I Need A New Profile Porter Cable Variable Speed Profile Sander Kit
Written: Mar 08 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: good profiles, enough power, good variable range
Cons: too much vibration, noisy, profiles didn't all attach well
The Bottom Line: Needs another tweaking.....parts are great, other parts don't even stay in place.
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| GuisBuild's Full Review: Porter - Cable Variable - Speed Profile Sander Kit... |
Had a large (and ugly) entertainment cabinet sitting in my basement all last month. What it needed was a good sanding and a new shade of stain. Something to perk it up a bit. That means it's time for the hand held power tools.
The piece wasn't antique. I wasn't too concerned with detail to the point that I felt compelled to hand sand the cupboard. (I rarely feel compelled to hand sand for that matter.....) When it was time to reach some funny angles and reach into some unusual places I grabbed this sander, part of a kit I picked up in the past couple of months.
P-C Kit #9444VS Includes:
- Porter Cable Profile Sander (a tool that can be purchased separately)
- Sanding Pad, Mounting Plate
- 9 Sanding Profiles
- Various Sanding Sheets
- Plastic Case & Operating Manual
First comes power. Straight from literature this particular unit has 1.1/1.8 amp motor with 25-60 Hz of power. I'm not sure that this is information that is either impressive or disappointing. It sort of "is what it is". It's plenty of power for the sanding the user should be using this tool for. It is, perhaps obviously, geared to work just fine in a typical at-home workshop.
The "variable" in the name. Means a range of 2100 to 6000 strokes per minute. I like variable in sanders, especially when I'm removing finishes from furniture so I can control what's going on. I have messed up more than I care to recall by trying to speed through a sanding project. Variable speed in a sander was made for guys like me. It forces patience - or at least sticks it in our face by giving us the option of slowing down the strokes. I have no more excuses.
Finally I'll add that the various sanding profiles are great. Porter Cable got this part right. The variety is beyond standard and worked on a great variety of materials as I hauled out miscellaneous pieces of trim and moulding from my scrap heap to test them out. Very nice.
Now it gets ugly....
That motor with variable speed and power? It shakes like crazy. I know I'm aging a bit but I have yet to begin with the tremors and I don't drink enough coffee to cause them either. Therefore, I'm fairly certain it was the sander. "Shaky" is not a quality wanted in a sander - especially one that is really created to work on detail work. On top of this, it also tends to be on the noisy side. Don't get me wrong, I am accustomed to noisy tools. It's not so much that this is noisier than other tools, but rather that it seems to be too noisy for the type of tool it is.
The sanding pads hook fairly standard with hook & loop. No problem there. At first. Then I changed some profiles around and they never attached as well as they initially did. Some were better than others - there was really no rhyme or reason so I can't explain the "why's" of it, but rather simply state that it happens. Some wobble, some don't fit correctly, some never stay on.
What I did not experience - and I have heard from other users that complained of such a thing - was black marks on my wood during the sanding process. Sandpaper here is of the sticky variety. I never experienced excessive wear of the paper to the point that the profile was hitting the wood directly. I tried a few times to actually make this happen and it only did so when I applied far too much pressure to the unit myself - for my personal experience it was about the user and not necessarily the paper or sanding motion.
My final conclusion resulted in a return of the kit to my local supplier. I expected the product to be a bit more hassle-free than I found it to be. My hope is that Porter Cable will have enough consumers return this product for whatever reason so that it can be tweeked a bit and we sawdust creators can have an updated model in time for a holiday of some sort. I like the idea of a profile sander created in a more production manner (i.e. beyond Dremel).
For the home woodworker I'd be more likely to suggest a Dremel tool (or something similar) rather than this kit from Porter-Cable. For the professional or someone intending to remodel a house with a great deal of moulding worth saving, you could try this one knowing what you know about it or attempt a different brand (perhaps Fein).
Recommended:
No
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GuisBuild
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Location: USA
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to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail
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