Customer Reviews for WEN 4.25 in. Compound Cross Slide Industrial Strength Benchtop and Drill Press Vise

I've hardly used this vise! Maybe 5-10 times tops. Today I tried clamping a piece of metal and the thing snapped in half jolting back and cutting my hand! I only used minimal pressure on the handle and it broke apart like butter. Thankfully, I wasn't drilling anything at the time otherwise I could have been seriously injured.

Precise if set up correctly.

This vise is superb! It's worth 3 times as much. I did have to tighten up a few of the adjustments screws to cut down on the wobble...but still keep it freely moving...easily done. I should have bought one of these 30 years ago. If you are a tinkerer and amateur inventor like me, you need one of these for your drill press.

I've been using a cheap one directional vice on my standing drill press for decades. When I saw this Wen I was a little leery of the low price. But I already have the Wen bench grinder and it is great, so I ordered this Compound Cross slide vice. It is simply amazing! Knowing it's quality now I would have paid 4 times as much. Having a well built compound vice that slides both directions is huge. Now, when I am trying to precisely position a drill mark under my drill, I simply spin the little handles. I can move it forward and left and right. My only complaint is that there is slop in the mechanism. I wouldn't mind if there was a lock down lever...maybe I just haven't found it yet? There are lots of little bolts, maybe I just need to tinker with it. There has to be slop in the vice so it can still move when it's full of wood and metal chips. Perhaps that is a normal function of a compound cross slide vice. But I can totally live with it as is. This is so much better than a single vice. I should have bought this 30 years ago.

Very heavy, well built. A little stiff on the x,y, controls right out of the box but with a little lube and some use they broke in well. This vice is definitely worth what I paid.

After some adjustment to the set screws, this unit does very well. Some minor assembly required.

I have a standard drill press vice which is fine for some general use but a little annoying if it's fixed to the base and I need to adjust the position. This however is a huge upgrade in terms of adjustability. There is plenty of travel on each axis to get your hole lined up. The measurement increments are metric, which is a little odd, but I found myself eyeballing against either my pencil mark or center punch holes anyway. Larger adjustments do feel a little rough, perhaps I need to add some additional lubrication. The handles also don't convey a feeling of precision and wiggle around a bit. It just ends up feeling a little clunky if you're moving things around. As a hobbyist, this will suite my needs quite well, but if I was going to be using this day in and day out I might see some of these little nagging details being deal breakers.

There have been many times when I needed a vise that moved in two directions. I could then, drill a set of two holes accurately, without having to spend a lot of time making two set ups. With this Wen compound cross slide vise, I made two 1/4" dia. holes in a 1 1/4" dia. Oak dowel, by only rotating the hand wheel a few turns. The fixed jaw has a horizontal "V" shaped groove that firmly kept the dowel from slipping, while I was drilling. The fixed jaw also has a vertical "V" shaped groove, to hold the dowel in a vertical position, if I wanted to drill into the end of the dowel. The 3 3/4" long tightening handle for the vise face, gave me plenty of leverage to solidly tighten down the dowel. Once the dowel was tightened in place, the hand wheels easily moved the dowel along an "X" "Y" axis, in measured increments of 0.1 mm. The shank of the hand wheels are clearly engraved with graduated millimeter markings. A pointer, on the vise body, above the millimeter markings, allowed me to accurately keep track of travel. A full rotation of the hand wheel represents 3 mm of travel. After I made a hand wheel adjustment, I didn't have to lock in that adjustment, as there was no looseness in any of the vise mechanisms. The vise solidly held that adjustment. The vise weighs 19-lbs., heavy enough to hold everything in place, while drilling the dowel, without bolting the vise to the drill press. The vise generously has five mounting brackets for securing it to a work table, or drill press base. The vise also includes 3 sizes of Allen wrench, for any adjustments to fittings. This is an accurate, heavy duty, great vise!

This 4 inch compound cross slide vise can be mounted on the workbench or a drill press. It is heavy duty and certainly well made. It can easily handle a 4 inch wide piece. The cross slide can travel 6 inches in one direction and 5.8 inches the other direction by using the hand-wheels. Each turn is 3mm. which give the precision needed for milling either wood or metal. This is a quality vise and certainly a great value.

This is a very substantial powder coated cast iron vise which is very useful on my workbench! It gives a very stable support due to its weight and the five ½ inch cutouts in the base (see picture) for securing this to either a workbench or to a drill press (the five bolt pattern is compatible with most drill press tables). The markings for adjustments on two axis planes are very easy to read (see pictures). The only assembly involved two washers and nuts to hold the spinner handles for the two adjustment axis planes (see picture). The vise opens a little over 4 inches (see picture). Both vise plates align perfectly flat for a good grip (see picture). The vise moves 5.8 inches along the x-axis and 6 inches along the y-axis. There is a V-shaped groove in the fixed jaw of the vise (see picture) to help in holding round objects either vertically or horizontally. I found that very useful. It is a good design feature in my opinion. It even included three different size Allen wrenches for adjustments (see picture). They thought of everything! I highly recommend this vise!

Very stiff, hard to operate. Needed to be cleaned, lubricated and reassembled. After that it was ok,

Recommend to use acetone to clean,will net a pint minimum to the job,hot water and patience works for me/overal it is fine for me

Works well but needs lots of lube to set it up. Lots of play but typical for this price range.

Great vise for the price. The rails were too tight from the factory but were easily adjusted.

The vise is good quality. very sturdy construction. There are two minor issues. One is that the tension on the vice in its track is controlled by set screws that often loosen. Yes, some Loctite will address this issue, but it only seems to impact two of the screws. The other minor complaint is that vice bolt downs do not cleanly line up with the table of a Wen drill press.

Worked well on a small milling project. I am very satisfied

This is a great accessory for the Grizzly drill press. Easily mounts w/t-slot nuts .What I really like is that the dovetail set up is well made.

Works as intended. The only issue, one of the jaws travel screws were slightly bent. I didn't notice it until I assembled it. It gets tight 1" from end of travel. I am typically using it closer to center of travel so I don't notice it as much. If it becomes an aggravation I will fix it. Overall a good solid addition to my tool collection. I did buy a cheap set of Step Clamps to hold it to my Drill Press Table.

The amount of lash in changing directions with the cranks was quite a bit more than I expected. Cannot use this for precision drilling of holes in a pattern. Which is what I wanted it for.

There is a little play in the top leedscrew but it is still avery good vise.

Good basic X-Y cross vise. There was considerable slop in the X-Y action which needed to be taken up by the alignment screws. The alignment screws show a lock nut which was unnecessary. Overall, a good buy and a solid vise for everyday use.

It works well and is a good value

Good vise. Not machined to be EXACT. There is "play" in the X and Y axis adjustments that cannot be tuned in. Other adjustments can be made good. Overall, acceptable. Keep your calipers handy and you'll be fine.

Excellent quality. Highly recommended.

Did the job, over and over again.

Rating provided by a verified purchaser