Well, I was wrong about this Porter Cable tool

[Jerome Hanby]

I've been pretty critical of all the new Porter Cable. From looking at then and handling them, I was convinced that they were all junk. I was at the Pro-Tools outlet store before Thanksgiving to get a Bosch 12 volt Li-Ion driver and the manager stopped to talk to me. His advice was to get the Porter Cable model. It came with 2 batteries, charger, and a canvas case that would hold everything where the Bosch was one battery, the charger, and the card board box packaging. I expressed my opinion about the new Porter Cable stuff and he made me a deal. Buy this thing, hang on to the receipt, and I'll give you a total refund anytime on the next six months if you don't like it. Well, I fired it up last week and wow, this thing works great. I drove several dozen lag screws into wall studs, and drove and removed cabinet hardware screws over and over and this thing never slowed down or balked once. It's still going strong on the original charge on the first battery.

[Bill White]

Glad to hear a positive response abt. the PC stuff. I've been wonderin' myself.
Bill

[Jerome Hanby]

I haven't really changed my overall opinion, just modified it from "all junk" to "mostly junk" <g>.

[Alan Bienlein]

You were luckier than me cause I went thru two of those porter cable 12 volt lith ion drill kits. Both of them started smoking from the trigger when I tried to use them. Got my money back and bought the Bosch and never looked back.

[Jerome Hanby]

Wonder how different the driver and drill are? Sounds like I should be glad I didn't buy the combo...

[Steve Costa]

IMHO the best tools available are:
PC routers, sanders and pneumatic nailers that were made in the US;
Bosch routers, drills & sanders;
Senco finish nailers
I own many of each!!!

[Victor Robinson]

I have the 12v combo, and I really enjoy them around the shop. They are lightweight and easy to handle in situations where 18v would be bulky and overkill (most woodshop operations). The impact is plenty powerful. The jaws slip/loosen on the drill much more than I'd like when using circular shaft bits though.

[Curt Harms]

A rule of thumb I've heard about the modern day Porter-Cable. If the model # is 3 digits it's probably okay. e.g. 314 trim saw, 390 ROS, 690, 892 routers. Other than that, I guess proceed with caution and wait for some user reports. The orange Black & Decker Firestorm brand disappeared around the time of Black & Decker's acquisition of the Porter Cable brand. I figured the black & gray replaced the orange, dunno if it's true or not.

[Ole Anderson]

I was at the tool store yesterday and hefted the PC trim saw, seemed like the old time PC equipment, really pro stuff, made in Mexico not China. I have a 3/8" extra HD corded drill, a recip saw, a HD ROS, a 3x21 belt sander and a 1/2" hammer drill, all by PC and at least 10 years old, and still kicking strong. But I bought the 18 volt lithium battery combo drill/impact driver: the driver has been fine, but the drill chuck won't hold a bit long before it loosens and the clutch adjustment quit working predictably. But they are powerful and light. However the small Li-ion battery they come with is only half the capacity it should be, needs frequent recharging.

I guess it is like many brands, they offer maybe 2 consumer level lines, a commercial line and sometimes an industrial line, you can tell the difference by the price. So you can't always lump a brand into a good/bad category. Just look at the different price points you will see at HD on 18 volt Dewalt cordless drills.

[Lex Boegen]

I have some older PC tools (biscuit joiner, dovetail jig, etc.) and they are fine, but I agree that their outsourced-to-China stuff is of dubious quality, at best. I'm reluctant to pull the trigger on anything else from PC, except I am considering their big router motor (7518) for my router table. If my Makita 3612 ever dies, and I'm not holding my breath on that.