Porter Cable Sander Rant

[Don Bullock]

.....but I have heard alot of good thing about the new Bosch, I think I will give it a try next...

Paul,
The Bosch is a good sander when it works. I bought one in May. With only very light duty it's now stopped working twice. The first time the variable switch was replaced (repairman said he keeps them in stock - not a good sign) and I'm not sure what's wrong this time. I haven't had a chance to take it in to be repaired. I've seen posts of others who have had the switches go out as well.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
I have to agree with Mike.
That amount of money, in relation to the cost of the sander is rediculous.

The hook and look pad is one small component. To charge roughly, what, 40% of the total cost (?), for one small part is way out of line.

That's akin to charging $9,000.00 for a water pump for my Accord

[Allen Bookout]

I got the PC333 along with the PC690 router deal that Amazon had earlier this month. Looks like that I should not count on that sander lasting very long. Maybe PC considers them disposal units and would really not like having to stock parts for them anyway unless they can make enough profit off of the parts to make it worthwhile.

[John Callahan]

That's akin to charging $9,000.00 for a water pump for my Accord

............. Rich, I'd wager a dollar or two that if you built your Accord from Honda's parts catalog it would cost well in excess of $200,000. Go price a tailight lens and maybe that sanding pad price won't seem so exorbitant. Parts are pretty big profit centers for manufacturers of all sorts of things. I replaced the canister and o-rings on my decade old 333 and iirc, I pretty much killed a twenty dollar bill. Overpriced? ........... yeah .............. not much you can do about it though; it's a monopoly. All in all I'm happy; for not a whole lot of money my 333 works as new again.

[Chuck Lenz]

I stoped in the local Dodge dealer the other day to see if they had the plastic buttons that hold up the insulation under the hood in my 97 truck. $5.25 EACH ! I stoped at OReillys Auto Parts and bought 3 for $3.00. Still pricey for what they are. On the net I could of bought 50 for $25 shipped. One of my DeWalt orbital sanders had a hook and loop pad. I replaced the pad with a factory sticky back paper pad, I can't remember how much it was, it's been a few years. I very rarely used the hook and loop, the paper was too expensive. I use to do alot of sanding when I was refinishing antique furniture. The DeWalts have been good sanders, but then again, so has my Porter-Cable 330 Speed Bloc sander. I use the Porter-Cable sticky back paper that comes in rolls on all those sanders, great paper.