Say it isn't So

[Paul Greathouse]

Well, you guy's have been warning of it for a while now, but nothing drives it home more than to see it with your own sad eyes. I was walking through the big blue boxes tool world this afternoon looking for the Dewalt 18V brad gun in their sales flyer and hit me like someone had thrown a brick in my face.

There they were, the newly ba$tard!zed Porter Cable linup. It gave me a sick feeling as I picked them up one by one and looked at them. If you haven't seen them yet just get a mental picture of Black and Decker Fire Storm tools in your head then subtitute the Red for Black and Grey and you'll have a pretty accurate idea.

I know, they still make some of the good stuff under the Porter Cable name, you will just have to get it online or at specialty stores. The stuff at the big box just cheapens the whole Porter Cable name though. Seeing Dewalt do this to Porter Cable is like watching two of your good friends fist fighting and one is losing badly.

I'm old enough to remember using the "Black & Decker Professional" line of tools. They were great tools in their day but with what happened to the Black & Decker name over the last several years they are no longer here. Lets hope that this dosn't happen to the few good PC tools that are left.

There I feel better now,.......On second thought, no I don't, I still have that sad black and grey picture in my mind.

[Dave Lehnert]

Yes! Sad to see. It is Black and Decker doing it to Porter Cable as Dewalt is owned by B&D.
I to have a B&D Pro drill must be 20 years old. B&D pro line is still around today. They are just painted yellow and called DeWalt. Considered to be one of the great achievements in marketing today. So successful I bet the reason they are tagging B&D stuff PC now. And eliminate the competition with the DeWalt brand.

[Dave Falkenstein]

This sort of thing happens and it is best to accept it and move on enlightened on what to expect when you see that brand in the future. Remember when Craftsman sold some pretty power decent tools for the hobbyist?

[Eric Larsen]

Yeah, I saw the new PC stuff -- and I have half a mind to buy duplicate finish nailers before they RUIN those too.

The thing that chaps my bottom about this corporate "bait and switch" is the fact that every time Norm pulls a PC router or brad nailer on a rerun of NYW, they're going to sucker a newbie who doesn't know better.

[David DeCristoforo]

Geez... they all look like running shoes....

[Simon Dupay]

I think we should have a moment of silence for the P.C. name

[Keith Christopher]

Well.....I guess light green and black in my future. But as long as they'll service my existing PC collection I think I'll be ok.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Thank god for european tools. Never thought I'd say that.

[Denny Rice]

It will be interesting to see if Norm uses this "Porter Decker" line of cheap tools on NYW.

[Jacob Reverb]

Not sure I understand. I mean, I "get it" that some marketing genius came up with a new color scheme...but did they change the innards too?

[Curt Harms]

Not sure I understand. I mean, I "get it" that some marketing genius came up with a new color scheme...but did they change the innards too?
I haven't seen them yet, but it sounds like they changed the outards...from Fire Storm orange to Black & Decker gray and red and stuck a P-C name on them. The new P-C low profile ROS gets decent reviews but I'm sure that was in development at the time of the acquisition. I wonder if we'll see any more non-weekender Porter Cable tools?

Curt

[Jim Becker]

IThe new P-C low profile ROS gets decent reviews but I'm sure that was in development at the time of the acquisition.

The acquisition was a few years ago so I suspect that the design/development of this new tool was largely post-acquisition.


I wonder if we'll see any more non-weekender Porter Cable tools?It's not sounding that way based on things I've read to-date.


It will be interesting to see if Norm uses this "Porter Decker" line of cheap tools on NYW.

Agree, but I doubt it. He hasn't added a lot of new tools in recent years that I've seen, but I haven't been a regular viewer just due to time constraints and may have missed some things. Love the name, however... "Porter Decker" LOL!

[Greg Carr]

I have some of the older made in the USA Porter Cable tools. A corded drill, jigsaw and a couple of 690 routers. These are great tools. I purchased them from a tool supply house before the BORG days. The tool supply houses are gone. Looks like Porter Cable is too.

Greg

[Paul Greathouse]

Not sure I understand. I mean, I "get it" that some marketing genius came up with a new color scheme...but did they change the innards too?

Jacob

It appears they changed both the innards and the outtards. Looks like they took Black & Deckers beloved Firestorm line and painted them black and grey and put the PC name on them. To sum it up in word "CHEAP".

[Rafael Carias]

So let me get this straight. PC is discontinuing all the good stuff and replacing with rubbish crapola?

[Denny Rice]

So let me get this straight. PC is discontinuing all the good stuff and replacing with rubbish crapola?

Yep! Porter/Cable has been moved to the Black and Decker line as far as quality and craftsmanship of tool. They have decided the Pro Black and Decker line they painted yellow a few years ago and now call DeWalt will be their professional line of quality tools. Thats why I have given Porter Cable the new name of "Folder/Cable" because they have folded under econimic pressure and took a quality tool with a quality name and threw it in the trash for a couple of quick bucks. Maybe they done this because NASCAR race cars look better painted yellow and black than they do gray and black.

[Peter Quinn]

I am going to the shop to hug my Porta-Planer, spend a little time with her, let her know some of her progeny ARE WORTHLESS GARBAGE GIVING THE FAMILY A BAD NAME! How can a company go from selling some of the finest tools to schlock in a single generation? I have actually used a few old (I mean OOOOLD) Black&Decker tools, most notably a side winder skill saw, that were of very good quality, but their products went south when I was still a kid.

I understand the corporate urge to serve different markets with tools for different needs, but to trick the less intense user into thinking they have bought a version they can afford with "the same name the pros use" and simultaneously piss off the pros and serious hobbyists who rely on their tools and won't be fooled seems to me absurd. Do all marketing analysts huff glue, or just the ones at B&D? Seems they have been searching for an angle since I was a kid.

Can anyone verify that PC will stop producing quality products like their nail guns, routers, circular saws and such? I guess i am wondering if this new line of consumer grade garbage, and yes I will call most of the B&D line garbage I would prefer not to use, is to replace the PC line up or supplement it?

What about their big belt sander? What a machine that is. Or that cute little belt sander I love so much? Best idea in recent memory. So many questions, so few answers.

I personally don't care about brand names much, and I don't care if they opt to sell a line of junk with their name on it. But the first time I pay good money for a PC tool I though to be high grade and it performs like a B&D special, I will begin construction of a giant wooden catapult capable of reaching their head quarters from my porch so I can return it to them.:D

[Peter Quinn]

So i was down in the shop, all choked up, trying to find the words to tell my Porta-planer what has happened, when out of the corner of my eye, hanging from a hook on the peg board, an insidious ghost from the past caught my eye, lurking almost unnoticed in the shadows of my shop it was meant to cast aside.

Yes, most have probably guessed by now I am the reluctant owner of a Black and Decker SNAKE LIGHT. Do you remember the snake light? Really poor excuse for a flashlight with a piece of flex hose between bulb and batteries to allow infinitely adjustable positioning and hands free use. It was a craze one christmas, the must have gift for the handy man on your list, all the stores were out of them, my mother thought I wanted one and searched tirelessly until she found one. It was a complete piece of crap. I just put fresh batteries in it and now remember why the old batteries were allowed to go dead so long ago without replacement. A jar of fireflies makes more lumens.

What makes a company that cannot engineer a decent flashlight think they can run a tool company?

[Denny Rice]

I am going to the shop to hug my Porta-Planer, spend a little time with her, let her know some of her progeny ARE WORTHLESS GARBAGE GIVING THE FAMILY A BAD NAME! How can a company go from selling some of the finest tools to schlock in a single generation? I have actually used a few old (I mean OOOOLD) Black&Decker tools, most notably a side winder skill saw, that were of very good quality, but their products went south when I was still a kid.

I understand the corporate urge to serve different markets with tools for different needs, but to trick the less intense user into thinking they have bought a version they can afford with "the same name the pros use" and simultaneously piss off the pros and serious hobbyists who rely on their tools and won't be fooled seems to me absurd. Do all marketing analysts huff glue, or just the ones at B&D? Seems they have been searching for an angle since I was a kid.

Can anyone verify that PC will stop producing quality products like their nail guns, routers, circular saws and such? I guess i am wondering if this new line of consumer grade garbage, and yes I will call most of the B&D line garbage I would prefer not to use, is to replace the PC line up or supplement it?

What about their big belt sander? What a machine that is. Or that cute little belt sander I love so much? Best idea in recent memory. So many questions, so few answers.

I personally don't care about brand names much, and I don't care if they opt to sell a line of junk with their name on it. But the first time I pay good money for a PC tool I though to be high grade and it performs like a B&D special, I will begin construction of a giant wooden catapult capable of reaching their head quarters from my porch so I can return it to them.:D


Peter, I could of not said it any better. Sorry for the pun, but you hit the nail right on the head! P.S. Let me know if you need work on the catapult!:D

[Mike Heidrick]

Just got a PC 690 free from Proter Cable for attending a tool review at IWF. It has the new badges but it is the same old PC 690 I have always known. At least in this case it just got a new box and new sticker. Well for now anyways.

[Steve Clardy]

I'll hang back and wait to actually see what they do to all of PC's products before commenting/trash talking B&D.

Hopefully they won't change/disrupt/corrupt the entire PC line of tools.

PC has been a brand name in cabinet/millwork shops for a long time now.

Hopefully B&D will see/know that, and keep the current most reliable tools.

I'd have to count up, but I probably have 40-45 PC tools in my shop now.

I'd really hate to see the whole PC production of current tools disappear.

I know I won't have to be buying anymore PC routers :rolleyes::o:D

[Peter Pedisich]

Nothing lasts forever, and although it's sad to hear about this during a time when a lot of fine Americans have lost their manufacturing jobs, let's look back and appreciate the great tools P-C gave us during their time at the top of domestic tool makers.
I, for one, still marvel at what a great little router this PC310 is. And I got it when the label says 'USA', soon after they began to say 'Mexico'.

[Michael L. Martin]

Thankfully I too, over the past few years, have been able to purchase all the power tools I will ever need. And thankfully, the PC tools I have proudly display their Made in USA sticker. I, along with many others, have ranted and raved for several years now about the downfall of the American tool manufacturers. I sent e-mails, talked to sales reps and anyone who would listen about the bad feeling I had regarding the course these companies were taking. Needless to say, I wasted my time and breath. Corporate greed has swept thru many of the big name companies.......Senco.....Milwaukee.....Porter Cable......Dewalt and on and on. In one of my e-mails directed at the corporate big dogs, I asked...... As you stand on the top floor of your corporate penthouse looking down on the streets of America, filled with unemployed factory and trades people.......who then will buy your Asian made tools?

Geee...... just look out there now.

I fell off my soap box. I'm done now.:(

[Chuck Tringo]

From what I understand, PC will still put out their "woodworker" line as is, i.e. routers, omnijig, sanders...most of the corderd stuff...the new crapola stuff is mostly cordless homeowner stuff. I know lowes has the exclusive for this line of cordless poop as they did with firestorm....but I did see a PC belt sander at HD with the new color scheme. I did pick it up and it still seemed like old PC quality, metal dust port and such, though I will admit I didnt break out a screwdriver and look at the guts.....and the price was still in te professional price range, 150 ish if I remember correctly.

[Pat Germain]

Perhaps I'm naive, but I'm hoping the pendulum will swing the other way in the near future. Sears got away with selling absolute dog vomit power tools for only so long. The Internet was awash with stories of router bearings flying across the shop and the smell of cooking windings permeating through the house.

Once the word got out and everybody was using the term "Crapsman", someone at Sears noticed and started to turn things around. At least some Craftsman power tools are now decent.

The Porter Cable tools sold at Woodcraft and Rockler are still the same tools we've been seeing for several years. Just don't buy the stuff that looks like running shoes and you'll be OK.

Maybe this is like GM. Chevrolet sold both the Metro and the Corvette for awhile. Which one is still available?

[David Keller NC]

"How can a company go from selling some of the finest tools to schlock in a single generation?"

That's easy - see the brand "Stanley". While they never made ultra high-end tools as did some of the British manufacturers like Preston, their tools pre-WWII and even in some cases into the 1950s were top-notch workers. They may even have been one of the first American companies to take up the race to the bottom.

The irony here is that another, one-man company took their old designs, made them a bit better, and is now one of the most successful hand tool companies in the world - Lie-Nielsen.

Wouldn't surprise me if the P-C move was to compete with Ryobi - designed for the DIY network crowd that uses a tool once and then sells it in a garage sale.

[John Callahan]

I'm not sure exactly what's going on- PC's lineup seems to becoming a bit skitzo with it's expanding line of consumer along with pro grade tools. You'd think they would have learned after what has happened to Delta and the "Shopmaster" line. The Shopmaster line tarnished the Delta name and B&D removed them (wisely in my view) from the Delta lineup. Some of it has reappeared in Black and Decker logo. Looks like they'll have to repeat the process with PC. Makita once tried the same thing with their "red" line of consumer grade tools ............ didn't work there either. They have some good new product out there- the 371 belt sander, the new Omnijig, and the 390 ROS. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Talked to some Delta/PC reps last month (many who worked for PC/Delta before the B&D takeover) and they seemed pretty well tuned into the market. Wasn't aware of the new low end stuff so I didn't ask about it. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I asked Milwaukee if they planned to step into the gap.

They didn't answer.