Porter Cable Restorer

Porter Cable Restorer is on sale at Lowes for $79, making it a very good buy right now. I&#;ve had a test sample around here for some time, and although I haven&#;t had the chance to use it for any big projects, I&#;ve learned a few things worth sharing.

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The Restorer is a licensed Porter Cable product, meaning it&#;s designed and managed by an outside company, Wellington Tool, run by the inventor Robert Kundel.

I spoke with Robert earlier this month, and he is very passionate about the Restorer. I am convinced that the Restorer is not some gimmick &#; it was developed as a solution.

1. Porter Cable Restorer &#; It Can Do Anything!

Well, not anything, but the Restorer is definitely a very versatile tool. Equipped with the right attachment, whether sanding drum, paint and rust remover roller wheel, or one of the accessories currently in development, it can sand, polish, and clean.

2. More Accessories Are on the Way

When I spoke to Robert, he indicating that the initial launch of sanding drums and a coarse paint and rust removal wheel is just the tip of the iceberg, and that they&#;re working on more accessories.

He seemed very committed to the platform, which gives me confidence as a user or potential buyer.

With the Restorer requiring its own accessories, a manufacturer&#;s commitment to the product is very important. Who wants to be stuck with a tool that they can&#;t buy accessories for?

There&#;s always a risk of being unable to find accessories 5 or 10 years down the road, but I don&#;t think I would be deterred by this. I got the feeling that the inventor and manufacturer is in it for the long haul.

3. It&#;s Well-Built and Smooth Running

My short experience with the Restorer has been positive. It seems like a very solid tool, which surprised me a little. I expected the experience to be a little more shaky.

It runs smoothly, and doesn&#;t seem to bog down.

Accessory changes are easy and tool-free. There are 2 metal latches keeping the wheel cover in place, with one of them captivated so as to act like a hinge.

The design is fairly well-polished, except perhaps the speed selection dial, which is perfectly functional and clear to read, but could stand to be a little better.

4. It Works Superbly with Dust Collection

The inventor described a demonstration where they were sanding or removing rust from something, and how a dust extractor pulled out nearly every bit of dust and debris.

I hadn&#;t had the opportunity to test this to its limits, but a quick test showed that it does work well with a dust extractor or similar vacuum.

This is still more of a &#;do your work outside&#; kind of tool, but I supposed it could be used indoors too, in situations that might alternatively call for a belt sander or random orbit sander.

5. It&#;s a Surface Restoration and Renewal Tool

Keep in mind that this is not a surface smoother, it&#;s a surface restoration and prep tool. It&#;s meant for removing paint, weathered surfaces, and surface rust. Things like that. It&#;s not a final sanding tool.

It was originally designed for removing rust and scale from beams and pipe prior to painting.

This means it&#;s a good complement for your existing sanders, and not a replacement.

On PBS NewsHour Weekend Sunday, we travel to San Francisco, where city public health officials have set an ambitious goal, called &#;Getting to Zero,&#; to eliminate new HIV infections. One of the main pillars of the plan relies on use of the antiretroviral drug Truvada.

Truvada can be used for what is called &#;PrEP,&#; short for &#;pre-exposure prophylaxis,&#; the controversial practice of using antiretroviral drugs to prevent HIV infection.

Read on to learn 8 things you may not know about Truvada.

1. Truvada has been used to treat HIV for a decade

Truvada is a combination of two medicines, emtricitabine and tenofovir. It has been used for ten years as part of a drug regimen that suppresses HIV in people already suffering from the virus.

Truvada works by blocking an enzyme called reverse transcriptase, which HIV uses to copy its genetic material and reproduce. In addition to suppressing HIV in people who have already been infected, Truvada can also prevent the virus from infecting people in the first place.

In , it became the first drug to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in preventing HIV-negative people from getting HIV through sexual intercourse.

2. PrEP can reduce the risk of HIV infection by more than 90 percent if used properly, but is far less effective if not taken as recommended

PrEP is recommended for people at high risk of HIV infection. In practice, this mostly applies to gay or bisexual men who have had anal sex without a condom or been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the past six months. But it also includes intravenous drug users who share equipment and heterosexual men and women who don&#;t regularly use condoms during sex with high-risk partners.

Goto Cohwa to know more.

One major study of men who have sex with men, called iPrEx, found that HIV-negative men prescribed Truvada for daily use were 44 percent less likely to contract HIV than those who took a placebo. That figure may be misleading, however, since many of the trial participants did not take the drug, or failed to take it as frequently as recommended.

The study showed that all of the men who were prescribed Truvada but still became infected either had not taken the drug at all or had taken it less frequently than instructed. The study&#;s conclusion was that proper use of Truvada can reduce the risk of infection by 92 percent; subsequent statistical analysis has indicated that the drug may be up to 99 percent effective when taken daily.

3. Some fear widespread use of PrEP could contribute to the spread of other STDs

PrEP has been criticized by some public health experts, most notably AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, who has called Truvada &#;a party drug,&#; arguing that it will encourage irresponsible sexual practices.

Weinstein and other critics fear that Truvada will provide people with a false sense of security, leading to decreased condom use, riskier sex and an increase in the transmission rates of STDs like syphilis and gonorrhea. Critics also fear that people will not take the medication reliably, as is required for maximum protection.

Truvada is intended to be used along with condoms, not in place of them, and doesn&#;t protect against other sexually transmitted diseases.

PrEP proponents argue that many men who might benefit from Truvada already don&#;t use condoms, making the drug a pragmatic tool for preventing HIV infection. PrEP should complement established safer sex techniques, these proponents argue, and provide protection that is currently lacking for those who do not use condoms.

4. PrEP has not been as widely adopted as public health officials expected

When PrEP was first declared a viable treatment, many public health officials expected a stampede of people demanding the drug.

As Dr. Robert Grant, the lead scientist of the National Institutes of Health study that demonstrated Truvada&#;s efficacy in preventing HIV transmission, told The New Yorker:

The evening before we announced, we had meetings with the leadership of public health in California, and they were thinking, as we were, that there was going to be a rush, that everyone was going to descend on the clinics.

But despite the fact that an estimated half million Americans could be good candidates for PrEP treatment, relatively few actually take Truvada.

The drug&#;s manufacturer, Gilead Sciences Inc., says that in reviewing records from about half of U.S. pharmacies that dispensed Truvada between January 1, , and March 31, , it found that only 3,253 people had started the PrEP regimen during that period.

Various factors have been cited as contributing to the low numbers of people using PrEP, including  criticism from groups like the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the drug&#;s high cost and the fact that Gilead hasn&#;t actively marketed the drug for use in preventing HIV.

5. Truvada use has been stigmatized by some members of the gay community

Another possible reason for Truvada&#;s limited use is that PrEP users have been criticized by some in the gay community, who have labeled them &#;Truvada whores.&#;

These critics argue that many who use the drug see it as en excuse to engage in unsafe sexual practices, and that encouraging people to use PrEP is tantamount to giving them permission to have sex without condoms.

6. Truvada is expensive &#; it costs about $ per month, but it is covered under most insurance plans and the drug&#;s manufacturer offers payment assistance

Without insurance, PrEP costs about $ per month, plus the added expenses of office visits and lab work. But most insurance providers cover at least part of the drug&#;s cost, since it is generally cheaper to pay for prevention than to cover the costs of treating people infected with HIV.

Gilead offers payment assistance for those who don&#;t have insurance, or who have unaffordable co-pays.

7. Truvada has some negative side effects

Truvada can have a number of adverse side effects, including lactic acidosis, a dangerous buildup of lactic acid in the bloodstream, liver problems, kidney issues &#; including kidney failure &#; and bone density loss.

So far, no evidence of bone density loss had been found in people taking Truvada to prevent HIV, though it has been seen in those who take it to suppress the virus.

8. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has advocated for PrEP use 

Gov. Cuomo has made PrEP use a central part of his plan to end the state&#;s HIV epidemic by , making him one of the first high-profile U.S. politicians to advocate its use.

New York has made good progress in reducing HIV infection rates among most high-risk groups, including drug users. But progress in reducing infections among gay men has been slow.

Encouraging condom use has been the cornerstone of New York&#;s past risk-prevention efforts. And while the state will still aggressively encourage condom use, the promotion of PrEP may be intended to help prevent infections in people who refuse to use condoms, or who use them irregularly.

Asked by The New York Times why Gov. Cuomo decided to make PrEP part of his anti-HIV efforts, an unnamed top administration official said, &#;Some people use condoms, some people don&#;t. You can&#;t offer condoms to people who don&#;t want them.&#;

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