PORTER-CABLE Plate Joiner Kit, 7-Amp (557)

I own and have owned a variety of power tools, among them, Porter Cable. Porter Cable is hit and miss. Not a fan of their drills but, the price point is enticing and they get the job done. Table saw? I'll pass. Their circular saw is the best I have ever owned. Although I have upgraded my router, I still consider Porter Cable the standard for that tool and their dove tail jig, although requiring some fiddling, is heirloom quality. On to the joiner. The plastic case is as adequate as most. Open it and the quality form, fit and function of this tool immediately jumps out at you. What I got: Of course the tool, a hex key and a dust bag with its adapter. That's it. No manual, no product registration card and NO ALIGNMENT PLATE! VERY disappointing! Off to the internet to find a manual and print. On page 12, it clearly states the alignment plate is, (furnished with tool) NOT! There's even a handy place to keep it in the case, IF ONLY I HAD ONE!. All the negative things you've heard about the dust bag are true. In this case, the word "useless" is not just a handy run-of-the-mill adjective. You can say it literally. The spring clamp and the adapter simply don't belong to one another. I've rarely used any of the dust bags that came with my power tools unless I'm away from the shop with them but, at least I could install them and get them dirty a couple of times. You can't even do that with this one. Your own extraction? The port is an odd diameter. You'll be playing dominos with all your vac adapters to get this set up for extraction or go outside and aim the port at the neighbor's house. This is truly puzzling because it is way out of character considering the theme of quality and precision otherwise evident in this tool. The rest of the tool is obviously ready to produce out of the box. The grips feels great to the hand and the look, feel, sound and operation of the trigger and it's lock is robust. The motor is very well vented and I expect will never get hot. You can hear and feel the wind blowing through it. I'm confident that this tool will be in my family long after they kick dirt on me. The top handle is right where it should be and its mounting is well engineered, solid and, above all, stationery. The configuration of the fences and adjustments say that, not only will there be accuracy, the applications will be nearly limitless without any jigging creativity. I think the only instances where this tool will be limited will be where I wouldn't want a biscuit anyway. In spite of the clear miss on the dust bag and the absent alignment plate, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this purchase. At this price point there is nothing better. I'm not the send-it-back type so I'll create my own alignment plate. I'll mention it to Amazon and PC so, if there is a favorable response, I'll update the review. Enjoy.Updating first review. Followed the online process to let PC know that the alignment plate was missing. They apologized and shipped me one no questioned asked. Brand new in the bag. That was impressive. I'm going to 5 stars because I'm not going to quibble over a dust bag I would likely never use anyway.

The Porter-Cable Plate Joiner 557 (Type 4) is a fantastic tool! Its power, versatility, and accuracy are all top-notch! I have used this multiple times in the past week with super results.The only negatives are commonly reported items. When I first opened the package I found the anti-skid material on the joiner face torn and terribly misaligned. I was able to very carefully correct the positioning of the anti-skid material and make it functional.The other issue was not damage but possibly poor design. The dust collection deflector and dust bag are not very effective. Even when operating the tool very slowly, the dust clogged the chute quickly. I was able to remedy the issue by using a small shop-vac with a one inch nozzle.Overall, a great tool addition to my shop!

I'm going to review 3 joiners here: the PC, the Freud, and the Dewalt. In the beginning, I borrowed a neighbor's Dewalt to build some cabinets. The unit seemed to work well and felt pretty solid. But I was bugged by the handle being attached to the motor instead of the fence, which had me grabbing the fence assy. to steady the unit while using it. Never did use that top handle, but dropped the unit and broke it along with the base. Ordered relacement parts, fixed it, returned it and vowed to get my own joiner. Saw the Freud at Lowe's on sale for $129 and brought it home. The top handle was on the fence (where it belongs) but the rest of the unit was quite cobby. The fence face was poorly machined and missing a rubber snubber, the "rack and pinion" adjustment was rough and needed cleaning up with a riffle file and sandpaper, and the overall feel was harbor fr-----. I figured you get what you pay for and used it once to join some boards for a tabletop. While picking up some biscuits at Home Repo, I saw the PC on display and was impressed by the fit and finish, but not the $200plus price tag. Just for s n'g's, I checked the price here on Amazon, and it was 38 bucks more than what I paid for the Freud. I ordered it and returned the Feud right away.The Porter Cable, IMHO, is head and shoulders above the Freud in quality, and a solid step up from the Dewalt in a design sense. Much more of a fine woodworking tool than either considering the features, like the finish on the fence, the top handle on the fence, the ease of adjustments, the range of adjustments,the additional gripper surface on the fence, the extra small blade for the mini-biscuits (which I purchased)and the stouter motor. And though the more powerful motor might be good for a decking project, I would probably not use it and choose a less expensive model like the Freud for rougher jobs.Bottom line, though it's not a Lemello, it is accurate and I would buy it again and recommend it.

I've had this tool for about 9 months now, and I've used it many times, mostly for attaching face frames to cabinets, and it has always worked great.I've also used it to join many face frame corners, both at 90 and 45 degrees, and the results are always amazing, especially when I use my jointer to straighten the edges first.The planer does have a little kick to it when you turn it on, but I haven't had any problem keeping it in place when it starts due to the grit on the face of the machine.The one complaint that I've seen others mention is that of the dust collector, and I use to have problems with this too. I made an adapter to connect it to my shopvac, and that worked good, but it's a little bit of a hassle dragging the hose around. Now I've just been using the bag by itself and it's been working just fine for me. What I've found is that all I need to do is to give it a second or two to come up to speed, which will fill the bag with air, before I make my cut, then the cuttings all go into the bag. If I go too fast it can clog.