PC 557 Plate Joiner, base not flat

[bennie blackwell]

I purchased the Porter Cable 557 Plate Joiner (biscuit joiner) in June 2017 and played with it on a miter joint in which the point of the miter was the reference point (or line); see Figure 36, page 17 of the owner's guide. I got satisfactory results so I put it aside. I have a different application in which I again have a miter joint for a picture frame and I want the stock and plate joiner on a flat surface. I quickly realize that the base of the plate joiner is not flat. If I place the PC 557 on my table saw top, I have about 0.045" gap under one corner of the base. This clearly would not produce consistent results. Anyone else seen this problem? Thanks in advance for your comments.

[Jamie Buxton]

That doesn't seem right. Perhaps you can get Porter Cable to fix it under warrantee. Or you can shim the corners of the base with several layers of tape -- duct tape for thicker layers, and masking tape for thinner layers. What you should aim for is to get the adjusted base co-planar with the blade. Getting it flat, but twisted from the blade, will be a problem.

[Randy Viellenave]

Until today, I never thought of checking that. I measured mine, and the black plastic base exceeds the aluminum base by 0.030" all the way across, and the blade (one tooth of it) varies by 0.0005" from one edge to the other. I did find 0.0025" variance from the plate that flips down (which is what I normally reference from). I would suggest taking off the bottom plastic and making sure there is nothing stuck between it and the body, that would be my guess where the variance come from. If set flat on the TS, you can expect a 0.030" gap, but it should be consistent.