PC 3.25hp router recall?

[scottp55]

Just saw this in news so passing it on.
-------------------------------------------------

PRODUCTION ROUTERS

DETAILS: Four Porter-Cable 3 1/4 horsepower, electric, fixed-base production routers and one production router base are being recalled. The Porter-Cable name and logo are on the front of the base. The recalled routers and base were made from 1990 to April 2014. The following router models are being recalled: Model numbers 7518, 7519, 7519EC, and 22-7519-60. The router model number and the manufacture date code are on a metal plate on the back of the upper motor housing. The date code consists of the year of manufacture, the week of manufacture and the manufacturing plant code in the YYYY WW-XX format. They were sold a t major industrial equipment suppliers and woodworker suppliers nationwide from 1990 to April 2014. The router base is model number 75361 and is also sold separately. The model number is located on the side of the base opposite the Porter-Cable label.

WHY: The router base handles are not insulated, posing an electric shock hazard.

INCIDENTS: None reported.

HOW MANY: About 100,000 in the U.S. and about 7,800 in Canada.

FOR MORE: Call Porter-Cable at 888-344-7973 send email to support.portercable@sbdinc.com , or visit http://www.portercable.com, click on Important Safety Notice/Recalls, then select 2014 for more information.

[POPS 64]

Scott , thanks for the info ,this was the first I heard of this I got three of those I'll be on the phone today. Jeff

[Ger21]

I'm pretty sure mine is newer than 1990, but it doesn't have a date code in the format they mention. I'll have to give them a call to see if I get a free base.
It seems that there would be far more than 100,000 of these sold in the last 25 years.

http://www.portercable.com/SafetyAnnouncements.aspx?BlockID=793bd768-5a32-4761-80df-4849548c80e7

[richards]

I'm not that concerned about the "fix". If the router is used with a grounded plug and used properly, it doesn't look like there would be any danger. Adding a insulated base seems to be something that lawyers have dreamed up to increase their revenue.

I have several PC routers and I can see no reason to get the new bases, but I use grounded plugs.

[Ger21]

Mine says Double Insulated right on the motor, and did not come with a grounded plug.

[MogulTx]

Don't rout in the rain, and you are probably fine!

Mine do not have the grounding plug... but I still think it is a lawyer thing. I personally am not worried on whit about it. I will stick with what I've got and save the requirement for new parts for when it really counts.

[cabnet636]

Saw this post and had to retell this Story,, My Friend Andy Passed of Cancer in August of 07 just before he was to be the Best man at my Wedding,, not sure any of us will ever have the experience of having thousands attend our funeral or even more Brave to record and speak your own Eulogy. My Friend Andy did.

Andy worked for me off and on and this is one of dozens of tales I have about "Andy" it concerns the Porter Cable tool"

The Nine lives Of Andy !!
One of the coolest jobs we did was the McCloud Health and Fitness center in Florence, Man Was Andy Happy ! he got to go home every night with Carol and life was Good !!
By this time we had made a little money and I bought some new and updated tools for the job, one of Andy's Task was to Perfectly drill all the Holes to mount the frames that would hold up the Decorative wooden columns that surround all of the second floor openings with railings over ... I was working one day down and in the back of the building when Andy came up to me and said “Man I think I Messed up” he told me he was drilling and there had been some sparks come up out of the drill hole.. So we went to where he was working, the building is very big and open natural light from all the glass was bright so we did not notice that the power had gone out in the entire building, (lotta normal Chaos on a construction site)
As we got up to the little 3/4” hole he was drilling we could see that there was some burn residue much like a mess of Bottle rockets would burn at the mouth of a bottle. We looked around and there were people running every where, we kinda looked at each other as if “do we just split” ??

Bout that time the GC (Big Man in Charge) some electricians and para medics came running up the spiral stair case we are watchin them wondering where they are headed and then they turn and hustle over to us.. The para medic ask who drilled that hole, I gotta admit we paused a moment then Andy spoke up and told them it was him,,,,, the para medics started putting their hands on him asking him if he wanted to sit down and was he ok, one actually asked if he could still see light.. At this point the electricians told Us he had drilled thru a 600 V main power cable and should be dead, Andy and I just looked at each other (well you know the look) and the Paramedics were pretty amazed at how Ok he was,, they took his pulse, looked into his eyes Etc. but all in all he was ok.. Now remember that new tool we had purchased, well about that time we all turned and looked the the NEW Double insulated Porter Cable Heavy duty Power Drill and noticed that the 8” long 3/4 inch thick bit had melted all the way up to the chuck and the tool had Absorbed the impact of the voltage. At this point writing this I gotta say I am teared up a bit, I could lost my friend that day yet to him it was just a skip and jump on down the road,
I Never purchased a cheap no double insulated power tool ever AGAIN !!

[scottp55]

Nice story Jim!:)
When we were building, the kitchen shares a wet wall with the master bath so I used backer board on both sides of the wall as I was considering tile backsplash. Cabinet guy asked to use my Bosch 1/2 hammer/drill to install base cabinets and within 10 minutes we heard the profanity, he had drilled through a 1" HW supply pipe and was sitting in a 80C puddle trying to plug the hole with his finger:) Thank goodness all GFI breakers anywhere near water. Took a while to strip the wall down-repair- and dry everything out. Glad I've got a concrete floor as it took 5 minutes to find the shut-off:)

[richards]

In the United States, a three-wire plug has a Hot, a Neutral and a Ground. A three-wire receptacle has a Hot, a Neutral and a Ground. On the router, the Ground wire is attached to the frame. The original handles are connected to the frame. The handles are grounded. Electricity always follows the path of least resistance. Electricity will follow the Ground lead back to the receptacle because that is the path of least resistance. (TEST: Hold the tips of the leads from a multi-meter in your hands, one tip in one hand and the other tip in the other hand. Measure the resistance. Next, place one tip on the Ground lead to the PC router and the other tip to the frame. Measure the resistance. You'll see that the router has almost no resistance, but that your body has very high resistance.)

I have not looked at the plugs on recent Porter-Cable 3-1/4 HP routers, but the three that I bought all had grounding plugs. If yours has a two wire plug, then, by all means, get the insulated grips.

[myxpykalix]

Jim,
To use another metaphor it sounds like he "dodged a bullet" that day, and that look you gave each other was one of those hard gulping chills when you realize you could have died....(and you thank the lord you didn't!):eek:

Here's a question i have regarding this recall....if we don't use the base and have the router in our bot and it is grounded, how does this affect us? I don't think it does?:confused:

[richards]

Jack,

If you follow the logic behind the recall, not only the handle, but any metal touching a PC-7518 router could give a fatal shock. That doesn't make sense. If you ground the frame of your Shopbot, then a "shock" would be diverted to ground. If the PC-7518 is properly wired, a "shock" would be diverted to the grounding prong on the plug. If you have a two-wire plug on the PC-7518, then it's time to contact Porter-Cable and ask them what to do, because, using their logic, that router could kill you. (But what happens if you used the same router with a new base, but held on to a metal portion of the router instead of only using the new base? Wouldn't that be just as bad as using the router with the original base?)

Because the metal case is not doubly insulated, it seems to me that the logical thing to do, if you have a PC-7518 with a two-wire plug, is to have an electrician properly install a three-wire plug, or have Porter-Cable do it for you.

Back in the 1960's when homes were just beginning to be built with three-wire receptacles, many people used "cheater plugs" to convert a three-wire plug to a two-wire receptacle. They were suppose to use a grounding screw or grounding wire at the receptacle to make that tool safe. To get around that requirement, the builders in our area had a hard and fast rule. "Don't stand in water if you're using power tools." That rule worked. Their metal-bodied tools were safe when they were used under dry conditions.