Customer Reviews

PortaMate PM3900 D.I.Y. Miter Saw Stand with 6-inch Wheels

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a trim carpenter by trade. I just bought one of these on sale at a home center for $40. I intended to take it to the cabin and leave it there and then only have to take my saw back and forth.

I did have to file burrs to get the T support assembled. Even with that assembly was easy.

I really wasn't expecting much, but figured it was better than working on the floor. I was pleasantly surprised. It is sturdier than I expected. I put my largest saw, a 10" sliding compound on it and it holds it well. I haven't cut anything longer than 8 feet long and it worked fine. There is a little movement, but nothing objectionable. I rolled the stand around in my garage with the saw on it and didn't feel like the saw was in danger of falling. It folds up small enough to fit in a compact car. It extends to over 9 feet but is much sturdier at 8 feet or less.

If you intend to mount a hitachi saw on it with a 3 hole mounting pattern you may consider bolting a piece of plywood to the mounting brackets and mounting the saw through the plywood. The saw seems secure mounted with only the front 2 screws but it is a little hard to use the quick release as the mounting brackets want to pivot on the front bolts.

I don't think it would hold up to daily commercial use. For that I would recommend a Trojan or Hitachi.

I rated it 4 stars. I think it is a good stand for the price, in fact I am considering buying another to keep set up in my garage.

I purchased this stand to hold a Dewalt 10 inch miter saw for $50 at a local home improvement store. Although the picture shows that it is orange, mine was black.

The instructions should be updated (or I was just lucky). The first step wanted me to install the legs. However, all of the legs were already installed. All I ended up having to install were the outriggers, support T's, wheels, and saw. I did have to use a rubber mallet to get one of the support t's to go into the outrigger, but once in it moves smoothly. Depending on your saw, you may end up with some extra brackets and screws. These are included for different types of saw mounts.

The stand seems sturdy, but certainly needs to be used on only level surfaces.

cons:
All the multilingual instruction pages were scrambled so I had to unstaple all the pages, re-sort them, and staple them back together.
Though the stand is painted orange as in the online pictures, the instruction diagrams are only black and white and are fairly dark so it's difficult to see which end of the stand they're talking about.
During assembly, one step calls for screwing a t-handle bolt into the welded-to-the-stand nut. One of the welded nuts had weld flashing or something on the back thread so the bolt can't go all the way down to lock one of the extension arms. So, I had to tap the thread to fix it.

Pros:
Fortunately, assembly is fairly intuitive so it's easy enough to put everything together just using the picture on the box. Also, the stand does work well and is pretty sturdy.

The short version... it is study, takes time to fine tune if needed, could use a shim kit. Pleased with it, happy with my purchase.

The good, it is sturdy. I'm at a 190lbs and can sit on it and it doesn't feel like it is going to fold up like a cheap lawn chair, it is actually fairly solid feeling when loaded down.

The adjustments are very simple and basic, which means fine tuning it can take a little trial and error. As you secure the knobs for the height adjustment, the arm might shift causing a change, so it can take a few tries to get it set up just right. But once set, just a little care will make sure you don't whack it out of adjustment, easy enough and no problem.

For me, the biggest issue is not so much with the stand, but with my miter saw, a Ridgid brand. The base plate is sort of tapered, so the front mounting holes are further apart than the rear. Now the stand comes with adapters for this, but with my saw, the adapters are too much of a step. This is not a fault of the stand itself, just poor design with my saw. However, when you do install the adapters, one end of the saw is a hair higher then the other, some washers would of been nice to shim it out so it would be level. This will be a very simple and minor thing for me to fix, but it should of come with the washers/shims in the first place.

I've cut my first 4 pieces of extruded aluminum T Slot and the 4 pieces have to be exactly the same length, which is 95% of the reason I purchased this stand. It performed perfect once I got it set up and fine tuned (15 minutes). So with that, I'm very happy with my purchase of this and will enjoy standing up right for future cutting projects instead of huddled on the ground like I have been in the past.

I do like the wheels being at the bottom when the stand is open... wheels that go to the top are useless. I do like that the saw is so easy to mount or dismount. But I don't like that the risers that support your work are square tube that is considerably smaller than the pockets they fit into, which makes the riser lean badly when you tighten down the knob. The risers are so out of plumb that it causes wider boards to "twist", so that your work doesn't lay flat on your saw's cutting table. With smaller mouldings, such as quarter-round, the support "T"s are so out of level that the moulding flips over.I e-mailed the company through their "contact us" form, but they never replied.