Customer Reviews

Porter-Cable 9444VS 1.8 Amp Variable Speed Profile Sander Kit

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Like many others I purchased the Porter Cable profile sander on the reputation of the company. I owned it about two hours before I returned it.
The tool is powerful enough though rather bulky. The problems with the sander stem from the poorly designed profile material and the pressure sensitive adhesive used to hold the paper to the profile.
The profiles are made of the same rubber your mother hated for putting black marks all over her kitchen floor.
At least she could remove the marks. Ever try to get a rubber mark off bare wood in a tight place?
With profile sanding it is a given that the sandpaper is going to be fit to a small contour or a point and therefore will wear out or clog very quickly.
With this sander quickly literally means seconds!
It is an enormous waste of time and sandpaper to change paper after every 30 seconds of use.
Machines should be time savers,not trouble makers.
Dremel makes a profile sander that is much easier to use. The profiles do not make black marks as the paper does not wear out so quickly.The paper is industrial quality cloth backed which helps greatly.
The paper is in the form of a hollow sleeve attached only by the form of the profile.
You simply pop the profile off the machine ,roll the sleeve a little and pop it back on. Ah fresh paper cuts so well!
Like the other reviewers I own other Porter-Cable machines which I like very much. PC circular saw,the router/plunge router combo,4" x 24" belt sander and a biscuit joiner.

Please save yourself the trouble and frustration of the Porter Cable profile sander.
If someone gives you one as a gift,smile,thank them, and as soon as you can sell it!

A while back following a major wallet-emptying experience buying new windows for my house I decided to save money by recycling the 60 year old case molding. Having admired from afar the Porter Cable 9444 I finally felt justified in purchasing one. It was the right thing to do. This machine with it's 1.8 amp motor has the power to remove material surprisingly fast in small places while giving you excellent control. Despite the seemingly small footprint of the sanding pad and the accessories, this machine cut far faster than I had hoped for. Over 640' of molding that had been badly re-painted several times came clean quickly. There was always a profile head that matched a particular nook or cranny. Originally, I had thought to use the 9444 only to do the grooves and tight places, but I found it fast enough to do the faces and edges of the molding as well - it was easier (and safer for the molding) than getting out the belt sander. When you use this machine your hand circles the entire motor. This is not a perfect feeling and I found myself having to stop at times to rest my hand. However there was far less vibration transferred to your hand that I expected. Porter Cable seems to think that you will never need a place to store extra sandpaper in the ubiquitous molded plastic case - there is a place for everything that comes with the purchase but nothing extra. When will toolmakers realize that they are missing a free marketing-moment by this sort of shortsighted design? I consider these gripes somewhat minor compared to the overall excellence of the machine. If you only have occasional tight-place sanding to do, there is probably a less expensive rodent-like solution out there. But if you have a seriously large project to do or are in the trades you can't go wrong with this machine.

I have a lot of Porter Cable tools, and I'm one of the company's biggest fans. I love their routers, their circular saws, their biscuit joiner, and I have them all. But this is without a doubt the worst value in a tool ever.

Here's what's good about the kit:
1) The profiles are handy when not attached to the sander

Here are the problems:
1) First of all, the profiles never REALLY fit what you're sanding, so there's always a point early-on during the sanding where the aggressive action of the sander wears right through the sandpaper and you start leaving black rubber streaks on your material (the profile is now rubbing the wood directly).

2) The machine is not smooth.

3) It's noisy.

4) The profiles won't stay in the holder. They fall out.

5) PSA paper (uses adhesive). Not much fun.

So... there's my opinion. I consistently rate this as the worst purchase I ever made as far as tools go. Save yourself some money and buy the profiles separately. All by themselves, they're usable. Attached to the aggressive sander, they last about 3 minutes before you're burning rubber.

Sorry, PC... I would have loved to have said something more positive!

I make furiture and do some restoration work. This sander has been a time saver. I do not know how I would improve it. Others have told me this unit is hard to hold for extended periods, I have not found that to be the case. It cleans up very well. You will find it simple to change profiles and sand paper. Heat build up has not been a problem for me. This is a quality tool that has a fine fit and finish.

A good tool with certain attachments, but using the knife shaped tool -- and most of the sharper shapes -- with the adhesive backed paper is a cruel joke. If you're lucky and the black rubber thingy actually stays in the plastic holder, the paper will wear out in 10 seconds flat and the black rubber will rub all over your work. I honestly can't understand how such a ridiculously lousy design made it to mass production. Try again, Porter Cable.

I have never in my life been so disappointed with a power tool. The sandpaper will not stay on the profiles no matter how clean and dust free the profile is. The profiles will not stay in the holder. I spent more time cleaning the black rubber marks off my bookshelf trim due to the fact that the andpaper kept sliding off or wearing out within 2 minutes of installing the paper. I will never buy another porter cable product, and I have been purchasing woodworker tools for 30 years, and respected the brand name.

This tool is a real disappointment. I won't go into repeating the negative comments of the other owners of this tool for fear of scaring off potential P-C customers. I own several P-C tools (circular saw, belt sander, plate (biscuit) joiner and RO sander) and am very pleased with their performance. I spend a fair amont of time on woodworking sites and reading magazine reviews before plunking down ANY money (even a few $ on sand paper)on a tool or accessory. Unfortunetely, this research was not down prior to buying this (s)tool. I purchased this before a remodel project and did not get to use it before the 30 day satisfaction guarantee expired. If this was not the case, it would have been returned immediately. I gave this tool 1 star, however, it does not rate even 1 star. Save your cash. P.S. I bought a Sandvik scraper with holster and profile blades, reground the blades to fit the specific profile needed and they worked like a dream. Tim Allen is wrong, more power is not always better.

OK, I have doubled the review of this tool after having it for over a year. There are a few tasks for which this tool is handy, i.e. sanding a roundover profile on a table edge. But still the tool's feel is cheap and the thing eats sandpaper. DO NOT try to sand a painted surface with it.

I had my 150 year old window sashes dipped to get all the old paint off of them. The paint was gone but the windows looked like fuzzy wuzzy bear, the grain was raised up big time. I laborously hand sanded about 6 sash and as careful as I was I ended up really changing the profiles of the muntins. I was overwhelmed with the number of sash I had to do and I was unhappy with the end result of my work until I bought this sander. Without this sander I would never have finished this project. The results I obtained with this sander were amazing, the windows looked awesome. Where my hand sanding had left rounded and obliterated mouldings the Porter Cable left nice crisp profiles in the mouldings. If that wasn't good enough it also sanded the sash in about a tenth the time it took me to do it by hand. I have since used this sander in a few other specific applications which is what it is really for. I did have problems as noted in other reviews with the sanding heads popping out of the machine but I solved this pretty much by wrapping the sandpaper around the heads an extra time, it wasted some sandpaper but saved my sanity. If you have a project requiring a lot of sanding of detailed mouldings this is your baby, I would not recommend trying to strip paint with it but it really excels at clean up of mouldings.

I HAD BOUGHT THIS TOOL FOR MY GIRLFRIEND. SHE SAID THE SANDINGSTRIPS KEPT FALLING OFF, I THEN USED IT MYSELF, AND FOUND THAT THEREAL NARROW ONES DID FALL OFF, THOUGHT NOT SHOOTING LIKE ANOTHER CUSTOMER PUT IT, BUT THAT THE SANDPAPER WORE THROUGH ALMOST IMMEDIATLY. I WAS DISAPPOINTED IN THE TOOL UNTIL I HAD TO STRIP THE PAINT OFF OF MY WINDOWS AND SILS,I THEN FOUND THE TOOL WELL WORTH THE MONEY. JUST KEEP IN MIND THE FLAW IS IN THE SANDPAPER, WHEN YOU TRY TO BEND IT TOO NARROW. I WOULD RECOMEND THIS TOOL FOR SPESIFIC JOBS ONLY(REFINISHING+WINDOWS) IT CUTS DOWN ON TIME BUT DOES NOT ELIMINATE ALL HAND WORK.

I debated between this and several other "detail" sanders that had only .5 to .8 amp motors but cost less than half this one. The guy at the hardware store allowed me to test drive the 9444 and a couple of mere "mortal" sanders. The others bogged on a painted surface under just a little bit of hand pressure, but this one just kept right on going. So my wife got me the 9444VS and her sister got me the 333VS orbiting sander for Christmas -- and BOY AM I SATISFIED!! I've had a couple of chances to put them to work now on refinishing windows and moulding and some woodworking and now I can't decide which is my favorite tool, this or my PC router! I haven't had any of the problems with the profiles coming off or wearing paper out quickly that others reviewers have -- as a matter of fact, the paper seems surprisingly long-lasting. There always seems to be the right profile for the job, and they change out easily. As far as comfort, vibration is minimal even when going at it with some aggressive grits. I have larger hands, so the barrel grip was comfortable even going at some door frames for an hour at a stretch. This is not my first Porter Cable tool, and definitely not my last if they keep making satisfying tools like this!