Porter Cable router recall -- report

[Ellen Benkin]

I was one of the many people who bought the PC 895 router and received a recall notice. I decided to make the trip to the "local" service center (about 25 miles) mostly because I was going to be near there anyway. Otherwise I would have had to find a box and ship the motor to them. It took the guy behind the counter 10 minutes to figure out that my router was one of the ones affected by the recall (lots of staring at a list) and then he informed me that they didn't have the parts to fix it but they were due to arrive any day. I agreed to leave it and have them ship it back to me. THEN he went into the repair room and actually looked and, lo and behold, they had a stack of replacement routers. He handed me a new router motor in a sealed box and I was on my way. A transaction that should have taken 5 minutes tops took about 20 minutes, but I didn't have to wait for a "repair" and shipping so, overall, I'm happy. I just wish the "local" repair center was a bit closer.

[Jack Norfleet]

My experience was similar, except that the repair center is only 5 miles from my house. It seems that the recall list has 5 digit numbers and the routers have 6 digits with a leading zero. It took some consultation amongst the couter workers whether they should ignore the leading zero. Once they agreed, it took about 2 minutes to do the paperwork and I was on my way.

On a side note, I noticed that the Orlando repair center had 2 sets of extenstion tables for Dewalt 735 planers on clearance. One was priced at $19, and the other at $15.

[Curt Harms]

My experience was OK as well. B&D has closed my favorite service center, so I went to one in Allentown PA. when I was in that area. They were a B&D/DeWalt service center and I bought my router reconditioned so it took them few minutes to decide to give me a new motor but no problems. Anyone ever hear what the problem with these motors is? Mebbe one could go dumpster diving behind these service centers and come away with all kinda router motors:rolleyes:

Curt

[Steven Shelby]

Aside from the recall issue, I was frankly very unhappy with the quality of this router. I am a big fan of PC routers, but this one is a POC. I was having problems with the bit slipping out of the collet in the middle of cutting dovetails... ruining my workpiece. So when I heard about the recall, I decided it wasn't worth the effort to get it fixed. I instead was motivated to take it back to the retailer. After the guy got past the shock of having a PC router returned, I got refund. Replaced it with the 2.25HP Bosch. Very pleased with the choice!

[Kent Fitzgerald]

I was having problems with the bit slipping out of the collet in the middle of cutting dovetails... ruining my workpiece.
My 690 and 8529 are rock solid, and I thought all PC routers used the same collet. Is there something different about the 860?

[Ron Robinson]

I too recently returned my 890 motor for replacement. The service center was ready and immediately gave me a new motor, so no problems there. However, I am also not satisfied with the quality of this router. It may be a good router handheld, but it is terrible in my router table. I bought it for the "above the table" adjustment features and that is where this router fails miserably IMHO. The mechanism and associated parts are not robust enough to handle even my hobbyist requirements. Within a year I had replaced all the parts that control the opening and locking of the motor to the base. Now, the mechanism that actuates the collet locking pin, which allows for one wrench adjustment above the table, has failed. I went on line to order a new one and found them back ordered. A trend maybe? (he says sarcastically) I am pleased with other PC products, but this one missed the mark big time.

Ron Robinson

[Rod Upfold]

I phoned the Dewalt service centre about the recall. They told me to bring the whole thing in - I said all I need is the motor replaced. Anyways that afternoon, I took the whole router kit into the service centre. A week later a whole new router kit came knocking on my door.

Yep...I like this router

[Ellen Benkin]

I'm pretty pleased with this router. It is a LOT quieter than the one it replaced (also a PC). I've had no problems with the collets holding the bits. The "one wrench" collet adjustment, for those of us with smaller hands, really takes someone to hold in the pin while someone else uses the wrench but I can do it myself if I have to. I bought this model for the above table height adjustment and it works OK for my purposes, but I would not be happy if I was interested in really exacting measurements. When I tighten the clamp after making the height adjustment there is a little "jump". Most of the time it doesn't make any significant difference but it sure would be nice if it wasn't there at all. But I'm too cheap to buy a separate router raiser, so I will live with what I've got.

[M. A. Espinoza]

Aside from the recall issue, I was frankly very unhappy with the quality of this router. I am a big fan of PC routers, but this one is a POC. I was having problems with the bit slipping out of the collet in the middle of cutting dovetails... ruining my workpiece. So when I heard about the recall, I decided it wasn't worth the effort to get it fixed. I instead was motivated to take it back to the retailer. After the guy got past the shock of having a PC router returned, I got refund. Replaced it with the 2.25HP Bosch. Very pleased with the choice!

Put me on the list of those not happy with the 890 series. Quality is lacking, the recall was the issue that put me over the top. So I sold it with the new motor, figured it would never be worth more. I went with the 890's figuring it would just be an improvement on the 690's which were great basic tools. Nope. Seemed like a Ryobi painted gray and black. Lots of features and shoddy build quality.

Replaced it with a Milwaukee, and it has collet runout. :mad: Milwaukee has it and they are evaluating the motor. I'll give them a chance to make it right. But there is always Bosch or Makita, I hear very little bad about their motors. My DeWalt 621 is a great little plunger so they might be in the running. And then there's Festool...but not yet.

But hopefully Milwaukee takes care of it, they seem to be reliable mfg. And they're Midwestern so they've got that going for them.

[Steve Clardy]

Guess I'll stick with my tried and true 690's and 7500's.

[Bernie Schaner]

I took mine to the Orlando center and about 4 days later received a new motor from the same place. It was not in a sealed factory box. The rack on the side was oversize and it had to be grinded down to make it work. Then I chucked up a 1/2 inch round over bit and in a minute or two of running the thing got so hot it smelled of burning insulation. It was so hot I could not touch it for over one second. I tried it again a couple days later and it still produced a burning insulation smell. I looked at the unit and it was made in Mexico.

So another trip back to Orlando and this time it was a little different. It took maybe 2 weeks and another motor arrived at my home. This one was in a factory box and the data stated that it was made in UK. Haven't tried this one yet but have high hopes. My original unit that was recalled worked just beautiful and I could not find fault with it.

Take care,
Bernie

[M. A. Espinoza]

It was so hot I could not touch it for over one second. I tried it again a couple days later and it still produced a burning insulation smell. I looked at the unit and it was made in Mexico.

So another trip back to Orlando and this time it was a little different. This one was in a factory box and the data stated that it was made in UK. Haven't tried this one yet but have high hopes.

Take care,
Bernie


Guess you've never owned an MG regarding UK manufacturing. :rolleyes:

Its not where its built, its how the parts are spec'd. They've cheapened up the 890 series so much that they had this problem.

I experienced the too-hot-to-handle issue on my first two when they just came out. Called PC and they told me that it was normal. Very precise bearings they said. Never mind I've never run another router that does this including several older model Porter Cable.

I think its crap bearings that are too tight. They may last but I don't have faith in a bearing that runs that hot when not under load. So no more 890 series for me.

[Luther Oswalt]

I have not carried my PC 890 in yet. It works fine and just doesn't seem to have any problems. I'm worried that, from all that I hear, by taking it in something bad is going to happen! Or am I wrong to hold out and should just bite the bullet and take it in?
Leo

[M. A. Espinoza]

I have not carried my PC 890 in yet. It works fine and just doesn't seem to have any problems. I'm worried that, from all that I hear, by taking it in something bad is going to happen! Or am I wrong to hold out and should just bite the bullet and take it in?
Leo

I run my routers for quite a while at times. Use them to do mortising in a multi-router type setup. So a bearing that gets that hot doesn't give me a good feeling. The 690's I used never did that and they would be running for hours.

So the 890's may be be fine, but I don't want to risk the downtime.

There were a couple of other issues with the 890 that I wasn't thrilled about so I decided to switch to Milwaukee. Has the conveniences I want and hopefully the reliability I need.

Guess I'll find out.

[Bart Leetch]

I just purchased a fixed base variable speed 690 to go with my 693 single speed. From the sounds of this post :eek: it sounds like I did the right thing.:D :D :D