Triton Workstation Needed

[Barry Burgess]

Well, I just spoke to phil, and he's going to dispatch it today, all for £78 thats a saving of over £30 compared to machine mart.

Thanks for the info Barry!!

Glad I could help

 

[ByronBlack]

Thought i'd follow this up now that the item has arrived. I've since installed the saw, I have a few mixed feelings - i'll be doing a more in-depth review at somepoint.

Bad Points:
- The egde was slightly dented which makes one side of the fence sliding extension a little harder to move than the other side, tried persauding the dent without much luck.

- The clamp system is just rubbish, the carriage bolts supplied had poor thread and the nuts refused to tighten, the space to get a spanner is limited and proved to be an extremely frustrating experience. I had to replace all the bolts and nut and only make do with three clamps as my hitachi saw has a knob that gets in the way of one, there are no other places for the clamp.

- Missing Powerlead, the item didn't come with the female to male power-lead that is needed to use the safety switches, only a minor glitch but it would have been nice to have been provided one so that I could use the unit. Will phone Woodworking Center about this.

Good Points:
- It's really heavy and sturdy, which gives me confidence in its use.

- Nice colour

- It's quite portable despite it's decent weight

- The mitre/protractor is nice and doesn't rattle in its slot, also comes with a nice guide rail contraption.

- The fence when clamped is very sturdy and generally square, its out by a tiny fraction, but not a lot to make a difference.

- It only cost £65 + VAT & Carriage.

Overall i'm happy with the purchase now that I have gotten past the annoying clamping system, i've yet however to actually test it with any cuts due to the lack of the correct power-lead, when I get it fully operational, i'll add a more in-depth review.

 

[George_N]

I've just bought the Triton 2000 Workcentre, partly as a result of the good comments I read on this forum. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to get one on ebay I got impatient and picked one up at my local B&Q. Overall first impressions are that this is a very good piece of kit for the money. I have installed my Makita 190 mm saw and after a bit of fiddling around to get it aligned right it gives very good results. The fence is rock solid and the protractor/mitre gauge seems solid too. All I have done with it so far is to cut some birch plywood panels for a router table I am making (from the plans in 'Woodworking with the router' by Bill Hilton) and I have been impressed with how clean and accurate the cuts are, much better than I can achieve using the same saw hand-held with a cutting guide. I also bought the blade height winding kit and have added the dust collector bucket which will collect some sawdust from above the table. It still produces loads of sawdust under the table and I will need to address that before I start building my kitchen units. Hopefully I will be able to post more as I get used to the setup.

cheers

George

 

[ByronBlack]

George,

Thanks for your views on your new triton, its defintily an accurate piece of kit. Did you get a female to male power-cable with your unit?

 

[George_N]

Hy Byron,
yes the Workcentre came wired up and ready to go. There is a short lead with a plug that goes from my extension lead to the main switch and a short trailing socket from the switch to plug the saw into.

George

 

[ByronBlack]

Looks like mine did have the cable missing then, I wasn't sure if I had to get a cable seperatly for the unit, but after what you've said I'm sure I should have been supplied with one.

Thanks.

 

[Barry Burgess]

I also bought the blade height winding kit and have added the dust collector bucket which will collect some sawdust from above the table. It still produces loads of sawdust under the table and I will need to address that before I start building my kitchen units. H

cheers

George

I have the dust bag attached with some double sided tap to prevent leaks
It collects most of the dust.(a must.
You should consider doing the "peter the Jig" modification to the dust bucket as it works much better. If you want details contact me directly

 

[ByronBlack]

Just phoned Phil at woodworking centre, and assures me the compact doesn't come with a cable, but luckily can supply one.

I have a small problem with mine however, I started to do some cuts with it today, and found that when ripping wood, the two pieces after the blade don't pass the guard piece and just butt up against it.

The saw seems to be aligned correctly. However i'm going to order a triton blade from Phil to see if this rectifies things as I think the blade on my current hitachi might be creating a kerf that is too thin to pass the guard.

Anyone else have a similar problem?

 

[wizer]

I found that my saw gaurd tilted a little to one side, this was causing similar problems, gently bent the metal back until it was square to the table. Seems to be ok now.

 

[Barry Burgess]

The kerf of the blade has to be 2.8mm to pass the guard but often it is the the guard is not straight as WiZer said. check both

 

[ByronBlack]

I will certainly check that, thanks guy's. Although I've just measured the blade on my hitachi circular saw, and the blade is 2.0mm wide exactly, so i'm assuming this is part of the problem.

I will order the triton blade from Phil, and will also check the squareness of the guard to make sure.

Cheers for the input.

 

[George_N]

Barry,
thanks for the link to the dust collector upgrade, very interesting. Since I've just paid £30 for the dust bucket I'm not sure I want to start hacking it to bits just yet but I might try and source some cheap plastic buckets and have a go at making a mini cyclone to the same sort of design.

cheers

George

 

[Barry Burgess]

Barry,
thanks for the link to the dust collector upgrade, very interesting. Since I've just paid £30 for the dust bucket I'm not sure I want to start hacking it to bits just yet but I might try and source some cheap plastic buckets and have a go at making a mini cyclone to the same sort of design.

cheers

George

It takes about an hour to do. I bought a large funnel from a home brew shop and cut it to fit on the band saw. I like you were not sure if I should do it so I bought a demo bucket with all the tubing missing of a tenner
Works very well.

 

[ByronBlack]

So, I get the triton blade today from 'woodworking centre', looking foward to finally using my saw table, and it turns out to be too big of a diameter! AHH!

Will I ever get to use this setup? Something is telling me I should have gone for a dedicated Tablesaw like a Scheppach ;(

 

[Barry Burgess]

So, I get the triton blade today from 'woodworking centre', looking foward to finally using my saw table, and it turns out to be too big of a diameter! AHH!

Will I ever get to use this setup? Something is telling me I should have gone for a dedicated Tablesaw like a Scheppach ;(

Dont give up you will get it working.
The main advantage of Triton over a table saw is its portability and its ease to be packed away. Tell Phil your saw make and he will get you a blade to fit
Barry

 

[ByronBlack]

Aye, will do, I was just frustrated as it's been a couple of weeks that i've been needing to use a table-saw.

Hopefully with a new blade i'll finally get it all lined up and ready to use. I do like the system though, just some how feel it could all be a little easier to setup.

 

[Barry Burgess]

I setup my first Triton WC next to the TV so I could check the video at the same time. It was a pain running between the workshop and the TV to check on the video. SWSBO was not impressed as I was about to do my test cuts indoors. Since then I have seldom referred back to the video and have setup a few WC's

 

[wizer]

I agree Byron, Don't give up! I was of the 'It Should Just Work' school of thought. I am slowly realising that this is not the correct way of thinking. You will find that 9all woodworking equipment needs quite labourious setting up and fine tuning. This is part of what makes you a good woodworker. Having said that, I have found the Trition setup to be reasonably easy. I still have some problems but as Barry says, the Triton is all about portability and multifunctionality. The engineering that as gone into Triton products is amazing when you think about it's competitiors.

Stick at it mate

 

[ByronBlack]

Thanks for the words of encouragment, much appreciated.

I can definitly see the product for all its positives, and I can see me either buying more triton gear or atleast modifying my current stuff and i'm sure I will have it for a long while.

But for some reason, I seem to be getting overly frustrated with this, I'm quite happy to setup my bandsaw, jointers, routers, drill-press etc, but this triton just seems to irk a part of my personality.

However, as already said, the engineering is excellent and i'm very much looking forward to really putting this puppy to use.