Farewell to a cheap hero

[Bombarde16]

I opened the mailbox this morning to find a recall notice from "Chang Type" stating that my little Porter-Cable saw (model PCX362010) has been recalled. Of the hundreds of thousands of units sold in North America, some have had trouble with motors overheating.

I purchased mine in 2016 ('15?) as a stopgap while living in temporary quarters. I made thousands of cuts with it and it did everything I asked of it. That last part, I suppose, is key: What did I ask of it? I never asked it to do anything that it couldn't handle...OK, maybe I did push the bounds of sanity once or twice by bevel ripping a 12' long 2x12, but I knew full well I was being an idiot to do that. I made dozens of projects with this saw and even packed it on the road for some jobsite work out of state. Without this saw, I wouldn't have been able to make everything I needed to get my basement shop online to the point of welcoming my big, new Grizzly last year.

Make no mistake, it's an abysmal piece of crap. The fence never truly grabbed firm and I got in the habit of clamping a block of wood against the backside so it wouldn't scoot away from the blade while ripping. I made three different sleds for it and held a ceremonial trashing of the worthless stock miter gauge. For all that, I wore out a dozen or more blades and the motor never gave me any grief, always starting up with a bone-jarring bang and then screaming its little head off.

Once I got my basement shop operational, I bodgered up some cleats for this saw and hung it in the garage. I pulled it down and dragged it out into the driveway to make one or two cuts last year, just to break down some MDF that I didn't want to cut indoors. It's nice to have a cheap, secondary saw and I may yet treat myself to another. But when the recall notice arrived, I figured I could say goodbye and be quite happy with the run it gave me. I photographed my signature next to the requisite three cuts in the wiring and uploaded it all to the official website as directed.

And now we wait for a refund check which (fingers crossed) will be a little more than half of what I paid for it. I'll keep the folding stand and maybe turn it into a folding table. The power cord can certainly be repurposed. All in all, I'm satisfied. This saw was insanely practical, it helped me grow as a woodworker, and it even put a smile on my face as I went about rendering it nonfunctional.

Fare thee well, little PCX362010!

[JohnG]

You could also rewire the paddle switch. Those can be handy for things like homemade router tables or other tool stands/enclosures.

Jobsite saws get a lot of flak but if you have reasonable expectations for them, they can definitely serve you well.

[Chet]

It served you well Robert, now may it rest in piece.

[Jd300]

I had the same saw, my refund check was $75.

[Coop]

2 minutes ago, Jd300 said:

I had the same saw, my refund check was $75.

That will pay the tax on a good one.

[Jd300]

20 hours ago, K Cooper said:

That will pay the tax on a good one.

I know right!  I’m still looking, I wanted to upgrade, but I didn’t want to be forced to.