing Industrial drill press and Bridgeport Milling machines so I have experience in these things. Con: No spindle lock. I'm adjusting to this missing element and may perform "surgery" to the Press to include this important feature. Pro: It's actually better than I can use. It has 5/8" Chucking ( I need only 1/2" ) I'd thought that I'd replace the Key'd chuck with a keyless except the supplied chuck is better than any key'd chuck I've ever encountered ( I'm loving the supplied chuck ). The Lasers are wonderful ( I've never had that feature on a Machine and thought it would be "training wheels" but it turned out to be invaluable. ( I love it ). The Variable speed is superb. I replaced the supplied Light bulb with a 80 Watt equivalent LED bulb to great result. This is an ideal woodworker's drill press, it's probably not an Industrial Steel workhorse press, it has sufficient power for my largest Forstner Bit ( 2 1/4" ). I own a WEN 4 X 36 Bench Sander which is also superb. I'm considering other WEN products! , they seem to be presenting the best "Value for Money"

What a GREAT addition to my room full of junk and power tools... This drill press is a BEAST... It's twice the size of my little old SKIL, which you can see in the pictures... The SKIL did a good job for me, but I outgrew it... Once I found out that drill presses with variable speed existed, IT WAS ON!!! I had to have one... No more messing with loosening the motor and sticking my fingers into the belt & pulleys... That had gotten old a long time ago... I've only had it for a few days now... I love it... It'll probably be the last drill press I'll ever need to buy... ACCURACY: Seems to be accurate, as the tip of the drill bit hits right where the lasers cross... I don't have a dial indicator to check the runout, but I'm sure it will serve me just fine... I'm not running a machine shop, and I don't need accuracies down to the thousandths of an inch... EASY TO ASSEMBLE: No, not entirely... But I was doing a couple other things during the process, like drinkin' beer, and helping my buddy with his trailer hitch... The column-to-base bolts call for a 16mm wrench... I bought a whole set of ratchet wrenches a couple years ago, but there was NO 16mm in there... I found a socket to fit, 5/8" I think... The hardest part of the assembly was lifting the head up onto the column... It's quite heavy and unbalanced... A second pair of hands would've been a plus... My trailer hitch buddy had already left... VALUE FOR MONEY: I shopped around 4-5 online sites for 3 weeks, and I kinda felt like I was being "spyed upon"... It seemed to me that they were bidding amongst each other for my money... The prices quoted for this machine on different sites kept fluctuating every couple days... It was truly weird... I think I'm gonna buy a VPN next... But anyway, for all the features this machine has, I think it's worth every bit of what I paid for it... It TOWERS over my old drill press, so I don't have to squat down or sit to use it... It's REAL good looking, like the STAR of my workshop... The table with the extension that swivels and bevels adds ALOT to the package... The swivel feature is kinda messed up, as it relates to that rack gear on the side of the column... The rack gear ends just ride in the top (orange) and bottom collars, and can get bound up if not guided along during swivel... (??Did that come out right??) And, of course, like a kid in a toy store, I had to open the lid on top to watch how the variable speed worked... It's pretty neat... But, the MOST BRILLIANT part of the entire design of the machine is... ...wait for it... ...you'll never believe it over everything else I mentioned... THE CHUCK KEY itself gets 6 out of 5 stars for it's design... Sticking out from the center of the key is a small pin with a spring behind it... It is IMPOSSIBLE to forget the chuck key and turn the power switch ON... That sprung pin pushes the key out of the chuck... I don't know if this design has been around for a while, as this is the 1st drill press I've bought in a LONG time... This chuck key design should've been implemented on ALL styles of chucks for the last 50 years... ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!! YES to "would buy again"... And Again, And Again, if needed... Nice machine for an novice to half-pro environment... It might last in a PRO environment (machine shop) if taken care of... It's really quite the nice machine... Thanx WEN, and Thanx Amazon... GOOD DAY...

Had it for about 6 months now and I'm very happy with it. When checked with a dial indicator at the base of a drill bit, there's only about 0.002" of runout, which I'd say is very good for this price point. Easy to assemble, its sturdy and the variable speed is easy to use. I've drilled through hardwood and softwood with twist bits, through wood with forstner bit's up to 1" no problem, and aluminum with twist bits up to 1/2" no problem with cutting fluid. It did bog down and stall when opening up a 1/4" hole in aluminum with a 3/4" forstner bit, but that was asking a lot. I went really slow and it did finish the cut, but the motor was very hot after. I've also put in some 1/4" end mill bits and used it to turn some holes into slots and it worked surprisingly well. The table is easy to move up and down and lock into place, and the depth indicator and stop work well. The light is helpful, but the laser X is only accurate if you have the same table height and bit length, so I haven't used it after the first few runs. But you can adjust it easily so if you have a bunch of the same hole you are drilling and the accuracy isn't critical it could be helpful. The downsides: if drilling holes regularly for 15 minutes or so the motor gets very hot, so it's not a good press for really long runs through aluminum. Also, while I like the variable speed, the discs wear the belt and there's already a decent amount of rubber dust in the case, so the belt will have to be replaced much sooner than a traditional pulley system. I haven't tried to drill steel because at the lowest speed it's a bit too fast, but you could probably do it if you really needed and didn't mind burning up a bit. All in all, I highly recommend the press as long as you aren't going to use it constantly. I bought one for my dad I liked it so much.

This is excellent and well worth the price. It’s major, too — bigger than it seems in the product photos, and heavy because of all that cast iron. That’s OK, heavy is good because it stays put (you still bolt it down) and the mass soaks up vibrations. Honestly, this machine is overbuilt to the point of being brutal but it’s still very precise. The chuck comes in a separate box in case you want to order the keyless kind separately and then just whang that into place instead. But I stuck with the supplied old-school keyed chuck because I’m old-school too. The machine has a handy place to park the key. Or you can slap a magnet on the top front as I did; it’s handier. Either way, you don’t want to put a chuck key down. Those things sprout feet when you’re not looking. The speed control is a real blessing; you can get the speed low enough for metal or high enough for whatever, without fussing with belts. There’s always plenty of torque. The work light is bright and the crossed lasers are accurate. The whole thing, assembled, weighs 85 pounds but the components can be heaved into place and bolted on one at a time. But if you want to put it together yourself, be warned that you have to start at the base and work upward; the top power head goes on last and is at least 30 pounds heavy with a high lift-over. So you might need to dragoon somebody to come help you assemble it.

Tal como lo describen otros compradores el taladro es excelente, funciona de maravilla, resulta muy comodo y practico el sistema para cambiar las velocidades (super facilísimo), aun y cuando es pequeño bien vale la pena ya que su funcionamiento es tipo industrial.....recomendable el articulo 100 %...….lamentablemente no puedo decir lo mismo del vendedor ya que parece despreocuparse de la paquetería una vez echa la compra y lo digo porque me llego el articulo con muchos días de retraso y tuve que estar insistiendo para que me informaran y aun y cuando el vendedor estuvo en la disposición de realizar un reembolso lo iba a hacer toda vez que tuviera el articulo de vuelta.....afortunadamente me llego y sin problema

I am a beginner and needed something small for my workshop. It works great and was super easy to set up. Controls are easy and so far has done what I have needed. I bought mainly for forstner bits but have tried most bits and haven’t had an issue. This is my first Wen machine and I am impressed at this price point.

Took the time to square everything and double check everything was decently built. It was.... The only issue I found so far is that you can set the table horizontal side to side but there is no adjustment front to back so I needed to add about 0.015 in shims. Read out seems spot on. My unit is loud, and I notice If I hold the pulley and twist the Chuck there is a good deal of backlash. I'll go through it this week and see if the noise is a fitment issue, a bearing issue, a greasing issue, motor, or maybe it just needs a break in.

This is a very heavy drill, it’s not something you want to move around often. The price is reasonable as the quality seems to be quite good.