Porter Cable Table Saw

I'm in the market for a new table saw and on a tight budget in these tough economic times. Our local big box home improvement store has a Porter Cable stationary table saw that I can afford. It has some nice features on it like the other higher priced saws have too. Does anyone out there own one and could give me your review and imput about this saw?
 
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I am not familiar with that model, but I looked it up on the web. Found a $300 version and a $600 version.

Most of the $300 table saws I have seen are very light weight "job site" saws, with the blade attached directly to the motor. The blade therefore is only as stable as the motor arbor, not nearly as precise is a separate arbor bearing. Basically it is a contractor hand saw, upside down. Somebody gave me a used one decades ago, and it was so inaccurate I gave it away.

The $600 version may be good, but I owned a Ridgid 3650 when that model first came out, and loved it for years. I believe the current price is around $550. Some machines have a long time excellent reputation for reliability, precision, and wear - this is one of them. I don't know anything bad about the $600 PC but I would also consider the 3650.

Why did I get rid of my 3650. Well, I bought a $20,000 combination machine. It was a step up, but a fair amount of the work on my web site was built on the 3650.
 
I own a 3650, which hasn't been on the market for 4-5 years now. It's a good saw. The current Ridgid saw is a 4512 and the reviews on it are decent. At least as good as the 3650. $500 off HD's website.

I know the Porter Cable saw the OP is talking about. I wouldn't use that $300 saw if you gave it to me, then gave me $300 on top. Stamped steel wings, wobbly legs, junk fence. Some people may say my view is skewed because I've simply looked at the floor display model. I say - if it can't hold up 6 months as a display, how is it going to hold up 6 years in a shop??

Unfortunately, it's not 1999 anymore. $300 doesn't buy much saw now-a-days.

It sounds like a broken record, but watch Craigslist. I found my TS3650 2 years ago for $250. Albuquerque is a large enough town you can probably find 4 or 5 20-year-old Craftsman saws for $100 right this second.
 
Barney, is this the one you're looking at?

Porter Cable Tablesaw

Personally, I'd recommend the Ridgid from Home Depot over the Porter Cable. I have the predecessor to this one, and it has been a workhorse for me.

Ridgid Tablesaw

Ridgid has a very good track record and reputation in that market segment, but Porter Cable is a relatively new player on the block. (Porter Cable used to make professional-level tools, but in the past few years they have cheapened most of their products to appeal to the homeowner/hobbyist market.)

If the Ridgid is out of reach price-wise, I'll second David's recommendation to keep an eye on Craigslist. You can often get good deals on large power tools if you buy used.
 
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I should also add that if you do go looking at used saws and want a second set of eyes, feel free to give me a shout. If I'm available, I'd be glad to help check out any potential purchases. I'll extend the same offer if you need any help getting things set up and dialed in, whether you buy new or used. ;)
 
Yes Vaughn, that's the one. What i Liked about the saw was the ease of the fence set-up. It glided on the rails effortlessly and also the size of motor as well as the accessability of the blade depth gear and the miter/bevel gear. Very solid miter guage too. I have been told that it's made by Delta.

The Ridgid model r4512 looks nice in the ads and has good reviews, however, unfortunately our local Home Depot stores are not at all anxious to assemble a table saw for display. It just sits on the tool floor in a box for all to see the picture on the side of the box. I would really like to see one all set up.
 
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Never owned a PC tablesaw or a rigid. I do have a bosch that I have had for several years now as my "field" saw and its always performed flawlessely. Run out is minimal table was flat fence smooth. All around good saw for what its designed for. Thats the key right there. What do you plan to cut with it? if you are going to be running 8/4 rock maple through it in large volume then you are going to kill it real quick. if you are looking at small projects and mainly 4/4 stock and plywood and not for several hours a day you will get a good long life out of it.
http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-4100-09...id=1358238696&sr=8-1&keywords=bosch+table+saw
 
Hey Barney, which Lowe's has the Porter Cable set up? I'd like to look at one in person. The Lowe's website is pretty thin on info about it (and the P-C site doesn't seem to list them), so I'd like to get a better look. I'm curious to see what type of belt it has and get a good look at the fence. Also, are the table extensions stamped steel or cast iron? (The Ridgid has cast iron extensions, which was a big selling point for me.) Having the blade tilt crank on the front isn't a big issue, in my opinion. I don't think most guys change the blade tilt very often. I'd be more interested to see if it complicates or simplifies the blade tilt mechanism. (More complicated means more opportunity for something to stop working right.) Having it on the side also helps keep me from accidentally grabbing the wrong crank and messing up my perfect 90º setup when I'm trying to raise or lower the blade.

I can understand the desire to see a major tool like this set up before pulling the trigger on buying it. At the time I bought my Ridgid, Home Depot still had their big tools on display. Lowe's was selling a similarly-priced Hitachi, and the one at my local Lowe's was set up pretty well. The Ridgid over at Home Depot, though, had apparently been assembled by baboons with a poor work ethic. Plus, someone had spilled a Coke all over it and it hadn't been cleaned up. The handcranks were missing and the fence was inoperable. Still, when I looked at the specs, reviews, and recommendations by others on the web, the Ridgid seemed the best, so I took a gamble and went with it, even though the store display machine was a mess. Turns out I made a good choice. The Hitachi saw disappeared from the market within a couple of years, while the Ridgid has continued to improve.

I know Ridgid used to have a pretty good user forum on their website. (I've not visited it in a few years.) I wonder if there might be someone on that forum who owns the latest Ridgid in the ABQ area and would be willing to let you come see it?

As an aside, my 3650 had a very nice fence, but I eventually replaced it with an Incra fence setup that I won in a drawing. (The fence was worth nearly what I'd paid for the saw itself.) Then I added a router table extension to it, so it's grown into quite a monstrosity.
 
...I have been told that it's made by Delta.
...
Delta and Porter Cable are now the same company. But that doesn't mean that any Delta table saw experts were involved ... that would be too logical

...The Ridgid model r4512 looks nice in the ads and has good reviews, however, unfortunately our local Home Depot stores are not at all anxious to assemble a table saw for display. It just sits on the tool floor in a box for all to see the picture on the side of the box. I would really like to see one all set up.

Common problem at Home Depot - and once it is assembled, will it have all the parts, and will they be in the right place. However, that saw and it's ancestors have been the gold standard of the $500-600 market place, so I bet you will find someone local who will show one to you in use (even better than in the store). I would start with a post here with a title like "Looking to see a Ridgid table saw in the Albequerque area" or something very specific like that. If not, try the Ridgid forum www.ridgidforum.com - but don't get lost in it - Ridgid is big in plumbing and other areas - woodworking is only a small portion.
 
I've got the original Ridgid 3612 TS and it has been great. So good that when I purchased my Grizzly G0691 saw 2 years ago, I kept the Ridgid. If nothing else, it is worth more than I could sell it for as a quality outfeed table! I wouldn't hesitate on getting the Ridgid unit, even though site unseen. I think the new one is a hybrid, which is even nicer than the contractor unit and is similar to one of the Craftsman Hybrids. If this will be moved to the side when not in use, the Herc-U-Lift mobility system is worth another 100 bucks by itself. Works really well. Jim.
 
Vaughn, The Lowest at Paseo del Snorted has an awesome tool display section. They did a really good. Job of putting the saw together. I'll go back and inspect the other things you mentioned tomorrow. Thanks for the good tips.

Cool, that's not too far from my office (by Cliff's Amusement Park). I'll try to swing by there this evening and have a look. :thumb: I'm glad you didn't say it was the one in Rio Rancho. :D
 
The PC at Lowes is $299.00 I think I sell 5 or 6 of them every week. I've never used it but of all the table saws we sell in that price range it seems to be pretty well built. I don't have a problem recommending it to the customers. I do, on a regular basis, send customers elsewhere for some tools that we sell.
The only thing I'm not sure of is if a dado insert is available for it. It has a strange shaped insert that may be a little tough to make one yourself. I would suggest a 5" dado set. I don't think it has enough power for a 8" set.
 
Cool, that's not too far from my office (by Cliff's Amusement Park). I'll try to swing by there this evening and have a look. :thumb: I'm glad you didn't say it was the one in Rio Rancho. :D

While you're looking make sure it has not carried over the odd-sized miter slots from its cousin ;-)
 
The PC at Lowes is $299.00 I think I sell 5 or 6 of them every week...

It appears Lowe's sells a couple of different P-C tablesaws. One is about $300 and the other is about $600. I think the ones sold here in NM are the $600 models, but I'll know for sure in about 45 minutes. ;)

While you're looking make sure it has not carried over the odd-sized miter slots from its cousin ;-)

Good point. I'll check that. :thumb:
 
Barney, I had a look at the P-C 270TS at Lowe's, and frankly, I'm not impressed at all. Personally, I wouldn't buy it. It's maybe a $300 saw IMO, and here's why:

  • The action of the hand wheels was not smooth at all. It felt like there were multiple detents as I turned the wheels. I felt resistance and heard a "click-click-click-click" as I turned either of the wheels. Not smooth at all. Also, the front-mounted tilt adjustment has an additional right-angle gearbox in order to do its thing. As I mentioned earlier, the benefit from having that crank on the front isn't big enough to warrant another mechanical thing that can get jammed up with sawdust or break.
  • Based on what I've read on the web, the blade height adjustment gear is plastic. That would be a deal-breaker for me. The whole integrity of the blade position relies on the trunnion being rock solid. I just don't see plastic holding up, and I saw one person posting on Lumberjocks to complain not only about the busted plastic gear, but that he was having trouble getting a replacement from P-C.
  • The throat plate does look to be an odd size and thin, which would potentially make it difficult to find or make a zero-clearance insert for the saw. (A zero-clearance insert is critical, IMO.)
  • The dust collection port is 2 1/2". That'll fit a shop vac, but a shop vac is not a very effective dust collector for a table saw. My preference would be for a 4" port, since that's a more standard size for dust collector hoses. (It's also easier to reduce a 4" port to fit a shop vac than it is to enlarge a 2 1/2" port to fit a dust collector.)
  • The two extension tables are indeed stamped steel. Although workable, they are much harder (if not impossible) to get flat and level with the cast iron core table.
  • The blade tilt indicator on the top of the table is a nice marketing feature, but worthless in the shop, IMO. The scale on the dial is nowhere near fine enough to accurately set an angle. My guess is that it'll get you within a degree or two of what you're wanting, but when I set my blade to 45 degrees, I need it to be exactly 45.0 degrees, not 44.9 or 45.1 degrees. (For that reason, I use other tools to set my blade angle and pay no attention to the indicator on my saw.)
  • The On-Off switch is mounted on the cabinet itself in a position that looks like it would be hard to turn off with a knee or thigh. For me (at 6' 2" tall), I'd have to bend to turn off the saw with my hand. (I like to be able to turn off my saw with my thigh or hip, so I can stop it in an emergency without letting go of the workpiece.)
  • I will say that the fence operated smoothly and the fine adjustment knobs seemed handy, but the fence only locks on the front rail, which means it can flex a bit if you put pressure on the back half of the fence. Also, the miter gauge is decent and comparable to other factory miter gauges I've seen, including the Ridgid. (I don't like any of them...I much prefer the Incra miter gauges.) The miter gauge slot is 3/4", which is a good thing.
So after looking at the P-C, I decided to go to Home Depot to see what I could learn about the latest Ridgid. Like you said, all they have on display is a box and a price tag, but I did learn a few things at the store and on the web afterward:

  • Sadly, the Ridgid also has stamped steel extension tables. I guess that's what had to happen to stay in the same price range.
  • The fence looks comparable to the P-C, although it locks in both the front and back. When locked, I'd expect there to be no flex. It does not have the micro adjust wheels, but IMO those are not critical.
  • The Ridgid has a 4" dust collection port.
  • The On-Off switch mounts on the bottom of the rail where it can be hit with a hip or thigh if necessary. Its position can be slid anywhere along the rail, so it can be positioned where it works best for you.
  • I can't tell what size or thickness the throat plate is, but if Ridgid followed their past actions, buying or making a zero-clearance insert should be relatively easy.
  • Both saws are belt-driven, run on 120v or 240v, and have built-in mobile bases.
If I had to choose between the two, I'd go with the Ridgid in a heartbeat. The money saved could be applied to a good thin kerf blade. (The factory blade is probably pretty decent, but most of us have different blades for different cuts.) I still prefer my older TS3650, though, primarily because it has cast iron extensions. (The new one has better dust collection, though.) I know I sound like a Ridgid fanboy, but Charlie is right about them being pretty much the gold standard in this market segment.

Keep in mind these are just my own opinions...whether you buy new, used, gray, orange, or rusty, you should get whichever saw you think will work best for your needs and budget. :)
 
Boy you ain't kidding :eek:, I thought CL was thin around where I live.. For $800 I see at least two cabinet saws in decent shape in pdx.. Hopefully they come in waves? :dunno:

http://albuquerque.craigslist.org/tls/3526290638.html "Unisaw to be fixed $300" - wonder whats wrong with it :D Guy has some other nice (if pricy) kit. It might be three phase (looks like a mix). And "250 Jorgensen Ibeam/BarClamps" hmm..

The only other thing I saw even vaguely close around there was an ancient rockwell in rough shape for $250 (not worth even linking).
 
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