Porter Cable is Junque

Bill Simpson

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Doing some contract work, installing High Technology equipment in the school after hours... ( have to drill for Tapcons to mount the projectors) Bought a Hammer drill for drilling into concrete block walls. Porter Cable (great tools , eh?) Well after two evenings the Hammer fails and quits, in fact it rattles and if you shake it it will take off again then quits. Back to the store and they replaced it, no problem. Also bought a Bosch as a backup drill Will need two anyway when we move to another larger school. Past few days, no problem.... Then tonight, the PC failed again.... I'm done. No more PC for me. Since B&D took over First thing I noticed was the short cord. Then the "Quiting" Th Bosch has a nice long cord (not as long as my Hilti but long enough (as a rule, the outlet is at my shins and the drilling is just overhead... the PC won't reach my reach but the Bosch does with a spare foot or so. The Hilti has cord laying on the floor. (Hilti is my favorite but OMG is it heavy, handle that beast over your head for 5 holes all night long... :eek: I got joints and muscles reporting that I haven't heard from for several years.

Can't wait to see how PC cares to comment on this piece of Junque...
 
Good to know, although it's upsetting to read such things about a brand that - in the past - served up such staple tools as the venerable 690 router.

Bosch's hammerdrill really IS a toughie - hard to kill. It's becoming a small standard in its own right.
 
Bill are these actual hammer drills or just the regular drills with hammer abilities? I have used the actual hammer drills lots and have never had a problem with them Bosch, Milwakee and Hilti. Done more holes than I care to remember and have even twisted bits off. Don't trust the combination drills with the hammer capabilities. I have been using impact drivers to put Tapcon in.
 
I think we've been beyond accepting all tools wearing a certain brand as being of an equal quality for quite sometime. It is upsetting that the PC name is now being use for what is being reported as an inferior line of tools. I don't know that there is anyone out there who doesn't have at least one "stinker" somewhere in the line, some have many more than one ;-)

The 557 plate joiner seems to be hanging on unchanged. I tried a "new" PC drill awhile back when I needed a new medium/heavy duty 1/2". It went back before I drilled hole number one as the poor quality was evident almost before I plugged it in. The DeWalt I got was pretty acceptable but not as nice as a couple others. I wonder if PC will recover or just fade away?
 
dont forget milwaukee in the mix, and i agree drills are for hammering, get a tool that is just that a hammer drill.. the combos are made for the riggers of doing that regulary..but hilti has been in a class by itself for some time..
 
I've posted about PC being 'gone' for several years now, many times, on several different sites. Every time I do, thirteen people will post back that they've been using PC since forever, yada yada yada and never had any problems. Or NEWBIES will regurgitate things they've READ about PC being the insustry standard, even tho they can't back it up with experience. To me, the beginning of the end was when they soiled themselves with the 7529 router (mid 90s?)...
 
I worked for Hilti for 12 years. They do without a doubt make the best drills. For the occasional hole in masonry, or concrete a mechanical action hammer drill is just fine. It operates on the principle of the harder you push the faster it will drill. Its ok for drilling down but a arm breaker when drilling overhead. Hilti and a few others use the electropneumatic principle. Air cushioned between 2 steel cylinders just blow right thru concrete. You actually slow down the drilling if you push on the tool. Hilti makes lighter tools for small anchors like Tapcons.
Bosch, Metabo and Milwaukee make a good small hammerdrill as well. I know that Makita, Hitachi, and Dewalt make larger HD's but I'm not sure if the make smaller electropneumatic ones.
The SDS style bits that the Hilti and others use are usually much more expensive than a smooth shank HD bit but are quite worth it.
If anyone has an older Hilti drill I have a few of TE style bits hanging around that I can give you for free.
 
i've had a pc tablesaw for several years now, and it's still working like a champ. now most of you have read about my misadventures with my grizzly drill press. one cannot apply the misadventures of one to all grizzly drill presses. one person wrote that they have used theirs several hours a day, every day, for the last couple of years, without fail. i got bit by the weakest link in the chain, a bad capacitor, which then fried the windings in the motor. does that mean i'll be running down grizzly? no. the true measure of a company is the service after a sale, and i've done pretty good by them so far. :thumb:
 
I've posted about PC being 'gone' for several years now, many times, on several different sites. Every time I do, thirteen people will post back that they've been using PC since forever, yada yada yada and never had any problems...

My OLD P-C stuff is(was) great - it generally set the standards for the whole industry.

BUT...the newer stuff is crap. The new company owners have dumbed down the brand to where it's now on a par with B&D. I'm now waiting for the P-C battery powered hammer and the electric 'C' clamp to come out. :doh: :doh:

Maybe it'll improve a bit since the latest aquisition of the company by Stanley, but if the new Stanley plane quality is any indication, I fear the downward spiral will continue. Too bad! :dunno::dunno:
 
I agree Dan. I have never had a Grizzly product but after your experience and a few others I've heard here I would never hesitate to buy one.
As for PC goes, I think the original tools they made were among the best in the world. They set the standard for circular saws, routers, sanders, recip saws, specialty jigs and a few others. They knew their business and excelled at it. Now some of their tools are just crappy "me too items". B&D consumer throw away tools painted grey and have a PC label stuck on them. Talk about watering down a brand. Too bad.
 
I have a Kango (red Hilti clone) sds hammer drill I brought with me from England. As constrcution site tools in the UK are 110v all I had to do was change the plug.

I've had this drill since '92 and it still just blows through whatever I put it up against. I'm not even sure if Kango are still in business anymore?

As far as PC goes, it's a pity they weren't bought out by TTI as they seem to be doing a lot of investment in the Milwaukee name. Being bought out be a company with a direct competitor brand has to mean the death of one of them.
 
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Kango was Australian. They were the first competition Hilti had in ep hammerdrills in the early 80"s. Great tool. I'm not sure if they are still around or not. Hilti tried suing them for patent infringements as well as having the tools colored red. Don't know how (or care really :rofl:) how it ever turned out.
 
Actually the Hilti is a Rotary Hammer, which is different from Hammer Drill.

As for the PC. I looked on PC site and read a recommendation from a customer and they said the same thing, that It broke after a short term and when replaced it burned out... so? seems I am not alone...
 
I have one of the Bosch SDS-Plus models and love it. Although I treat it like a baby, I believe it could take a licking and keep on ticking.

Mine looks like this:

Bosch SDS Plus.jpg

And yes it is a rotary hammer drill.
 
Wow, splitting hairs :rofl:
Rotary drill & hammer drill. Yes they are technically 2 different acting tools. To contractors they are all called by the same name: hammerdrills.
Just like Powder tools they are all called Ramsets or Hilti's no matter the brand or type.
 
I have been using impact drivers to put Tapcon in.

Am I reading this correct? You use impact driver to put in Tapcons without drilling a hole? If you use the drill supplied with the Tapcon screws, they go in easy with any power screwdriver no need for impact, so I guess you are talking about forgoing drilling the hole and pounding them in with the impact.

Have to activate the clutch on both the 4.8v small driver and my 18v big driver or the threads spin out, Impact driver would make a hugh hole in my opinion unles it is making its own hole?????????????????????????????:huh:
 
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