# WEN 4225 Drill Press



## cmmyakman

I purchased the same Wen drill press a little over a year ago from Walmart. I didn't like the drill press at first because I couldn't figure out how to get to the low speed. Then I read in the instructions, that you had to change the belt, but I couldn't see another pulley. It took a while, but the low speed pulley is "hidden" (at least it was for me) under the high speed pulley. Now that the drill press does low speed work, I love it. I installed a cart with wheels to move it around the shop and a Woodpecker drill press table. I agree with your assessment - you get a lot of drill press for your money.


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## runswithscissors

Runout is easy to check. Chuck a known straight rod in the chuck. Set up a dial indicator with a magnetic base on the table, with the tip of the dial indicator just touching the rod. Turn the chuck by hand, or at low speed under power, and watch the dial to see the amount of runout, if any. HF has inexpensive indicators that are plenty accurate for this test. The longer the rod, the more any runout will be amplified.


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## BenDupre

Love mine. Bought it direct from Great Lakes Technology at wholesale $300. Last year they were selling on craigslist of the dock in Elgin. They don't do this any more. You can get WEN on Amazon, HomeDepot.com, and Walmart.com. They also sell direct at wenproducts.com, but usually higher than Amazon. If you buy direct you can sometimes find returns and refurbs cheaper.


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## Hawaiilad

I am reading allot of good reviews on the WEN products. I tried to buy a planer from Amazon, but they would not ship it here to Hawaii and neither will the other stores.


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## PPK

Hawaiilad, 
Hmm, sorry to hear that. Is that (shipping) a problem with other brands/companies too?


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## Hawaiilad

Shipping is always a problem on large items. Most Companies just do not want to mess with the shipping of heavy items. We do have the Big Box stores but they don't always carry what we want. I ended up buying a 3 cutter DeWalt planer instead that was being sold in the store here. Perhaps one of these days Wen products will be carried here.


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## dhazelton

Whoever owns that name today is doing a decent job with it, especially for the little money some of the products cost. I bought the shop air filter for a bit over $100 with free shipping and am pleased with it.


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## woodbutcherbynight

> Whoever owns that name today is doing a decent job with it, especially for the little money some of the products cost. I bought the shop air filter for a bit over $100 with free shipping and am pleased with it.
> 
> - dhazelton


I have on as well. Works well a true hidden gem.


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## dbeck

No doubt you are spot on, whoever does own wenn is doing a heck of a job. Over the past year i have bought a bench sander, drill press( bench top 10in) and a belt sander. All work exactly as they should and do have a suprising number of extras for products that are dirt cheap. I am not saying fess tool people would want one but for us with no money hardly it allows us to get products we could never otherwise have like me i would never have a 10in bench press with extras,, no chance but for their prices i to can have these things.


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## annia

This is my first drill press, but I am very happy. Setup was a breeze with no missing parts as others have experienced. The instructions weren't perfect, but it was pretty easy to figure out how things went together. It is working very well for me.

1. Good drill press. 
2. Chucks is cheap. 
3. Recommend to upgrade to a better chuck for better performance. 
4. Worth the money


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## PPK

> This is my first drill press, but I am very happy. Setup was a breeze with no missing parts as others have experienced. The instructions weren t perfect, but it was pretty easy to figure out how things went together. It is working very well for me.
> 
> 1. Good drill press.
> 2. Chucks is cheap.
> 3. Recommend to upgrade to a better chuck for better performance.
> 4. Worth the money
> 
> - Annia Palmer


You know, my initial thought was that the chuck was a good one, but now that I've got a few hours on the machine, I'm starting to change my mind. I think I may look into a new chuck…


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## PPK

Update June 2018:

I updated the chuck, and now this Drill press kicks butt!! 
See the review I did on the chuck:

http://lumberjocks.com/reviews/11273


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## traviscm

I finally got around to try to assembly the unit. It did not go well.

Upon starting assembly, I noticed the machining on the column base (4225-142) and the base (4225-144) do not line up. It is only possible to get 2 of the 4 M12×35 bolts (4225-143) through the column base into the threads of the base. The holes do not line up. I have tried rotating the column to see if the alignment improves, but it does not.

I have emailed [email protected]m. We'll see how fast they get back to me.

I'm wondering if I should just return this to Home Depot.


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## PPK

> I finally got around to try to assembly the unit. It did not go well.
> 
> Upon starting assembly, I noticed the machining on the column base (4225-142) and the base (4225-144) do not line up. It is only possible to get 2 of the 4 M12×35 bolts (4225-143) through the column base into the threads of the base. The holes do not line up. I have tried rotating the column to see if the alignment improves, but it does not.
> 
> I have emailed [email protected] We ll see how fast they get back to me.
> 
> I m wondering if I should just return this to Home Depot.
> 
> - traviscm


Wow! I'm sorry to hear that. I don't recall having any issues with assembly with mine. I hope that's the only issue, and there's no other problems. I hope cust service helps too! It does seem that sometimes its hit and miss when it come to some of the simple machining practices on the overseas equipment (Asia) I guess its one of the risks you take saving money?


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## PPK

Travis, did you get resolution to your Drill press issue?


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## traviscm

Unfortunately, no. Two phone calls with never ending wait times where I finally opted for the voicemail option and multiple emails with no reply.

I actually bought another from Home Depot and will pick and choice all the best parts and take back the other unit.


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## traviscm

I did get the rohm chuck and it is incredible.


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## sawneck

> I did get the rohm chuck and it is incredible.
> 
> - traviscm


How hard was it to install the chuck? Was there alot of disassembly? Thinking of getting getting this DP and love the idea of keyless.


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## PPK

It took me probably about 5 minutes. You just tap the wedge in to knock out the old taper, and then tap in the new one. Super easy.


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## traviscm

It is indeed super easy to replace the spindle and chuck. I did mine before I even put the supplied unit in. However, my son asked me how to replace the spindle and chuck so we took it back out.

First just use the wedge spindle knock out tool. Insert into knock out slot and gently tap the wedge with a hammer. Make sure you have a hold of the installed chuck, or have the table all the way up with a board on it so the chuck only drops a few inches.

if you are using a one piece spindle/chuck combo, just install the new unit. If you have done what a few of us have done, install the spindle into the chuck, then install that assembly back into the drill press.

So far the drill press is quite nice. 99% of everything I do is at the lower setting, so being able to adjust speed between 280ish and 1200ish is nice. At the lowest it says 260 and at the highest in Low setting it says 1380 on my unit.

I do wish it had a spindle lock though.


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## traviscm

Also, I have started a thread over on another forum I frequent. You can see it here: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7676531#post7676531


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