Customer Reviews

Porter-Cable 7403 8 Amp Abrasive Paint Remover

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This machine works but is heavy, like other reviewers said. Myself and my coworker are each 6 foot tall men in good condition. We can barely put in 6 hours a day with the tool and that includes two half hour breaks to allow for muscles to stop spasming.
BUT--if used correctly, this tool does remove paint. It is slow, paint dust goes everywhere, and you must wear a respirator mask and a face shield.
Contrary to the instructions included with the tool...--read this carefully--There are little adjustable rails on the left and right side of the disc. The rails can be lowered and raised to adjust the angle of attack of the disc. I found that the "cutting" side (leading edge rail) of the grinder needs to be set to about 1/16 inch lower than the grinding disc and the back side (trailing edge rail) needs to be about 1/16 of an inch TALLER than the total depth of the paint you are removing. In my case I am removing approximately 1/8 inch of paint (typical for an 80 year old house). Therefore the trailing edge of the grinder needs to be set at about 3/16 higher than the disc surface. The measurements are made by laying a straight edge (I use a square) across the disc and raising and lowering the black rails to the appropriate height.
Plan on using an inconspicuous place on your house and practicing for about 2 or 3 hours until you get it right. Don't give up. My first day was very frustrating. Lots of clogging. At first I could only use the tool for about 10 seconds before it totally gummed up. Uggh. But with practice, clogging (gumming) is actually quite minimal when you find the right "angle of attack" for your application. Gumming usually occurs when you hold the grinder in one place too long or try to cut too deeply in one pass. You can't expect to realistically remove more than about 1/64 of an inch per pass, maybe even as little as 1/128 of an inch per pass. This equates to about 4-6 passes, sometimes up to 10 passes for severely cupped and warped wood. But this type of use allows for almost constant grinding with very little gumming. When the tool does gum up use a small, wooden-handled ice-pick to "pop" the gum chunks off of the grinding disc. A cleaning session takes about 1-2 minutes or even less. An occasional brushing with a wire brush helps prevent re-gumming on paint covered, problem spots on the disc. This technique works so well that I only change the disc when the teeth wear down and stop cutting effectively (4-8 hours of use, depending). I have only soaked the discs in mineral spirits one time and generally find it unnecessary.
Beware--this tool pulverizes the paint into a fine powder that goes everywhere. You will need ridiculous amounts of plastic drop cloths and bricks to hold them in place. Then you must sweep the powder at the end of each day. The amount that you collect is astounding. You can expect to collect about 10-20 gallons of paint powder from an average, 3BR/2Bath, one level home. This must be done for both legal and ethical reasons. Would you actually dump 10-20 gallons of lead and enamel paint into your yard?
In closing--this tool works great. It is a bear to use. You must use scaffolding. It is slow. Expect about three weeks of all day work to get your old house scraped and ready to prime. Buy lots of discs, about 10 for an average size house. Use only the 24 grit as the discs wear out and you need all the cutting power you can get. But beware as a new 24 grit disc cuts viciously and leaves severe swirl marks. But after about 10 minutes of use it wears down to a manageable level.
If you can afford it--replace your siding. New poplar siding is about 15 cents a foot (in 2005. Prices fluctuate) in the US. Materials for an average home would cost about $4,000. Plus lots of labor. Vinyl siding is usually a poor choice. It costs $5,000, looks fake, and causes weird moisture issues between the vinyl and the old siding.
But if you, like me, have little money and lots of time--this is the tool for you.
(note: I post my reviews because I take them seriously and I take other people's seriously as well. Please take the time to rate my review so I can do a better job in the future. Thanks :) ).

Restoring a 1875 Victorian has a true challenge. The outside of our house is lap siding (1"x8") and has not painted for over 20 years. After using everthing possible to remove the old finish including sanding, scraping and sand blasting, I tried the Porter Cable 7403P Power Paint. After a little work and finally reading the limited directions, I was able to remove numerous layers of paint with minimal effort. The final finish was perfect to apply a good primer coat before the final finish. The Power Paint Remover saved the day. Things to consider using the 7403P. 1)If sanding lead based paint, wear proper breathing equipment. 2)Keep the rpm's of the 7403P low so that the paint does not melt on the sanding disk, which is difficult at to remove. 3)Take your time..the 7403P is slightly heavy and working over your head is difficult. This is componded if you are working off a ladder.

With a little work, the 7403P is a very versitale piece of equipment and can handle a wide range of projects for both the professional and the amature.

After spending hours trying to remove layers on our 124 year old farm house, and after reading the reviews I purchased the Porter Cable Power Paint Remover. I used it today for the first time. Last weekend I spent six hours on one four sided pillar on the front porch. The process involved scraping and sanding with a high speed random orbital sander with 80 grit disk. This evening I used the Power Paint Remover on the next piller (total of five). The process took a total of about 15 minutes to have the entire pillar down to bear wood, unreal. I'm looking forward to tackling the rest of the house. I am sure that this unit will pay for itself just in the cost of the lumber that I was going to buy to replace old molding just because the paint was too thick and cracked. Now I am sure that I'll be able to just go down to the bear wood with no time or effort.

I had to stop shortly after starting to use this unit and run down to the hardware store to purchase a good quality dual filtered respirator mask, the unit puts out the removed paint big time in a very fine dusk. A good shop vac is needed to clean up afterwards. Safety goggles are a must. I love it. A big 5 STARS +++++

Well to start with I really wonderd if this tool was going to save me time removing 75 years of paint on my mother in laws house.I orderd it and went right to work with it,about 3 days later I had a large old ranch house down to bare wood and ready for priming. I found that the house had been at least 7 different colors in it 75 years. When using the the stripper I also used a full face shield and a resperator along with a long sleeve shirt and I put a bib on so that i wouldnt have paint going down my shirt. I also found that the metal disc. would sometimes clog with paint, so I would take a propane torch and burn the paint of the disc and then continue on. I did end up wearing one disc plum out and so I bought a new disc to finish up with. The stripper is a little heavy and your arms are going to get tired but my wife used it after I suspended it with 4 long bungee cords above the location she was working. The bungee cords helped suspend the tool and take the weight off the user. Anyway, the tool is very well made and plenty powerful and it beats trying to use an acid stripper. I will probably use it next to strip the paint off the cabinets in the old house and then make new doors. I can see where a home owner buying an older house could really save alot of money buying this new tool. I build high end custom furniture so i really nit pick my tools not only in there upkeep but in their performance as well and i dont keep any tool that doesnt perform. This new Porter Cable does perform very well and I feel that if your need is for a tool like this the Porter Cable stripper is the only way to go. No more messy & expensive chemical strippers.

After reading many outstanding reviews, I thought it was necessary to add my thoughts. First and foremost, I have been working on my house for the past few months. The exterior paint is in bad shape and to do the job right, it is essential that the paint is stripped down to the bare wood. The Power Paint Remover is the tool for the job.

First, I took the time to completely power wash the house and get all of the loose paint. Second, it was time for the Power Paint Remover. In no time, the paint was coming off down to the wood. My disc did not clog up, nor did I have any problem with the weight of the tool. I let the tool do the work without trying to apply any extra pressure.

However, the tool is heavy. It is not a tool that you will be able to use from a ladder. You will have to put something together so you are always working just above or below eye level. Also, be careful, you can easily scar the wood by applying to much pressure.

I was fortunate to talk with the Porter Sales Rep at one of our local stores. He said to make sure that you set one side of the disc slightly higher and one side lower (this is clearly explained in the manual). I found 1/32 of an inch will do the trick. If the disk to clog up, use a torch to burn the paint or wood then clean it out.

The Porter Cable Power Paint Remover saved me massive man-hours and money. I am renovating an older building (~1918) and I had a problem where a majority of the walls on the second floor had been popcorned over (plasterred). This proved to be a formidable barrier to any sanding. I was afraid that I might have to tear out the walls and replace them. Since they were in otherwise good condition, I wanted to avoid that if at all possible. The only marginally successful method I had was to use a scraper on a broom handle. Very difficult. Very slow. Very inacurate.

With the Power Paint Remover I have been able to strip out an entire wall in less than 8 man-hours. My projections for the job 's cost and time have been dramatically reduced. The plaster is significantly more rough on the tungsten-carbide discs than paint, but I deem that an acceptable expense. Thank you Porter Cable

I have an older house (built in 1927) and I swear the only time it was painted correctly was when it was built. It is a 4,000 sq ft, 2 story + attic with a 27x17 second level addition on the back. After reading the reviews I decided to rent one of these ($20 per day) and bought 8 discs (24 grit). I also bought a gallon of paint stripper to soak the discs in. My siding is lightly warped/cupped and sometimes I would have to hold the tool at a slight angle (it does get heavy). Contrary to an earlier suggestion of using lower speeds, at least in my specific case, I found that use at the highest speed gave me the greatest amount of time between having to change discs (the clogged one went immediately into a pail of waiting paint stripper). Paint chips and dust flew everywhere!!! WEAR A CANISTER RESPIRATOR and GOGGLES!!! The tool works great...BUT..if like me you are probably working on lead based paint this dust will(!) get every where. Due to the fact that the dust will fly and I have a neighbor relatively close to my house I am looking into another tool called the Paint Shaver which has a vacuum attachment and according to some reviews contains a lot of the debris... If you don't have such concerns, using ~8-10 discs, soaking clogged ones in paint stripper, using a wire brush to clean them off and then an rinse in water is a process which should work quite well. So...working with the tool at the 'right' angle and a clean disc does a great job...and like an earlier review says you won't be using this while standing on a ladder (I will probably end up renting scaffolding...not too sure about using ladder jacks for a platform) but beware of the dust and debris

When I started removing the layers of paint on my house, I was using a torch and a putty knife, and I did a 10' by 12' section in 3 weeks. then I tried power washing, which helped some, but still a lot of paint left. Then I heard about the Porter cable 7403P power paint remover. In 2 days, (spare time) I did twice as much area! The tool is great! I have found, like others, that dust mask and safety glasses are very necessary. I have also not had any problem with the disk getting clogged, and I think that is due to letting the tool do the work, and me just holding it in the area that I am working in. I also agre, that it will build up your arm muscles, however, working on scaffolding does make it easier than working from a ladder. I have recommended this tool to several friends, and they agree, this is the cats meow for removing paint!

I had to remove 8 layers of exterior paint off of my fathers house,I bought this tool after 1 hour of working on the house. Thank God I did, it took me two months work (spare time) to do it. It took more than one disc,(5 mediums). Not bad because dad wanted to stain the seader siding. The good thing is that the tool didn't dig in or remove all the old seader, when it happened it was bacause I got tired. I went over the siding with my 6"palm sander two grits and almost perfect. The only bad thing is that after all that work mom said she wanted it painted a new color. O well at least I know it would have looked good stained and that the tool saved me tons of elbow greese.

I am using the 7403 on a 102 yr old Victorian home that my wife and I are restoring. The 7403 works great until you get to the point where the latex builds up and gums the carbide disks. Shy of a heat gun (take it off the 7403 before using the heat), nothing really removes it quickly. I have a total of three disks and it seems that perhaps 6-8 disks would have been better. I keep switching them out as they gum up with paint. At the end of the day, I use the heat gun on all of them and clean up w/ a wire brush.

Our house has seven layers of paint and a layer of stain below that. If you have fewer layers, you will be most likely better off. A previous review mentioned fatigue, due to the weight of 7403. This is especially true of overhead use (under porches etc.). Plan on resting every so often or you will be sore for days on end.

The short story is that it works works well, but plan on sticky disks!