Long live the locomotive-the story of the Porter-Cable Take-About sander-Part five
The last stop on our tour concerns two sanders that, much like their ancestors the B-4 and B-5, were more or less the same machines save for scale. They were introduced the same year, and while one of them didn't survive the Pentair buyout, the other would keep the A-3/504 company to the end of the line. It's time to introduce the 503 and 500 Take-Abouts.
In early 1952, Porter-Cable introduced a pair of dustless belt sanders that summed up everything they had learned in the last twenty-five years.
February brought us the heroically proportioned 500 (Seen here in 'mid-'50s 500G2 Secret Agent Man government contract livery).
It’s the late ‘50s, and you’re on base serving your country in the war against roughsawn lumber. Your weapon? The porter-Cable 500G2.
The more svelte 503 joined the party in May.
The 503 as it appeared in 1952. A mainstay of Industrial Arts programs throughout the Midwest, I can’t begin to tell you how many 503’s I’ve rebuilt over the years.
The 500 is one impressive machine, combining many of the best traits of the BB-10 with the belt size and power of the T-4. The 500 was a slower sander than either, being 1440 fpm ( the BB-10 was 1475, the T-4 an absolutely ludicrous 1650 fpm); this was by design because the speed a belt is moving at must be juggled with the width of the belt/size of the platen to arrive at a compromise that removes material quickly without becoming uncontrollable, and the 500 is the most manageable 4"x27" sander in the family ( the B-4 only loses out due to the balance issue, but the lowset handles of that model go a long way to keeping it gritty side down on the work; the T-4 will do a very sincere Hemi under glass impression if you don't maintain a good grip on the front handle). Dust collection is very nearly as good as the BB-10, and the 500 is very stoutly built, with only the exhaust louvres ( Iknow, I know, it should be louvers. Porter-Cable called them louvres, take it up with them) being particularly delicate ( in all fairness, the T-4 had the same problem with both intake and exhaust grilles being easily smooshed). I really can't think of a downside to the design worth griping about, though the sander’s a little loud and the rear handle is a little small in diameter. I do appreciate that the toggle lever arrangement of the BB-10 was retained because I'm left-handed, and it makes for an ambidextrous sander. I suppose it would be nice if it were a bit quieter, but these are minor details- if you need a whole passel of something sanded down, you could do a lot worse than the 500.
The 503 is literally a 500 that got shrunk in the wash.
This level of compactness is due chiefly to the use of die castings; whereas the 500 is mainly sand cast ( you really can't build a reliable belt sander of that class any other way), the 503 owes a debt to the A-2 and A-3 sanders for the slim profile and light weight- it would be next to impossible to make the design the old fashioned way without it being far larger and a good deal heftier.
The 503 is the sander I have the most experience with, as it was far and away the most popular sander in this area for Industrial Arts classes, and teenagers are not known for being respectful of school equipment. It was very common for years to receive several boxes of these fellows before the beginning of the school year,in need of TLC to correct the various and sundry bent supports arms, stripped gears, and abraded cords (seriously, the cord goes over your shoulder, guys. Keep it off the table, for crying out loud). Not that the sander was a lightweight- few people that used them with any kind of sense ever wore them out. It's just that, if you locked a teenage boy in an airtight rubber room with a wooden mallet and two stainless steel ball bearings, in one hour he would have broken one and lost the other.
The ivied halls of academe can be a dangerous place.
The 503 is an excellent sander, fast, light, and capable of hard work. However, the light castings don't lend themselves to a knock-around life on job sites, and it's not uncommon to see this sander in a shop-built, wooden case for protection. It's like I always say, a tool case is cheap insurance, and while Porter-Cable offered a case for the A-2, the other sanders were left to their own devices.
The 500 made it as late as 1977, and while I've never seen a Pentair era, Porter-Cable badged example, it may very well have survived a few more years. The 503 fared better, being offered with the 504 until Black and Decker decided to become anti-worm drive extremists and pull the plug on the locomotive sander once and for all between 2009-2011. Parts were available for several years afterward, and I could kick myself for not buying more worm gears when I had the chance- the 30 of them I did get didn't stretch very far.
Finis:
500:4"x27" belt,1440 fpm,25lbs
503:3"X24"belt,1100 sfpm,15lbs
Today, these sanders command prices that may sometimes rival the original MSRP. I scout local flea markets for them, check used tool dealers and craigslist, but some of my favorites were scouted out by friends. I dug my treasured T-33 out of an aluminum scrap bucket,. My cherished B-10 was intercepted by a friend on its way to the scrapyard. My prized A-3 was given to me by a customer who was too old to use it anymore. Every one of them is a valued tool, an admired objet d'art, and an irreplaceable part of the story of a company that changed the way work was done.
If you should run across one of these sanders, I encourage you to bring it home. Blow the dust out. PUT OIL IN IT. Then find a piece of lumber that looks like the bottom of a shoe, or a table that really needs refinishing, or even a workbench that has a warped top and one too many nails in it for a plane to contend with, and watch the magic happen. You'll be glad you did, I think.
Just don't be surprised if you wind up with your own roundhouse someday.
C’mon, everyone get in the shot!
After all, what's more important than family?
