Factory-Reconditioned Porter-Cable 3812R 15 Amp 10-inch Portable Table Saw

List Price: $517.99

Features:

• Beefy 15 amp motor provides high torque for powerful cutting
• 24-1/2-inch rip capacity lets you rip 8-foot sheet material in half
• 5/8-inch arbor accepts up to a 13/16-inch wide dado set
• On-board storage for accessories and sawhorse mounting base for convenient job-site use
• Bevels from -2 degrees to 47 degrees to allow back cutting of bevels

Customer Reviews:

Unpleasantly Surprized [Posted on 2002-08-09]
The first shock I got when I opened the package was that the entire base of the saw is a very thin plastic, including the mounting structure. I have looked at a lot of table saws (other brands) in stores and they usually have very sturdy cast iron or aluminum bases. I could break a piece out of the base without even straining at it.
The second was the missing parts: assembly screws for the table insert, blade wrench, handle for the blade height adjustment and a small spring which holds the table insert was bent and useless.
As it is I can't start it up due to the loose table insert so I don't know if it really works without ordering missing parts.
I'm not happy about this!

Good design, reasonable value [Posted on 2002-08-26]
This is good portable table saw, and the reconditioned one I received was in perfect condition except for a minor scratch or two.

Plusses: It has standard 3/4" slots for its full-size miter gauge, a solid table, and a real throat plate that can be changed to accomodate a dado up to 11/16". It has an excellent splitter/guard. The elevation mechanism is solid and fairly smooth. The extensions to 24-1/2" work smoothly and they're fairly solid. The fence will stay parallel after you you take it out of the box if you do an initial, simple realignment. There's very good storage on the base for all the parts. It mounts on a pair of sawhorses. Setup is easy.

Minuses: The fence isn't as easy to set accurately as the superb rack & pinion-driven fence on the DeWalt Model 744 portable saw, and the base is plastic, like the other saws of this type. The packaging was too flimsy for surface UPS handling -- this thing ships at 74 pounds and it needs a stronger box and more foam -- there were loose parts that could have fallen out of the split corners of the box. Minor complaint -- the manual tells you how to check and adjust most misalignments, but not how to to realign a misaligned pointer for the tilt angle.

Advice: I looked at 5 or 6 portable table saws at stores before I bought the reconditioned Porter Cable from Amazon. No portable table saw is as solid as my big old Delta contractor's saw, but the Porter Cable a lot more solid than the cheaper Sears, Delta and Skil portable table saws sold by home centers, and better designed and somewhat more solid than the Makita. (The DeWalt and Bosch available from Amazon are tops.) If you need a small saw and/or portability, this one is a good value, although I would bet that a reconditioned DeWalt or Bosch would be good values as well.

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