Porter Cable Power tools

[Donny Lawson]

I was wanting to know your thoughts on Porter Cable tools such as 15"Drill press,14"Bandsaw,12" compound miter saw. They look good but I don't know how good they will hold up. I know porter cable makes a good router. Are these tools something I should stay away from or are they pretty good quality?
Donny

[Russell Smallwood]

Hey Donny,

I think the general consensus on Porter Cable is that the overall quality of the brand has diminished since merging with Delta and consequently being bought by B&D (hope I got that right).

I have a few PC tools, the 690 I bought in the early 90's is great, the 895k I bought last year is .... pretty good. The belt sander I bought last year is.... well... not so much.

I've looked at the new stationary tools that are being offered at Lowes and they seem to be kind of cheap looking. Generally undersized and under powered. But, I haven't actually used one so I'm not speaking from personal experiences, just general observations.

[Jon Endres]

Porter-Cable tools used to be the cream of the crop. They spent years making tough professional-grade tools. In the past few years, it seems like Bleak & Darker has been marketing DeWalt as their 'professional' line of tools, Porter-Cable as their 'mid-range' line, and the old standby Black and Decker as the 'homeowner - occasional user' tools.

When DeWalt first came out with their yellow stuff, I was working for a contractor who bought lots of tools for the crews. After six months, we had a 30-gallon trash can in the shop filled with yellow stuff. Nothing held up. I doubt their QC has improved all that much. I also wouldn't buy a Porter Cable tool that was newer than about ten years old, and I've never been a big fan anyway. Always seemed to me like Porter-Cable was the 'hammer and wedges' of the tool world, when what you really needed was a sharp chisel. No frills, brute force, but the stuff never broke. Now I don't trust them. I've seen that stuff in Lowes and it's not what I'd call high quality. Even so, every line of tools has standouts and pigs. I always thought that Porter-Cable was a step behind everyone else in adaptation of new technology and ease of use adjustments.

If I was looking for new stationary tools, I'd be leaning toward Grizzly, Steel City or Jet. Delta - eh, maybe. I have a shop full of Delta machinery but none of it is less than 12 years old. Most of it is older than me. Quality used to be the bottom line, not material costs and profit.

[Craig Michael]

Jon hit it on the head. PC was good up until Black and Decker bought them. They probably still make a few good tools like their routers but the great majority is complete junk. The sales reps for the company are very open about what PC is. Dewalt is considered their professional line/contractor grade and PC is their homeowner line to compete with Ryobi and such. They are very open about it too.

I still have a few PC tools. I had an older 19.2 cordless drill and circ saw that still works well but gave it to a friend when I upgraded to a Lithium ion makita set, and I have a 690 router and picked up a used 7518 3 1/4 hp router used for a great price. But I've also sold off some of my PC to get away from their line since I know they will be less likely to support many of their tools in the future as they continue to cheapen them.

I still don't understany why B&D buys a good name in tools and drives it in to the quality control toilet. Really foolish to pay a higher price for a company just to turn around and sell cheaper tools.

[Rick Fisher]

The cost of buying these tools in China or Malaysia is dirt cheap.. For a volume order, you can get whatever color and tag you want.. There is huge profits for a company to buy a reputable brand name and use it to sell these cheap tools for a good buck.. Having said that, I would not buy any of them. I have a PC 690 and a PC 7518 .. both are in Jessem lifts.. I cannot think of another PC electric tool that interests me.. I have their 23ga pinner.. its been fine but I have fired less than 5000 pins through it..

PC is over.. The old quality tools will be re-branded DeWalt, and like the Elu product, quality will still suffer .. Black and Decker is a company that is primarily interested in making money..

Imagine the margins if Festool got one of there tools made in Malaysia or China.. sold it for Festool prices.. To a corporate executive, that is pretty tempting... to a tool guy... not so much ..

[Curt Harms]

...........
I still don't understand why B&D buys a good name in tools and drives it in to the quality control toilet. Really foolish to pay a higher price for a company just to turn around and sell cheaper tools.

Not foolish at all. B&D removed a competitor from a market segment they want their DeWalt brand to be dominant. Less informed customers are going to think "Oh Boy, Porter-Cable!! My father/uncle/friend had a Porter-Cable tool and it was GREAT!! Sorta like Craftsman. And for all I know B&D used money won from the patent infringement lawsuit over the P-C 557 biscuit jointer to finance the transaction. If the Porter-Cable brand becomes known as crap, they can sell the name to bottom feeder. The Bell & Howell and Polaroid brands used to be respected. Now........ not so much.

[glenn bradley]

Although I am also disturbed at an emotional level with the flushing of PC's quality down the chute, I will try to keep that out of it. People are resistant to change and we all have some brand or specific tool(s) within that brand that, up till now, have been old stand-bys. We may overemphasize their demise.

The PC tools that took the spots on the shelf/floor of other products in the line at the big box stores look pretty questionable compared to their predecessors. The DP is not the Delta it replaced, the benchtop jointer, planer and scrollsaw seem to be the same tool with a different badge. The bandsaw I'm not sure about but gave up on Delta's bandsaws as a possibility years ago.

The PC replacements did roll out at an attractive price point for those shopping primarily on price. The overall look and feel "seems" poor but that could be subjective. The change in materials and the way the tools feel may not translate to performance. If I owned a tool brand strictly as a businessman I would try to make a change to a cheaper manufacturing method while retaining the heft of the previous tools. That way they could be less expensive and "feel" good in the hand thereby possibly increasing sales. Perhaps our guesses we will be proved wrong and these tools will really stand the test of time(?).

[Paul McGaha]

Porter Cable was my go to brand as for as portable power tools. Not to say that other manufacturers dont make good tools also but there are so many of them out there it was to me easier to start with Porter Cable if I needed something new.

All of my sanders and most of my routers are Porter Cable and I really like them all and would but them again if they were available.

I miss them.

PHM

[Bruce Wrenn]

I was wanting to know your thoughts on Porter Cable tools such as 15"Drill press,14"Bandsaw,12" compound miter saw. They look good but I don't know how good they will hold up. I know porter cable makes a good router. Are these tools something I should stay away from or are they pretty good quality?
DonnyA good indication of quality is look at craigslist and see which tools are selling, and for what. DeWalt CMS's bring a LOT MORE than PC or Delta ones. Used Delta 14" band saws sell for less than the new PC ones. When I looked at the PC band saw, it reminded me of a "no name" 14' Tiawan made machine I used in the early ninties. It was a piece of crap!

[Bill Isaacs]

I'm building a router table and had planned to buy a PC7518 for it. Now I'm having second thoughts. What would you guys buy?

[Kent Chasson]

I'm building a router table and had planned to buy a PC7518 for it. Now I'm having second thoughts. What would you guys buy?

I just bought a new 690 to replace a 25 yr old one that had seen tons of use and was starting to get loud. I assumed the bearings were starting to go. The new one is just as loud and the threads on the collet feel they are coated in sand. Count me as another formerly loyal PC patron.

I've got a Milwaukee on my router table and like it.

[Karl Brogger]

Count me in as another ex-fan of Porter Cable tools. Its a shame, they had some great stuff.



I just bought a new 690 to replace a 25 yr old one that had seen tons of use and was starting to get loud. I assumed the bearings were starting to go. The new one is just as loud and the threads on the collet feel they are coated in sand. Count me as another formerly loyal PC patron.

Have the old one rebuilt.

[mark kosse]

I wouldn't by them. They look like crap.

As far as they were always bad or not top shelf, that's just nutty. They had the best and most durable saws, routers and sanders ever made. Walk into any production shop, school shop or large contractors shop and see what they use.

[Curt Harms]

.............
All of my sanders and most of my routers are Porter Cable and I really like them all and would but them again if they were available.

I miss them.

PHM

I'm the same, Porter-Cable routers & sanders. Most of 'em have a sticker "made in USA":D When/if they die or become unrepairable, I doubt they'll be replaced with another Porter-Cable.

[Paul Johnstone]

I was wanting to know your thoughts on Porter Cable tools such as 15"Drill press,14"Bandsaw,12" compound miter saw. They look good but I don't know how good they will hold up. I know porter cable makes a good router. Are these tools something I should stay away from or are they pretty good quality?
Donny

I see you got a lot of expected doom stories here. But I wonder how many people have actually bought a PC tool since BD
bought them?

I would guess that the compound miter saw would be fine. These things are pretty simple to make. Most have ways to adjust
if the factory stops are not perfect.

The drill press.. well it depends on how picky you are on runout. For woodworking, some people are really too picky about it.
I would buy one locally like at Lowes, and see how well it is. It most likely will be adequate, and much better at drilling a
straight hole than a hand drill.. There's people that buy very expensive drill presses and still complain about them. But I think
if you compare the PC drill press to others in its price range, it will probably be comparable quality, which IMO is
good enough for woodworking. I have a very basic Delta drill press.. it was the model they sold at Lowes.. This is one might be the same thing (or very close).

The bandsaw.. This would be scare me the most. Bandsaws are more complicated. You could try one out and see how well the blade tracks, and how much vibration when running.. this is another area where there's a vast difference of opinion.
Some people think you should buy the least expensive bandsaw and then they spend the time making adjustments and say it is fine. Others spend a lot more.. I will say this though.. if you can find an older 14" Delta BS on the used market, that would really be the way to go. For some reason, they don't hold their resale value as well (I guess it's because of the cheaper BS on the market now), but they are much better engineered.

If it was me, I'd probably try the miter saw and drill press, but I would not buy the bandsaw.

[Greg R Bradley]

The Porter Cable Drill Press that Lowes sells for $300 is pretty sad. The Rigid that HD sells for $300 is pretty decent. If you want a better one, step up to the ones that normally sell at $500-600 like the Delta 17-959. Those should be able to be found around $450-500 now. Rockler had them at $490 recently and my tool supplier had them at $439. There are some deals out there if you are patient.

You really do have to look at most of the tools individually since they are changing so fast. As a general rule anything that comes out as a new tool and says Porter Cable on it is pretty poor. Stanley is gradually moving toward Dewalt as their premium brand (not that most Dewalt stuff is very good), Porter Cable below that, Black and Decker below that. People like me that have 10 year old Porter Cable stuff will generally be pissed off about that and remember Dewalt as being the inferior stuff when Black and Decker bought a saw maker named Dewalt and made alot of their crap yellow, put alot of effort into making the parts that you touch seems good, and sold junk for more money. That is not to say that SOME Dewalt stuff was pretty decent and some of their current stuff is OK. Most of the stuff is gradually going down hill and even some standards like PC's big routers have gone slightly downhill as they have gone with cheaper bearings, etc. That is pretty minor as a bearing is easily replaced later with industrial quality.

Again, you really have to look at each tool unto itself and not get too attached to a brand. It is a sad truth that there is lots more money in crap that good stuff because most people just don't know and may not even be able to tell.