WEN 4208 8 in. 5-Speed Drill Press

[kristin126]

I don't know much about drill presses other than using them to make pens. Is this a good one for making pens and other small items, no bowls.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HQONFVE/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I3V5VD13IOL90X&colid=3UE6J6D9CO1J2&psc=0

I honestly don't know what to look for in a drill press and want to get a cheaper one to start.

 

[TattooedTurner]

The main thing to be concerned with is spindle travel. That one, like mine, will only drill 2" deep, which isn't enough for single barrel pens. I've run into problems even with larger diameter two barrel pens. You want extra length in case you get a blowout, so 2" really isn't enough for those either. I never use my drill press for blanks because of the short travel. I would recommend buying a jacobs/drill chuck with a morse taper and pen jaws for your chuck (if you have one) and drilling on the lathe. No chuck? Get a 3/4" collet & draw bar. Turn your blank 3/4" round between centers and hold it in the collet to drill. I like both ways more than using a drill press and vise.

 

[dogcatcher]

It is a low end drill press, years ago Wen was big with home shop owners, but even then they were low end quality. In my opinion it looks like a rebranded Harbor Freight drill press. Are they worth $69, I think so, I have 2 of the HF drill presses that I have used to mill plastics and wood. But I did have to tune them both up to even get close to sloppy tolerance. Would I buy another if I needed one? No.

 

[magpens]

You have done the right thing to ask this question here before buying.

I agree with Jay .... you need more "capacity" than that drill press offers.

"Capacity" means, here, amount of travel, or, plainly, how deep you can drill.

As Jay said, it really would be better to do your drilling on the lathe if you can.

If you are unclear how to go about that, just ask, although Jay has given the basics.

You will need to find out some features of your lathe in order to do that, and the lathe manual should tell you.

For example, does your tailstock accept 2MT accessories (MT = Morse Taper) ?
And how about your headstock (motor end; rotates and holds your work) ; MT2 or MT3 or neither ?
And will your lathe headstock allow you to mount a chuck on it ?

For people here to advise you, it will be necessary to know these facts and it would be nice to know the make and model number of your lathe, and a picture would help.

Of course a drill press is still an acceptable way to go, but I think you need a slightly bigger/better/more expensive drill press.
With a drill press (and you will need a vise designed to hold your pen blank upright - ask about this) you won't get as "good" a hole.
If you learn to do the drilling on a lathe, you will probably never need a drill press for making pens. . So, overall, you save space.
You will be much happier with the "quality" of hole that you get on a lathe.

 

[kristin126]

The main thing to be concerned with is spindle travel. That one, like mine, will only drill 2" deep, which isn't enough for single barrel pens. I've run into problems even with larger diameter two barrel pens. You want extra length in case you get a blowout, so 2" really isn't enough for those either. I never use my drill press for blanks because of the short travel. I would recommend buying a jacobs/drill chuck with a morse taper and pen jaws for your chuck (if you have one) and drilling on the lathe. No chuck? Get a 3/4" collet & draw bar. Turn your blank 3/4" round between centers and hold it in the collet to drill. I like both ways more than using a drill press and vise.

Thank you for the info. I'll look for a different one. It's good to know to look for how deep it will drill. I figured they all drilled pretty deep but I know nothing except how to use it.

 

[kristin126]

I agree with Jay .... you need more "capacity" than that drill press offers.

"Capacity" means, here, amount of travel, or, plainly, how deep you can drill.

As Jay said, it really would be better to do your drilling on the lathe if you can.

If you are unclear how to go about that, just ask, although Jay has given the basics.

You will need to find out some features of your lathe in order to do that, and the lathe manual should tell you.

For example, does your tailstock accept 2MT accessories (MT = Morse Taper) ?
And how about your headstock (motor end; rotates and holds your work) ; MT2 or MT3 or neither ?
And will your lathe headstock allow you to mount a chuck on it ?

For people here to advise you, it will be necessary to know these facts and it would be nice to know the make and model number of your lathe, and a picture would help.

Thanks Mag. I have the Rikon 220VSR and they are both MT2. I believe I can do a chuck on it but that's another whole thing for me to learn about. Which I'm here to do.

 

[kristin126]

It is a low end drill press, years ago Wen was big with home shop owners, but even then they were low end quality. In my opinion it looks like a rebranded Harbor Freight drill press. Are they worth $69, I think so, I have 2 of the HF drill presses that I have used to mill plastics and wood. But I did have to tune them both up to even get close to sloppy tolerance. Would I buy another if I needed one? No.

I agree they do look rebranded from HF tools.

 

[Talltim]

I have the aforementioned wen drill press. I am not that happy with it and wish I had spent more for an up grade.

The table has some give in it that i have not figured out how to cure and the spindle travel distance is short.

It is not a disaster and I can get by with it.

If I could do it over I would invest more from the beginning and buy a nice chuck.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[magpens]

If this is the lathe you have then you are in a really good position to add accessories that you would need for drilling blanks on the lathe:

https://www.rikontools.com/product/70-220vsr

The accessories which Rikon can supply are listed on the same link, but different page.

You would need 78-062 (headstock chuck) and 30-991 (tailstock chuck and arbor).
However, you don't need to buy these Rikon-branded accessories .
Price-wise, you would probably do better to buy equivalent parts from a different maker. . There are quite a few available, for example, the Nova G3 lathe chuck is a very good chuck and often goes on sale at various vendors.

You can buy this lathe chuck which is dedicated for pen blank turning:

https://www.pennstateind.com/store/CSCPENCHK2.html

But I would advise buying a more general purpose chuck together with a set of jaws that do the same job as the ones on the above chuck. . The more general purpose chuck (could be the Nova G3) will be useful for other purposes which you will eventually run into.

And the tailstock chuck you need would be similar to this one (the arbor sticks out the back of the Jacobs chuck):

https://www.pennstateind.com/store/LDC2MT.html

But I would not recommend you to buy this one, because it has only 1/2" drill capacity and I think you might need 5/8" capacity eventually and the price difference is not much ... drill capacity here refers to the drill bit diameter.

Actually, you do not want to buy this particular item. . You do not want the "live" feature which allows the jacobs chuck to turn. . For drilling, you want the chuck to NOT turn, so the arbor will look different (not have the large diameter section just behind the chuck itself). . You can buy the Jacobs chuck and the required fixed arbor separately, but they have to match each other (ie. fit together and you have to be careful to ensure they are the proper match).

It is a good idea to discuss the possibilities with someone here, or go and talk to a person at, say, Grizzly Tools or Woodcraft, or similar (but probably not Harbor Freight). . In Columbus, there should be some good specialized tool stores.

Also note that there are some Pen Turners' groups in Ohio that you could join (nominal, if any, fee) and people there could show you things hands on. . I am thinking of the Mid Atlantic Penturners Group ( MAPG ) and I am sure that Mark James, a member here, could tell you when they have their meetings and where. . There are lots of IAP members in Ohio. . You could search for MAPG on this IAP website.

So ... on we go ... one little step at a time !

 

[Herb G]

Save your money & buy a decent lathe chuck instead. I tried using a drill press for drilling blanks with miserable results. I switched to using a chuck & I've been golden since.

 

[TattooedTurner]

Thanks Mag. I have the Rikon 220VSR and they are both MT2. I believe I can do a chuck on it but that's another whole thing for me to learn about. Which I'm here to do.

I have that lathe. You'll have no problem drilling on it. A collet and drawbar will be much cheaper than buying a chuck and pen jaws to drill with, but a chuck is very nice to have and offers much more versatility for future projects like bowls or other spindles. If using a collet, you need to turn part or all of the blank between centers until it fits the collet - 3/4" seems to be the norm for pen blanks - and you need to be quite accurate, there isn't much room for error when using a one.

 

[kristin126]

If this is the lathe you have then you are in a really good position to add accessories that you would need for drilling blanks on the lathe:

https://www.rikontools.com/product/70-220vsr

The accessories which Rikon can supply are listed on the same link, but different page.

You would need 78-062 (headstock chuck) and 30-991 (tailstock chuck and arbor).
However, you don't need to buy these Rikon-branded accessories .
Price-wise, you would probably do better to buy equivalent parts from a different maker. . There are quite a few available, for example, the Nova G3 lathe chuck is a very good chuck and often goes on sale at various vendors.

You can buy this lathe chuck which is dedicated for pen blank turning:

https://www.pennstateind.com/store/CSCPENCHK2.html

But I would advise buying a more general purpose chuck together with a set of jaws that do the same job as the ones on the above chuck. . The more general purpose chuck (could be the Nova G3) will be useful for other purposes which you will eventually run into.

And the tailstock chuck you need would be similar to this one (the arbor sticks out the back of the Jacobs chuck):

https://www.pennstateind.com/store/LDC2MT.html

But I would not recommend you to buy this one, because it has only 1/2" drill capacity and I think you might need 5/8" capacity eventually and the price difference is not much ... drill capacity here refers to the drill bit diameter.

Actually, you do not want to buy this particular item. . You do not want the "live" feature which allows the jacobs chuck to turn. . For drilling, you want the chuck to NOT turn, so the arbor will look different (not have the large diameter section just behind the chuck itself). . You can buy the Jacobs chuck and the required fixed arbor separately, but they have to match each other (ie. fit together and you have to be careful to ensure they are the proper match).

It is a good idea to discuss the possibilities with someone here, or go and talk to a person at, say, Grizzly Tools or Woodcraft, or similar (but probably not Harbor Freight). . In Columbus, there should be some good specialized tool stores.

Also note that there are some Pen Turners' groups in Ohio that you could join (nominal, if any, fee) and people there could show you things hands on. . I am thinking of the Mid Atlantic Penturners Group ( MAPG ) and I am sure that Mark James, a member here, could tell you when they have their meetings and where. . There are lots of IAP members in Ohio. . You could search for MAPG on this IAP website.

So ... on we go ... one little step at a time !

Thank you so much MAG for all the info. It really helps.

 

[kristin126]

Thanks Mag. I have the Rikon 220VSR and they are both MT2. I believe I can do a chuck on it but that's another whole thing for me to learn about. Which I'm here to do.

I have that lathe. You'll have no problem drilling on it. A collet and drawbar will be much cheaper than buying a chuck and pen jaws to drill with, but a chuck is very nice to have and offers much more versatility for future projects like bowls or other spindles. If using a collet, you need to turn part or all of the blank between centers until it fits the collet - 3/4" seems to be the norm for pen blanks - and you need to be quite accurate, there isn't much room for error when using a one.

Thanks again for the info.

 

[magpens]

The trouble with the collet idea is that you can't get an 2MT collet with a hole big enough to accept a 3/4" round blank (which is a nice starting diameter, and was mentioned above by Jay - Tattooed Turner). I don't think you can get even such a collet that accepts 5/8", which would be the minimum you would want to turn your blanks down to.

Somebody please correct me if I am wrong. . I was looking at 3MT collet sets today in the tool store and the biggest will accept 5/8".

Maybe Jay has some info on this. . Using a collet is an excellent idea if it is practical.

 

[JPW062]

I agree they do look rebranded from HF tools.

HF tools imports. They do not manufacture. Their suppliers sell to a lot of people using the same body castings. The other parts offer differ or are held at different tolerances. Just because it looks like a HF doesn't mean it is equal quality. It could be better or worse.

 

[WriteON]

Save your money & buy a decent lathe chuck instead. I tried using a drill press for drilling blanks with miserable results. I switched to using a chuck & I've been golden since.

I just passed on buying a 12" press...main reason being I have been lathe drilling....it is easy an accurate.
My cousin bought the 8" Wen. Not crazy about it. Would like something larger.

Krisitn126...welcome aboard.