Customer Reviews

Porter-Cable 894PK 2-1/4 HP GripVac Base, Plunge Base Kit

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

 

 

I bought this set mostly for use in a Bench Dog RT150 router table with the fixed base. Wanted the GripVac base for occasional "out of the box" use where the vac feature would be nice. The fixed base/motor work REALLY well in the RT150. The motor release and height adjust controls are very accessable through the cabinet door and the accessory top-side height adjust knob, though a free mail-in item, is not really needed. The only things you have to reach for are the speed control (easy), on/off (easy), and the collet lock (less easy, but tolerable). The motor is very quiet, the soft-start "way cool", and power more than adequate. The clear plastic sub-bases ae less impressive. Seem like polystyrene, but I hope they are something more durable that that. I am less impressed with the plunge base. It's OK, but compared to my P-C 7529 plunge router, it's pretty crude in features, but then it only added $30 to the cost of the fixed-base router and $6 of that is for the plastic base that can take guide bushings. Too cheap to pass up. An annoying thing about the plunge base is that it has a 1" dust port, but the location makes it very inconvenient/impossable to use with P-C's 1" dust hose. Somebody stopped thinking too soon in the design stage. No fine plunge adjust, either. I give the GripVac base 5 stars and the plunge base three, so an average of four. Overall, a very good product and worth the money. Sure wish P-C was less stingy about warranty. Milwaukee does "lifetime", why does P-C only do 1 year? By the way, the CD they give you with the kit includes a video of instructions on building a simple router table. Unfortunately, the audio periodically fails. Not a big thing, but it does make P-C look bad to ship such a thing. I think they need a little Demming influence there.

I recently bought this router to supplement my Milwaukee 3.5HP table router. I have, thus far, been nothing but impressed by this new offering from P-C. It is, by far, one of the quietest routers I have yet to use (other than the original Elu I used in Europe). The dust collection system is functional, the multi-point accessible power switch is a great innovation, and the general feeling of solid quality is P-C at its best! If I had any complaint, it would not be against P-C - it would be that you really should peruse the manual first - I didn't notice the additional switch access until later (who uses manuals anyway, until they have a problem with a product).

Overall, it's a fine system, and I'm glad I bought it.
However there are some astonishing design blunders:
1. On some of the plunge bases, the depth indicator is made of translucent plastic instead of transparent. This makes it impossible to read the depth indicator.
2. The spindle lock actuator on the plunge base is completely disfunctional. The motor unit cannot be brought down far enough to engage it.
3. With the dust shield in place, it's impossible to make above-the-table bit changes. Worse yet, with large bits, the entire unit must be removed from the table to change bits. Without the dust shield, above-the-table bit changes are quite easy; but you get a lot of dust sprayed around.

The 890 router is a fine, quiet machine. However, the grip-vac and plunge bases leave a lot to be desired. I have only found one type of router operation in which the dust removal functions adequately-template routing of dishes. All other operations, free hand or on a table less than 10% of chips and dust are removed. Additionally, the dust port on the plunge base is too small for any vacuum hose/fitting I can findand I finally rigged a dodge 318 bypass hose to facilitate connection to my shopvac. Since dust and chip management were my primary for selection of the 890, I am very unhappy with this purchase. Yard sale bound. Maybe I should have waited for the arrival of the new MLCS

I have several Porter Cable routers, and they have been reliable and well built tools. That is why I chose this when I was looking for a lighter plunger router. The router is fine when in the fixed base, but the plunge base is a different story. There is quite a bit of slop in the plunge bushings which allow the router to angle from side to side as it is plunged, and it invariably binds in the process of plunging which forces you to rock it back and forth to complete the plunge. It is essentially useless for precision work. I had originally purchased it for exactly that; as a plunge router for use with guides on templates. The plunge base is now just a useless relic, and it is suitable for use with the fixed base only. If you're looking for a medium sized plunge router, look elsewhere.

D
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base looked good, but plastic subase did not fit properly due to poorly machined router base. The adjustment knob also could use work in that it was too close to body to allow ease of turning. I have an ELU and PC 690 which are fine. Will likely try the Dewalt 621 next. I did SO want the dust collection aspect!

This is an amazing router for an astounding price! Each base has its own case, and these cases are excellent!

Well, this router makes more noise than my cordless drill but other than that it is the quietest power tool I own when set to 10,000 - 16,000 rpms. Most of my favorite bits work best at those speeds anyway though. I also have a 12-year old 690 and a 7539 in a table for comparison, but this 890 is quite an improvement.

Dust collection is very good with the 890 except when profiling edges. For that I use the 690 with a dust collection base and a fitting designed for edge routing. Porter Cable's 1" hose fits perfectly on both the plunge and gripvac fittings and airflow is strong enough that there is hardly ever anything to clean up.

Previously I had to do all my routing out in the garage, which was either too hot or too cold depending on the season. However, noise and air pollution is so low with the 890 that I will now be able to move inside.

One thing that is confusing about the product description and illustration is that the gripvac base is pictured without the clear insert for dust collection. The plunge base has one pictued and a single insert is mentioned in the 894PK description, but the gripvac base is pictured without one. However, the gripvac base comes with a dedicated insert also, in case you were wondering.