Son of a .......... Darn it Porter Cable.

**Barry Theal** · 06-20-2010, 05:05 PM

In all my years of detailing this has never happened. I am an advid fan of the all famous Porter Cable 7424. I had the original for about 3 years and nothing was wrong with it. In January of this year I upgraded to the newer 7424 xp and after about 6 months this happens. Just thought I would share it with you all. I was polishing on speed 5 with a 5.5 LC Tangerine Hydro pad when all of a sudden my pad and backing plate went flying across the room. I thought the backing plate had snapped. I was wrong!

Here is a shot of the of where it went bad.

Here is the damage!

Closer up. This is deep and will not be able to be removed!

Here is a few pictures of the piece at fault.

To sum it up, Im pretty pissed with the qaulity of this new Porter Cable 7424xp. Luckily this car is a dealer car going to an Auction next week, so he said to touch it up, but I wanted to pass this on with you gentleman. I will be contacting porter cable directly along with photos to see what they have to say. I will update you all. Have a great day.

Barry Theal

**black03mach** · 06-20-2010, 05:10 PM

man thats lucky that it happened to an auction car. I look forward to seeing what Porter Cable does

**eyezack87** · 06-20-2010, 05:10 PM

Wow, another breakage. You`re another person who snapped the rotating shaft! I broke mine on the normal 7424 last year. One day before warranty expired. Welcome to the club. I was lucky enough to not hit the paint thankfully. Though for mine, the entire mechanism fell off, meaning the counterweight and other bits...

**Legacy** · 06-20-2010, 05:20 PM

Thanks for the heads up. Had backing plates break, but never the spindle. Looks like the crimp on the bottom sheared off.

**dmw2692004** · 06-20-2010, 05:34 PM

wow thats scary I was just using mine on a black vette this morning.

**wannafbody** · 06-20-2010, 05:36 PM

Is that piece hollow? Is it solid on the original PC? Luckily it was a dealer car, it could have been a disaster on an exotic.

**Barry Theal** · 06-20-2010, 05:47 PM

Yes the piece is hollow. I wanted to share this with everyone to give you a heads up. I`m curious what porter cable will say

**imported_DetailDan** · 06-20-2010, 08:04 PM

Kbm???????

**bridgersmith** · 06-20-2010, 10:53 PM

geez i didn`t need to see that! i`m working on a jet black 09 M3 this weekend. My pc isn`t that old though. So how`s the flex? Depending on how this turns out i may be switching.

**FastEddysDetail** · 06-21-2010, 08:33 AM

I too am curious if this may be from constant Kbm use?

**jfelbab** · 06-21-2010, 08:58 AM

That shaft is solid on the original. Looks like they cheapened it up in the XP.

**Accumulator** · 06-21-2010, 09:14 AM

Barry Theal- Glad to hear it didn`t damage something else, sorry to hear it happened at all. Like D&D AutoDetail, I`m wondering if the stresses from KBMing were more than PC had planned for :think:

bridgersmith- IMO if you overdo the applied pressure with the Flex you`re likely to have issues too. But IMO#2 there`s no real need to do that.

eyezack87- What size pad/plate were you using when you broke your (old style) PC? How much applied pressure?

**gmblack3** · 06-21-2010, 01:41 PM

Sorry for your issues Barry.

I had a XPPC that had 6 months of KBM constant use, never an issue for me.

I now have a G110v2 that has had a good 4 months of KBM use without an issue.

My festool went in for repair after 2 months for a blown seal...Been fine ever since.