PORTER CABLE CORDLESS DRILL PROFESSIONAL
The brand underwent a redesign around the fall of 2008, and Porter Cable’s professional cordless tools gradually disappeared from store shelves.
PORTER CABLE CORDLESS DRILL PORTABLE
I don’t know about you, but I was one of those people who refused to acknowledge the new Porter Cable portable hand tool lineup. Maybe it’s because I am so used to the over-hyped haphazardly built imprecise “value priced” drills being thrown at consumers, but Porter Cable really impressed me with this drill. For what it’s worth, those were all NiCad versions with 2-sleeve chucks, but that really shouldn’t make a difference.Īfter quite some time testing the drill, I cleaned it up, inserted a dowel rod into the chuck, and tried to show in a 2 second photograph how little runout there was. I’ve used other brands’ mid-level drills before, and have never been really impressed with their loose keyless chucks and out-of-round holes caused by low tolerances and runout. Then again, this is an 18V cordless drill – it’s just not built for that, but I of course had to try anyways. The only instances where the drill bogged down a bit and just couldn’t finish the job, was when I tried to drill large or deep holes in steel. While this does not constitute professional construction work, the drill was used for almost every DIY task you can imagine.
If anyone can suggest a controllable test method aside from putting the batteries in the freezer, I would be willing to consider it.įor the sake of thoroughness, I used this drill for every driving and boring task over the course of a few weeks. This may be something to consider, but if this is a widespread problem, I have not been able to replicate it. One more note about the battery – there are a few online reviews reporting that they don’t run well or charge when very cold. Users expecting to use the drill for extended periods of time, especially overhead, will definitely want to purchase an extra compact battery. The combo set inclues one compact battery, and one extended-capacity battery, so there will be power to spare while the compact battery recharges. It was difficult to gauge battery life for the drill, but the 1.3Ah compact battery provided enough power for dozens of holes/driven fasteners. I had expected for the drill to bog down a little due its slightly lower than expected 325 in-lbs torque rating, but it handled the tasks with ease. I then moved to oak, pine, plywood, PVC, ABS, and sheet steel. The drill plowed through the aluminum with relative ease with a 1/4″ bit. I junked the brand new Irwin drill bits I had been using, and switched to my trusty Pilot Point Bits. So, before the formal testing began, I tried drilling a few holes in 6061 aluminum bar. This is where the drill really impressed me. As mentioned, I was initially very skeptical about the drill’s performance. It may come in handy every now and then, but if you need workpiece lighting, wear a headlamp. It doesn’t get in the way, but because it’s so far away from the end of the tool, much of its light only serves to shadows the clutch and chuck. You can pretend that the LED worklight isn’t there. The adjustable clutch was easy to adjust, and was fairly accurate – no complaints here. I also had no problem toggling the gearbox speed selector or the forward/reverse direction push-switch. The sleeve is made of metal, not plastic, and has a very comfortable knurling. Dewalt), the drill was still fairly lightweight when matched with its compact battery. I immediately really liked the single sleeve chuck as it makes inserting and removing bits quicker and easier. Almost as compact as other 18V Li-ion drills (e.g. There is a LOT about the drill’s operation to talk about. Porter Cable’s NiCad version of this drill has an additional 8 clutch settings, which I didn’t really miss on the Li-ion version at all. The drill features 24 clutch settings (23+drill), 2-position gearbox (0-350 & 0-1200 RPM), 325 in-lb torque, variable speed trigger, 1/2″ metal single sleeve chuck, LED worklight, 30-minute Li-ion charger, and weighs 3.8 lbs with a length of 8.5 inches. Both tools accept batteries of either chemistry, but are designed a bit differently with the Li-ion version being a bit more compact and lighter, and with about 25% less torque. Porter Cable offers two 18V drills – this one (PCL180D), often bundled in Li-ion sets, and another (PC1800D) that’s bundled with their NiCad sets. I had automatically assumed that Porter Cable made some sacrificed in the tools’ features, performance, or quality to be able to price them so competitively. As I discussed in my analysis of the new lineup a few months ago, these tools appear to be mid-level tools meant to compete against Craftsman’s C3 and Ryobi’s One+ cordless tool lineups. At the beginning I was not optimistic about this drill at all.
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