The Porter-Cable A4 Worm Drive

[Ryan]

I found myself at a buddy’s place over the weekend, pulled there by some vague notion of watching a man wrestle with history. He’s deep into restoring a house from the early 1900s, and for the last several weeks he’s been rebuilding solid mahogany doors by hand. That sounded like the kind of madness worth witnessing up close.



The doors were something, sure. But the real story was the saw sitting on his workbench like a small, beautiful artifact from a better civilization. Tagged as a Guildtool 4-A, though the cognoscenti know it as the Porter Cable A4 trim saw. All cast aluminum body, worm drive, takes a 4.5” blade, and produces a genuinely obscene amount of torque for something you can hold in one hand. They started building these things in 1938 and kept at it until sometime in the 1950s, when apparently someone in a boardroom decided the world didn’t need good tools anymore.



I need one. This is not a casual want. This is a biological imperative. The thing makes savage...

Continue reading...

 

[Ryan]

Obviously, this isn’t my picture and those aren‘t mahogany doors… I stole this image off the internet.

 

[Squankum]

Hey, that's not a blow-molded plastic case!

 

[micromind]

One of my Uncles had one, pretty impressive little saw!

Left hand blade would have been better but since it's small, it's ok as it is.

As noted, tons of torque, cuts well even with a dull blade.

Considering when it was built, it'll never wear out......

 

[Ryan]

One of my Uncles had one, pretty impressive little saw!

Left hand blade would have been better but since it's small, it's ok as it is.

As noted, tons of torque, cuts well even with a dull blade.

Considering when it was built, it'll never wear out......

The blade on my buddies was super old and looked abused as hell… I guess blades aren’t easy to come by… but even so, it cut so damned cleanly.

 

[Cruzan80]

Paging @JHuston our resident expert on all things Porter Cable

 

[Beerhippie]

The blade on my buddies was super old and looked abused as hell… I guess blades aren’t easy to come by… but even so, it cut so damned cleanly.

Those blades are meant to be hand-sharpened--and you'll finally have a use for your saw-set!

 

[LopezBart]

Not inexpensive....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/178119658599?_trksid=p2332490.c101224.m-1

 

[Squankum]

The saw in the stolen picture, and the one in the ebay listing, have a 4.5" blade. Those are available from HF ("Hercules") to Diablo.