WEN 33013 4.5A Variable Speed Single Phase Compact Benchtop Milling Machine with R8 Taper

What a surprise, better than expected. Shipping came in with good notice, and delivery was into my garage. Instructions could be better. YouTube filled in the gaps. Thank you to all those who allowed me to use their Bridgeport in my youth. I remembered much of what I needed to operate the mill. I did get at least three "you be carefull" admonishments. A VERY high quality amature vertical mill, with just enough extras to be mostly accurate. Which is perfect for my work. Thank you, WEN, great job.

After owning and using this mill for over a year, I am quite impressed. I keep it in the low gear for 90% of my jobs, and I've used it to cut through aluminum, plastics, as well as on a few occasions for low carbon steel. Very good finish with R8 collett endmills up to 1/2 inch, just remember to lock the Z travel before making a pass. Drills straight and consistent, and the chuck that comes with it centers well against my cheap harbor freight drill bit set. The only feature I do not use and would prefer not having is the tilting neck, which to be fair, I bought this over a comparable LMS machine because of this feature. I have never needed to tilt the drill head, whenever I drill at an angle I adjust my rotary vise instead, If you do not have a tilting or rotary vise, it would be nice to have an option to do some odd jobs. Overall, very satisfied with the quality. Unless you absolutely need something as big as a Lagun or a Bridgeport (and have the space for) , this is it.

UPDATE: couple months in an loving the mill but have to admit I do wish I would have gotten bigger but that doesn’t mean this machine isn’t capable cause it is but it’s limit is it’s size for a lot of the work I’ve tried to do with the machine a 6 to 8 inch wide table on the y axis would be ideal for me but even with the smaller table size it’s actually bigger than other mini mills like the sieg x2. The wen comes with the upgraded base so it’s larger by a couple inches than the other machines that looked identical. U can tell if the table has a end cap on both ends then it’s more than likely the larger table if it only has the cover on the end with the crank handle then it’s one of the smaller tables so I’m so glade I went with the wen over the sieg and lms machines just for that. Have used half inch 4 flute carbid endmills half inch HSS roughing endmills 1.5 inch facing endmill or shell endmill an a 2.5 inch fly cutter an everything seems to work perfect with the machine. I’ve added the cheap dro an that made it a new machine but my biggest concern was the max capacity of the tools it can use. I have collets that go all the way to a 7/8 so close to an inch but have used anything that large an when reading the facing or shell endmill im using is already bigger than it suggest but it’s worked fine no issue an I was actually planning on going back an getting a 3inch but I learned it’s max is suppose to be 1 1/8 for facing endmills and the flycutter I’ve been using is 2.5 inch an it works too but it doesn’t leave the best finish but I think that due to the tool I have in it an not it’s size but I’ve not been able to find anything related to the it’s max capacity for the flycutter. What is the rest using with them an did I go to big for the flycutter and facing endmill or can I go ahead an get the bigger facing endmill without worry. Since it’s worked so well with the flycutter i feel like the 3 inch facing endmill will work fine but I can’t say for sure til i try one but I’m less likely to spend the money out of fear it would be pointless due to it being to big. Sharing some newer pictures of some stuff it’s cut to give a better idea what the finish looks like cause the first picture I shared was with me clamping the parts to the table with what I could find laying around, now I have vises clamping kits an custom clamps and I have a better idea of what I’m doing, still don’t claim to know what I’m doing just a little better of than I originally was so the parts I’m making look alot better than the first stuff I shared. I’ll share as much as it will let me to try to show all the tools I’ve used but the t slot cutters an v slot cutters it’s not letting me upload images of so it’s as much as it will let me share. had planned on buy from little machine shop but all of there machines wanted to add a extra 200 to 250 on top for shipping so it put them out of my budget while at the same time the price was slowly going up on all of the machines week by week. when i first started looking at them the wen was 899 an the seig x2d was 799 an now they are both over $1000 now, an im seeing the wen priced for $1200 on wen website so i went ahead an got the wen cause it was $948 when i got it an im so glad i did. its been perfect for me so far to learn with so even if there was something wrong i probably wouldnt know what to look for to find it but so far im slowly getting material to use on it an it seems to deal with aluminum an brass with no issues an im going to try steel today but im pretty sure it will do just as good with that, i'll just have to slow down the cutting speed i guess but if you are looking for a machine that works out of the box this is it. i cant say much for the others cause this is my first experience with a machine like this but im absolutely loving it.

Had this now 4 months, heres the good and bad from a novice Good; although not a bridgeport, it is fairly ridgid X and Y backlash not terrible R8 collets inexpensive and plentiful enough swing to do everything i've asked it to. powerful enough to do real milling Bad; Z backlash IS terrible. the fine adjust is essentially a tick-box feature, as there is almost a full turn of backlash. Z Stopper needs to be locked up TIGHT or will move when operating the z via the handles X and Y handles squeek and make noise every turn that i cannot find where to oil my way out of. Drilling head is super tall and uses most of your swing. clear safety panel is always in the wrong place and getting in the way no matter how it is set. lock levers constantly "in the way" - e.g. cant turn because the vise blocks the path of the lever, or z lever interferes with the z stopper lever. no DRO no collets included - buy your own set. overall i'm happy with it, you arent going to get a bridgeport for the this type of cost, so having a reasonable expectation of what the machine can do it really does do a lot in a small and inexpensive platform. you are going to want to bolt this thing down, and learn to take your time. lots of good mill bits on amazon.

I received the mill on May 6th, right on time. Uncrated it and cleaned the cosmoline ( about an hour job) off. I bolted it to my bench, let it spin ( no load) and I could only get about 30 seconds out of it before it shut down. WEN customer service sent me a new PC board ( customer support is great, by the way…) which didn’t fix the previous issue. I only got about a half of a revolution out of the quill. They sent another PC board AND a motor- still no good. I’m sending this thing back. Maybe I got one out a million bad eggs, but I’m tired of working on it instead of working WITH it.

I bought this for small jobs, I also bought the Belt drive Kit from Little Machine shop, easy to install, got rid of the plastic gears, got a few accessories also, it had been working great, I've been truing up my Vevor Lathe and this has done a great job fixing the poor quality machining on the Lathe from China, this is "not" a Poor quality Milling Machine, change out the plastic gears to the belt drive and it will make it reliable and quiet, I will be adding a DRO soon for better accuracy and will do the same for the Lathe.