Porter-Cable Reviews

I bought this model when it was offered by Devilbis in 1999. Never had to use it other than for routine tests until Isabel came through. We were out of power for two days, and the gen performed great! I have it wired into the house with a 10 circuit EmerGen transfer switch. I could run most of the house, my computers, fridge, freezer, and well pump with not sweat. I would power off the refrigeration and well pump when running the water heater, which took 5000 watts according to the meters. Electric start is great. But this thing is way too loud. Fortunately, I live in a rural 'hood in the PA mountains, and about 1/2 the residents had gen's running too, so mine didn't stand out too much. I'm looking for a solution to the muffler.

I really like the performance of the BSV800 but the one thing I
don't like is the noise. It's got the 14hp B&S Vanguard engine
(very good engine) but it sounds like a Mac truck. I've been looking to get a motorcycle muffler for the thing... Performance
wise it's great - I've got a 3200 sf house and it easily runs the
well pump, furnace blower, fridge, furnace exhaust blower and
some room circuits.

I DONT HAVE THIS YET BECAUSE YOU DID NOT PUT A PRICE ON IT?????????

Impact wrench works great but I have two issues. First of all, the connector should be 1/4" NPT not 3/8". Secondly, it's harder than it should be to find the notch that the dial should be turned to in order to set the maximum torque. Having said that, this is a very good product and I would recommend it's purchase.
It's hard to find impact wrenches like this one that can actually be used to tighten without the risk of applying too much torque. Most other wrenches that have torque limiting features don't specify what the maximum torque is at each setting. Without this information, you really have no idea how much torque your applying and the adjustment feature loses its value.

I wouldn't think of getting one of these portable saws without the Rousseau table and this extension. I've thrown 100# sheets of MDF on this table (using some additional saw horses for side support through the cut) and ripped them down to usable size by myself using the rousseau table, this extension, and outfeed table. Accuracy is as good as I can measure for large sheet goods. Just like the Makita saw, set it and it stays set.

I had a porter cable sander before and this one is just as good so far as it was, and it was as good as you can get!
The ordering process was excellent.

This sander is heavy but a workhouse - first class. We purchased a DeWalt first but it kept breaking belts. We replaced it with the Porter Cable and are very satisfied.

This Sander does an excellent job finishing large work that is too large to run thru the automatic machie. It saved much time and setup was fast and easy.

I returned this due to many additive problems. Fortunately, Amazon refunded me because PC customer service just sent canned "Thank you - won't help you" messages. PC quality is sinking.
1) cheap plastic parts on bases - plunge base pointer broke on first use. You can't read the scale anyway because of how they positioned the knob.
2) cheap metal and screws. Two screws about 1/8" long w/maybe 3 threads hold the height adjustment rack to the machine body. These fall out and quickly strip both themselves and the body when you try to re-attach the rack - something I had to do with each use in a router table. What are they thinking? These tiny screws have to support the entire weight of the router when mounted on a table and the clamp is loosened to perform height adjustments.
3) Poorly machined base plate holes. Base barely fits standard jigs for PC routers (no problem with PC 690) because they are machined enough out of alignment to require a forced fit. You could tell this would lead to more thread stripping in no time.
4) Plunge mechanism was very stiff and almost useless. Did not improve with use.
5) For me - 4 hour one-way drive to service recall - no other way offered to accommodate.

The motor seemed decent and I tried to overlook the above until the metal began stripping in less than two months of use. I think PC is economizing on bases and cheaper manufacturing processes. By the way, this is the first tool I've returned in 20 years and own many other PC tools without complaint. Maybe I got a bad apple, but others here have similar experience with this model.

I would like to say that I'm related to the Porter side of the company but I'm not. However, there are some things this company does well and making routers is one of them. I purchased this kit from Amazon a couple of years ago after doing a bit of research. It has not disappointed me. The soft start is a nice feature so as to not make it jerk in your hand when starting up. It also runs quieter than my old router.

Both bases work very well. I mostly use the fixed base in a Bench Dog router table to make cabinet doors and such. The plunge base works smoothly too when whatever I'm doing calls for it. I have not experienced the plunge base giving me any problems as some of the other reviewers have stated.

The motor is plenty powerful. It has never bogged down on me even when I've run maple or oak through it.

There are only a couple of things that I have had any difficulty with. When I'm using the fixed base in the router table, saw dust can collect between the motor unit and the base making it sometimes difficult to remove the motor unit from the base. Dust collection needs to be running at 100% to keep this from becoming an issue.

The other minor complaint I have is that the spindle lock doen't fully engage unless the motor unit is forced into position. It can sometimes be difficult to release the spindle lock from that position too.

These two "issues" are not severe enough for me to rate it 4 stars. I'd give it 4.8 if that was an option.

I had and still have a Mikita 1 1/4 router but wanted to upgrade. Saw this kit since I wanted both a fixed and plung router. I use the fixed base on my P/C router table. I have been milling my own wood trim for my house, and have no problem with it bogging down on me. I have been using white ash and the veriable speed is very helpful. So far the only thing that I have had a problem with is I have to replace the switch on my router table, but I bought that 7yrs ago, and it just went out on me last week.

The product is simply poorly engineered for some types of paint. This is not to say thats its not well made. The P-C 7403 Power paint remover motor and base is built like a battleship and I'm sure would last for decades if it actually solved the problem for which it was designed. Unfortunately it has some pretty fundamental design and engineering flaws. It will work on thin paints layers that are not as likely to melt at low temperatures and subsequently gum the disks. That being said, if that was the type of paint people had, they probably wouldn't need to strip the paint off would they?
The metal disks get hot in seconds and exceed the melting temperature of thick layers of latex paints(and oils) in about 3 minutes of use and clog the disks so badly that the disks become useless. This is the case no matter how fast you move the device or what depth you set the device to. I went through 25 disks in 2 hour and was only able to strip a 6 foot square area even while the device was set to barely scratch the surface and while I moved it as quickly as I could.

If you happen to be removing the right type of paint, of the right thickness, it works ok after a little practice. If you happen to be trying to remove the wrong type(the type that actually needs to be removed), then you will have wasted your money.

Here a suggestion to porter cable to correct the design flaw. Loose the metal disks and the paint remover attachment on the bottom of the device. Instead use a rotating steel wire brush (the kind you can get for angle grinders for about $12.00) and add a depth gauge which prevent the brush from digging in too deep simliar to the kind you have for the disks setup but with a taller profile for the height of the brush, and make sure it is adjustable since brushes wear along their length as they are used. Rotating metal brushes have better thermal qualities in that they tend not to get as hot, and subsequently wont melt the paint and clog the brushes.

Angle grinders do a great job with wire brushes attached. The wire brushes don't clog and last a very long time. The unfortunate problem is that they tend to dig out the surface because of operator control issues when used free hand. With angle grinders this is solved by adding a Cup wheel guard that is depth adjustable. If porter cable comes up with a wire brush version with an attachment that adjusts depth to prevent gouging then they will have a hit that will beat out every other product on the market. I played around in my home shop with a version of what I describe and the darn thing worked great. Cost me about 40.00 in parts to retro fit Porter Cables device. It was pain to do it but it did work terrific after the changes I made. I figure better fix a faulty design for some short money than throw it out and waste a few hundred.

To everyone else go buy an angle grinder with a wire brush and a cup guard and save yourself the trouble until Porter Cable modifies their design.

This machine is a great idea, but really lacks in results. The pads that they require are great, but get all full of paint in a very short time. If you use these pads with a grinder, it works fantastic! One main Problem with this machine is that it only goes around 5,000 rpm, where a grinder goes 10,000 rpm. This way the pads last for hours.

Very thick very old paint will gum up the disks. My house is 100yr old. I had to torch the paint off then use the tool. I kept a wire wheel on a angle grinder to de clog the disk.

The tool will not remove pain from the lip of the clap boards, nor the last 3 in of the board. It also can't get the lowest board in some situations.

What do you do about nail heads? You can't go pounding them all in on 3" clap board or you will split it. I did one side of my house one year and the second the next. All the nail heads rusted on the first side through primber and two coats of quality latex paint. On the second side I painted all the heads with derect to metal paint. This worked, but it took a long time.

I'd like to try the "pro paint scraper" it looks like it might work better.

Don't put up plastic siding.

I had this compressor 2 yrs it worked well for small short term jobs. When I needed it for an all day job (running on & off for 5 hours it burned out...... A real poor value. They are not worth more than $50.00

I previously owned the Porter Cable 135psi, 3hp compressor but when I moved to my new house, with slightly low voltage, it was nearly impossible to use without popping breakers every time the beast fired up. This one works like a charm. It runs longer and more often than the old one but I don't have to run back and forth to the breaker panel. It's also about half the weight so if you need to move it often, this one is great.

I bought my Porter Cable pancake compressor over 3 years ago and it hasn't missed a beat. I've used it many, many times and it always faithfully performs as intended. I've used it to for projects ranging from framing in a new gas log fireplace to framing a 12 X 12 garden shed and finishing trim on furniture. I've also used it to inflate the kid's paddle pool and for pumping up my car tires. It has never missed a beat. I highly recommend this unit to the home handyman.

Bought my Porter-Cable RN175 (Not a 175A) on 8-7-05 at Lowes. Found it in a shopping cart for 75% off. Was $249.00 reduced to $173.00, bought it at 75% off the sale price. Cost was about $43.00. Had to buy $27.00 worth of roofing nails to test it. It kicks ass. It will double if you hold the trigger down too long @90psig. Move the pressure to 80 psig, adjust the depth for the material, and touch it off quickly...don't hold the trigger down. I got consistant depths as long as it was oiled. A great $70.00 deal!

I bought this gun from Home Depot to roof a large workshop I'm building in our backyard. Not being an experienced roofer I first tried using the place-gun-pull-trigger method... the gun would double nail about every third nail. I called Porter-Cable and the guy told me to turn down the air pressure. I did this but the gun continued to double nail and now it sometimes didn't drive the nail all the way flush. I took the gun back to Home Depot and they gave me a new, replacement gun. THE NEW ONE DID THE SAME THING! So I called Porter Cable again and explained what was happening, this time a different guy told me that brand of nails I was using were probably causing the problem and I should use Porter Cable nails. I couldn't find PC nails so I tried Senco... no difference. I finally broke down and started bump nailing like the pros and haven't had a single double nail since. Only one or two jams during the whole roof job. Now I'm going to try to use up these extra nails by using the gun on some Hardiplank siding!

great gun, lightweigt and reliable. I work with a guy who has a Hitachi. Whenever he has a chance he uses mine because it's so much lighter.