![]() I can understand why it’s an older design that hasn’t been updated. I was very excited about my sight-unseen purchase, and was even more excited, until I switched it on. It feels solid, and both the fixed base and the collets felt nice and precise. The 7518 is made in Mexico (not China), and from the markings, I received one that was built in the later part of 2017. Maybe I’ll try my luck with another version of the 7518. If the need arises, and I want a larger size and more powerful router motor, maybe I’ll get the single-speed version, 7519, but the 5-speed version is the same price, or a little less. If something like that happens to the 7518, maybe they’ll update it then. Both have been discontinued, because Porter Cable could no longer buy the special motors they built it with. Shown here is a Porter Cable low profile sander, which was also available in Dewalt colors at one point. ![]() What will happen if or when a supplier stops making a specific part that goes into this router? Will it be discontinued or perhaps updated? Its look, its feel… this model is crying out and begging to be updated. That’s why its speed controller isn’t all that smooth to use, aside from the mentioned issues, and why its power switch has an old-timey look to it. Maybe I won’t even need the added power of the 7518, compared to the still not too shabby power of smaller routers, like the Porter Cable 690, or Bosch 1617EVSPK that my Craftsman is a slight adaptation of.įrom what I can gather, the Porter Cable 7518 is a relic, a time-testing but old design. While some opt for add-on router speed controllers when their built-in functionality fails, that’s not something I should have to do with a brand new tool. I tried to find some answers online, as to why the Porter Cable’s speed control switch doesn’t seem to work properly – or perhaps it’s just not working intuitively, making the issue user-error rather than a product defective – and found many posts about speed control failures. Maybe it’ll be my Bosch-made Craftsman Pro router, or a Porter Cable router sample I’ve been testing on something else. In the meantime, I do have 3.5″ pads for my router table, and so I’ll pop something else back in there. In my mind, a brand new tool with a defective component needs to go back. Either the speed controller is defective, which is why the soft-start also doesn’t work at the lowest speed setting, or I just don’t know how to use this router. Something seems wrong with my new Porter Cable 7518 router. That Bosch motor behaved predictably and confidently. I used a roommate’s Sears gift card wedding gift to snag the router kit, which was either deeply discounted or clearance priced. I retrieved my Bosch-made Craftsman router, which hasn’t been used in a few years. Even if that was true, what’s the excuse for the soft-start failure? You can hear the difference in RPMs as it does this.Ĭould this tool’s weird max speed at the lowest setting be intentional? I couldn’t possibly believe that. Other tool motors, even those with electronic load-monitoring speed controls, ramp up or down in discrete steps. I couldn’t really differentiate what it was doing when switching to the two highest speeds. It sped up a little when switched to its third speed setting. I slid the speed control switch to its second speed setting, and it ramped down to a lower speed. What? No, it didn’t ramp down, it just started at or near its max speed, with a hard counter-rotational tug of the handles. Testing it out at the lowest speeds, there was no soft-start, and the speed started off at max.
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