Porter Cable dead brand?

[dalepres]

40 to 50 years ago, Porter Cable made high-end, commercial-grade, electric circular saws. Dewalt made radial arm saws. Troy-Built made awesome tillers. There's no connection at all between those companies and the current marketing use of those once-great names. The design and manufacturing of them all, and many others like them, are all gone - shutdown, laid off, doors closed forever. The current companies own the names or rent the names in some cases where the original companies still make some fairly decent tools but license their names to the same hecho-en-China junk companies.

Those companies are long dead.

 

[billp603]

Many of us that grew up watching Norm on New Yankee Workshop saw the Porter Cable brand for the first time. I had a 13 amp Skil brand circular saw from the 80's that served me well as a homeowner and building a few decks for others. I had always had my eye on the PC 347 magnesium base when they were still being sold, they were $109 at Home Depot for a long time (90's-early 2000's?) Then they just disappeared from stores. Checked Ebay/CL occasionally where they were either used by contractors and pretty trashed or nice and clean for close to $200 with shipping. Finally spotted a decent one on CL a couple of years ago for $75 and grabbed it quickly. It was nice and clean and works great, just had to replace a dried out cracked strain relief on the cord. Also have 690 router with fixed and plung base and a 333 RO sander. The sticker on the top of sander makes it enjoyable to pick up every time. Would not buy anything new that they make now.

 

[Woody1320]

As a summer job before my senior year of high school (2003), I worked for a company that made custom cabinets. Most of their power tools were all Porter Cable. They were used every day without fail. The only PC tool I have is a corder 1/2" impact wrench. I haven't used it much, but I doubt it'll fail me.

 

[neophyte]

40 to 50 years ago, Porter Cable made high-end, commercial-grade, electric circular saws. Dewalt made radial arm saws. Troy-Built made awesome tillers. There's no connection at all between those companies and the current marketing use of those once-great names. The design and manufacturing of them all, and many others like them, are all gone - shutdown, laid off, doors closed forever. The current companies own the names or rent the names in some cases where the original companies still make some fairly decent tools but license their names to the same hecho-en-China junk companies.

Those companies are long dead.

You can still actually purchase some of the same USA made radial arm saws, made in the USA.
When Black & Decker purchased Dewalt, for the name, the radial arm saw division basically got purchased out, I think by a group of the managers, who set up The Original Saw Company.
Original Saw still manufactures a bunch of the same radial saws, just under a new name, plus other equipment.

Home

Original Saw Company is the only Radial Arm and Beam Saw manufactured in the USA, learn more about our quality crosscut power saws.

originalsaw.com

As far as Porter Cable goes, I miss the USA made tools, although towards the end PC were selling imported tools as well, like their nail guns and bench grinders.

 

[The Cobbler]

I would miss my PC 690 router if it went away.....

not sure the model of mine, but early 90's 1/2" ... yes, damn fine machine as is my small PC laminate & trim router . replaced the bearings many years ago, sounding like it needs them again. routed miles of edges, used for thousands of door hinge mortising too.

 

[Iron Beaver]

I love my old PC tools. IT makes me sad to see SB&D **** the life out of a fine tool brand

 

[Busted Knucles]

I am starting to have problems getting spare parts for mine now. I talking about motor brushes at that.

 

[quickfarms]

At Home Depot today so PC is not dead yet

 

[lardy1]

If those compressors are what they're doing to the Porter-Cable name......please.......let it die with some dignity.

 

[smokeysevin]

I (thought) I needed a replacement bearing/pad mount for one of my older orbital sanders and nearly all of the parts are unavailable now. I think the only service part you could actually get was the little o-ring. Fortunately some of the DeWalt parts interchange (like the 3 bolt sander pads.

I had most of the 20v Max cordless line from when it was released and there was a noticeable decline in robustness as time went on. I had an early model impact/hammer drill combo and bought another a few years later and they had swapped out several metal components for plastic on the newer model. Same part numbers for the drill but totally different material/quality.

Really sad to see as I grew up using their woodworking tools and they were always well made.

Sean

 

[brianh]

Porter Cable went down the toilet in the late 90's when bought out and off shored, it was all I bought back then, I still have the big 15 amp routers and the smaller 690's USA made. Have rebuilt them several times along with my quicksand random orbitals, parts are still available. I tried a friends Porter Cable random orbital made in china looked the same did not perform the same. No proudly made in the USA for over 20 years.

They saved a ton of money off shoring production and passed none of it to the consumer I have no brand loyalty anymore.

 

[carmantl]

Worked many years as a concrete form carpenter and we relied on Skil wormdrive saws to make our living. Late 80's P/C offered a left bladed version of their sidewinder 347 labelled as the 743. Since we were all used to left bladed saws we bought a few. We beat the hell out of them and they were the only sidewinder that ever survived. You couldn't make a 45* rip down a 16' 2by4 for a keyway like you could with a wormdrive so we didn't use them for that.

 

[dalepres]

At Home Depot today so PC is not dead yet

I hope you were being facetious. The Porter Cable in the photo is certainly not the Porter Cable of 1980.