Warco Bench drills

[Gareth0123]

Does anyone have any experience of Warco bench drills.

I am considering changing out my now 5 year old but lightly used VGC 5/8" cap X MT2 X 16 speed Sealey bench drill for a Warco 5/8" cap X MT2 X 12 speed bench drill.

Although the Warco has less speeds, it has slower speeds than the Sealey does: something that is of more use to me than more speeds with a higher top end, as I tend to do a lot of hole sawing and rotabroaching in my current bench drill.

I see the specs are almost identical for motor wattage, throat depth, spindle height and spindle travel etc. but the Warco is some 25+kg heavier ......... not a bad thing in my book for something that I am not going to have to lug around.

What are your experiences of Warco equipment?

 

[julianf]

I have a warco drill - somewhat older.

I've not used it in a couple of years (dry storage miles away) but its a solid bit of kit. Id buy it again. But I bought it used... Can't remember the exact figure but I think 140? Might have been a ton.

I also have a warco 14" wood handsaw. Ex school. Again, seems solid enough. 16 quid off ebay. I might not buy that again, but only as I never use it. Well, I guess I would for 16 quid, but you get the idea.

You will get plenty of people saying warco is crap, but its just not been my experience.

 

[CRB]

The older Warco were meant to be the top end of the imported stuff, made to a higher specification, or at least as far as I remember.

What the newer machines are like I know not.

 

[Gareth0123]

I bought a Warco single phase 250Ø cold cut saw some 10 weeks or so ago and to date I've made over 4,000 cuts...........with absolutely no problems

 

[Tomfromuk]

Hi Gareth,

Did you order a Warco drill? Just asking because i've been looking at their £250 bench top drill.

Thanks

 

[DanielW]

Overpriced Aldi jobby to me,if its belt driven? then its an Aldi jobby in disguise.

 

[Gareth0123]

No, I did not get around to purchasing the Warco drill yet. it is on the ever growing list of things I have to do.

However, a jeweller friend down the road bought the same model of Warco drill you are interested in for general purpose work.

I can say from having a go with it that the build quality is considerably better than my similar Sealey bench drill, and unlike my Sealey the Warco has no run out or play in the quill, making for accurate drilling .

 

[DanielW]

The jet JDP-15 is the same one as the warco....difference is the jet has a 900w motor compared to the warco 500w motor

 

[DanielW]

Its also cheaper.

 

[DanielW]

 

[DanielW]

Gawd for £300 you'd think they would drop the plassy handles....easy to snap

 

[Gareth0123]

The Warco doesn't have a plastic 3 legged handle... my friend's has a cast iron one with plastic end grips.

In a bench drill.... power is not everything. My previous bench drill was a 12 speed Clarke which I bought from Machinemart some 20 odd years ago, and although that only had a 350 watt motor it would comfortably run without faltering holesaws up to and including 100mm diameter in 9mm thick X 6 laminations birch ply, cutting out over 100 holes in day once a month. This old Clarke bench drill is still going strong in my BIL's hobby workshop.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I've got a Record Power one, I've been impressed with it so far.

 

[roofman]

View attachment 74186

That paticular casting has been around for many years in all sorts of different names and colours...tried and tested and for a far East drill it cant be beaten for price,will drill all day without complaining

 

[Tomfromuk]

I've got a Record Power one, I've been impressed with it so far.

So is this similar to the one you have?? http://www.recordpower.co.uk/product/bench-drill-with-22-column-and-12-chuck#.VkRnyfnhChd

Thanks

 

[Wallace]

The jet JDP-15 is the same one as the warco....difference is the jet has a 900w motor compared to the warco 500w motor

The head looks remarkably similar to my Clarke CDP451F, slight differences but all the fittings are the same apart from a better chuck. I avoid Warco now due to their 'couldn't give a toss' customer service.

 

[DanielW]

I avoid Warco now due to their 'couldn't give a toss' customer service.

I avoid them due to overpricing their name badge....thats all it is the same machines are branded with different names,found that out years ago,there are 4 machines that are the same but with different coloured clothes on and a name badge.

 

[DanielW]

http://www.sipuk.co.uk/sip-01424-professional-b16-16bench-pillar-drill-230v.html

This is similair but the only reason i'm posting it is because axminster have ordered far too many screwdrivers.

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-hobby-series-ah16rd-bench-radial-drill

 

[Gareth0123]

Now that is interesting, because my experience of Warco's customer service has been excellent and my experience of Clarke and Machinemart's after sales service has been totally ****e!


I purchased my Warco CS250 cold saw from a second hand machinery dealer, but when I wanted to modify the vice handle, and I sought advice from Warco, they sent me a new handle completely FOC in case my mod didn't work properly.

When my friend Jonathan ordered his bench drill it arrived (just) within 24 hours of placing the order. It was very well packed, the instructions were straight forward, and the damn thing is considerably heavier by about 20 kg or thereabouts than my similar size Sealey..... absolutely not a bad thing in my book!

There is neither run-out or wobble in the quill stem, and no backlash in the rack & pinnion of the manual feed............... both extremely important to me. The drive belts are "A" section, and not the almost unobtainable as a spare part "M" or "Z" section usually associated with most bench/pillar drill presses made in the far east. The motor provides more than enough torque to use an MT1 X 19mm drill bit to drill through 40mm thick M/S profiles, although I have not used a 100mm or 125mm hole saw in Jonathan's drill, I do not expect them to cause either concern or trouble.... jigged part Hole-sawing from 75-150mm using a bench drill is almost more important to me than standard drilling, as is rotabroching. Which is why when I actually get around to ordering mine, I am going for the 2B12 model, and although it has only 12 speeds, the minimum is 120 rpm which will suit my needs admirably.

 

[DanielW]

Do you not like the axminster jobby? you can bolt it down to the bench and pull the head over the bench for drilling longish material,you can also drill at any angle to the job.

I'd say that was pretty good for the price thats higher than the ones talked about here.