PORTER-CABLE Tile Saw, Wet Saw with 7-inch Cutting Capacity and On-Board Cutting Guide (PCE980)

This is a great little wet saw that will elevate your tile game. The sliding table was a must-have for me. My last tile saw was an underpowered 4" wet saw, and I've also rented huge 24" wet saws. As a weekend warrior I wanted something in between. This 7" saw has all the power you need.I was able to rip 36" wood look tile planks. Just cut as far as you can, then slide the table back and keep cutting. The only thing is you have to remove one Phillips screw to remove the squaring rail. Then when you reinstall the rail for cutting tile to length, you have to square it again.I think a better system would be an adjustment screw that also had an indexing pin to easily find square again. Sure, it should be adjustable, but you should be able to pop the rail off and on quickly and easily without tools.Also, I didn't see a wrench holder anywhere. The wrench is just kind of floating around, and I'm sure it will get lost the first time I put it away to store.So there is definitely room for improvement from a design standpoint. But this saw strikes a great balance between price and solid quality. I've spent this much to rent a tile saw for a weekend, so I see it as a very good value for a powerful wet saw with sliding table.The table slides very well on nylon wheels, without any perceptible slop. The power switch is ergonomic and easy to use. A nice cord winder, and easy to grip handles round out the package. The blade guard is good, and doesn't get in the way. I didn't try the included blade, but used a Pearl P4 instead. It was hard to tell which side of the tile was cut, and which was a factory edge. Pretty darn good cut quality on wood look porcelain floor tile.Highly recommended, but wish it had a quick indexing pin on the squaring rail so I could go from ripping to crosscuts without tools or adjustment. Also, I really wish it had a wrench holder for the included wrench.

I don't normally write product reviews but this saw fit the bill perfectly for me and it paid for itself compared to a few days of rental at the local big box store.I tried one of those under $100 tile saws in the past. They get the job done of larger tiles, but shake, rattle and roll a lot. I'm sure I would end up with a lot of broken tiles for this job if I tried that again.I was installing your typical thin strips of glass backsplash tile. To 'do it right' the top row needed to be split in half. As you can see in the pictures of before and after, the saw successfully split that top row in half.I suspected the tiles would easily crack without proper support on either side of the cut. So I took a page out of woodworking and crafted zero clearance support made out of scrap Corian (plastic-like hard material). I bolted a piece on the sliding table then cut the slot using the stock blade. I then swapped out the standard blade for the glass cutting blade (I also purchased in advance) and went to town. It took a few tries to get the feed rate right. I also found it necessary to put quite a bit of down pressure on the tile to keep it from creeping up the blade while cutting. I was probably feeding a little faster than I should have.I then proceeded to cut about 20 feet of tile with almost no problems. As others pointed out, you get a little wet. I don't recommend cutting in your home.I did have a small problem with the vertical support for the blade guard. While cutting the insert slot it would stop when hitting the vertical support. Basically the support could not be aligned with the blade. A little bending and banging later everything worked fine.I'm sure this saw would be a good investment for any homeowner's DIY project.

I bought this table-style tile saw to cut 1 x 2 ft porcelain tile that wouldn't fit in my other tile saw that cuts with a blade from above. I also like it because it draws water up from the basin below instead of requiring a hookup to a hose. Overall, this is a pretty decent saw, but there are a number of puzzling design flaws that can be improved upon.As other reviewers have noted, the sliding deck is about 1/16 inch higher than the fixed deck which causes rough breaks at the end of each cut, especially when working with larger pieces of tile. I have no idea why the saw was designed this way. To help fix this, I removed the screws securing the fixed deck and used some washers as spacers to prop up the deck to about the same height as the sliding deck.Another major shortcoming of the saw is the lack of a fence on the fixed deck. The sliding deck does not slide back far enough to rip 2 ft tiles, so it would be very helpful to instead run the tile along a fence. This is pretty standard on any table saw, for wood or tile, so I'm scratching my head over why Porter Cable didn't incorporate one into the design, which would have been pretty easy to do. I fashioned something with a piece of wood and some clamps, but the underside of the deck doesn't have a flat even surface for the clamps to press upon, so it was a little wobbly.Also, as another reviewer noted, the handles for carrying the saw protrude slightly above the level of the deck, so they make for an uneven surface if you're cutting large pieces of tile. Again there is no sense in having this part of the design so I can only chalk it up to poor oversight in the engineering process.Finally, there is no height adjustment for the saw blade and there is a fair amount of play in the sliding deck. This may contribute to the amount of chipping you get when cutting porcelain, but from what I've read, it's almost impossible to get chip-free cuts no matter what kind of saw or blade you use. By cutting slowly and using a dressing stone on the blade every few cuts, I managed to keep chipping to a minimum where I could sand almost all of it off the edges with a sanding stone.Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be many other options for cutting large tile without spending thousands of dollars for a professional grade saw. I guess I could rent one, but at the rate I work, it would also cost a fortune. For the price, this saw is a good choice that gets the job done, but I hope Porter Cable would improve upon these design flaws.