Review on WEN 23072 Lithium-Ion Variable Accessory by Doug Hook

Well you get what you pay for so it was no shock when this thing only lasted a week. Unfortunately, I bought it a year ago during a pandemic shopping spree and just started work on a project I was planning to give as a gift (a ring, not exactly a serious endeavor!). At first I was excited! To be honest it was everything it should have been - quiet, had really amazing torque, battery didn't last long but not bad considering that. I was very pleased. I also have a battery powered Dremel (supposedly for cleaning golf balls but honestly good enough for most tasks). I also bought a set of diamond drill bits (much better than what comes in the box) during a pandemic shopping spree. was very satisfied. Almost immediately I noticed that the drill bits would loosen during operation - at first I thought I had used the wrong collet, but I wasn't. I would engage the chuck and tighten everything as tight as I can, then release and make sure it's tight. But they will eventually lose the factory or the diamond bit - it's something with the chuck, I'm guessing has a bit of wiggle room to work it out. Sometimes it stayed right and sometimes it didn't. Who knows, maybe it was my fault. It somehow randomly threw thorns across the room. Then I noticed how quickly it heated up. My cordless Dremel doesn't have this problem but the WEN also has a higher RPM setting and good torque so it was annoying to take breaks but not the end of the world I was very happy with the price anyway. Likewise, the battery doesn't last as long at higher RPMs, but that's to be expected, for the price it was acceptable. What helped me was that after a week of use, the bearing started to wear out and became unbalanced. a cartridge it would vibrate like crazy and make that TERRIBLE sound. So much for silence. I know I need to drive the burr as deep as possible and let the tool do the cutting instead of putting a lot of pressure on the burr by pushing the tool. Oh, and once it's unbalanced it'll come loose pretty quickly if it touches anything (which is good for safety, but not great if your instrument is constantly unbalanced). I got around this in about a day by flipping the tool over so the opposite side was facing the project, so used the unworn side of the bearing (or whatever became wavy). If I did that, it would rebalance for a while and I could use it again, being even more careful with the pressure. In the end, this side also gave up and will no longer regain its balance. It just turns off when prompted to turn off a torque. Presumably this is the same problem other people are having with it turning off. It's useless, I worked maybe 12 hours and it's absolutely a toast. I don't think I got a defective one because initially it was great! I think it's just not up to work and wear. My little cordless Dremel has gone through hell and back in a few years doing literally anything I asked it to. And ever since my van screwed up I've been using this little Dremel on a project and it's had absolutely no problems (the only thing to do with it is buying and changing batteries all the time and not getting new batteries when you ' on a milestone project). Save money, buy the cheapest Dremel. They're not that much more expensive, but the quality is many light years higher.