Thread: Trc001

Spare parts are now available online from Toolsparesonline.com - link from the Triton.com.au website.

Bearings .... presumably sourced by the Manufacturer in Taiwan too.

Chris

Originally Posted by Interwood

...
Bearings .... presumably sourced by the Manufacturer in Taiwan too.

Chris

So the the entire router is made in Taiwan?

I believe that to be correct. I just checked the Manufacturer's product label on my MOF001 1400W router - it says Made in Taiwan to Triton design and specification.

My TRA001 was purchased in Jan 2002 and is still going strong. So I don't think they have used cheap low quality components - " Made to Triton specifications"

Have a look at this - Kreg Tools new US Distributor.

I just took another look at my tag in better lighting. It too says Made in Taiwan. The type for the MIT line is extremely small & somewhat hard to notice also because of the position of the handle and where the statement is located on the tag.

I purchased my TRC001 early this year I believe. Possibly late last year. It's the crank handle design & I got it on sale. I presume to clear that old model out. I'm still happy with it so far, but the longevity is almost certainy going to be an issue if Chinese bearings were used, and surely they were having been manufactured in Taiwan.

I had my hopes up for a while at least. Than ks for the info.

The TRA001 routers were produced by the DURQ Corporation in Taiwan. It's safe to say that they never were manufactured in Australia, although the design and concepts may have originated there. In the past, DURQ displayed the TRA router on its products page of their website, albeit in DURQ colours. Nowadays, they only show five saws, but they still manufacture for other brands.

DURQ make their own motors, so I'd guess that they might possibly make the bearings too, but I can't confirm this.

Earlier on, their was a flourish of publicity regarding CMT taking over the manufacture, but the pictures they showed on their site were bogus and I've heard nothing else about the CMT7E model since.

I've had my TRA001 for >9 years now, with no sign of bearing problems. Of course, that doesn't guarantee anything!

Ray

Mr Texas Timbers,
The history of Triton products, as understand/remember, ( and I will step aside here for anyone to correct me) was initiated by a very clever engineer who made up components to house every day power tools, circular saw,router, jigsaw and the like so those tools could be used as "bench" models by handymen who only had occasional use for the tools. His thinking was that lots of handy men had the hand held tools but did not have the space/money to set up their workshop to warrant dedicated bench models. He started manufacturing in Australia then sourced manufacturing facilities in Asia to be competitive and be able to make more money. The set ups were an evolutionary thing as he developed his ideas. For a handy man his concepts fitted in well with his inventions. As time went on he diversified a little and got into the manufacture of his own line of routers and power saws (there could be others?)
Eventually he was bought out by GMC and that's when things went bad for his products As the GMC flagship started to sink in the world of high finance and changing markets.
Its good to see them back on the market again because his products were well thought out and worked quite well
There are a lot of companies with a very similar story that never got that second chance after being taken over by a big conglomerate

Ray & Cham,

Thanks for the detailed information. The history of the company is very interesting, and I guess pretty much the status quo for most companies for the past several decades.

I manufacture a jig and I would make more profit by having it made in China, and I even looked into it. I would more than double my net profit by doing so. But I just can't force myself to do it. I guess I'll just keep on making them right here in Texas, and driving a 10 year old truck instead of a new shiny one. Suits me just fine - it's been paid for, for 9 years and runs like new.

Thanks again for the great info.

Chambezio, that was pretty close,

It was targeted at the trade market for onsite use, with the old ABC show "The inventors" featuring it.. Initial models were fairly basic and crude, I have seen a Mk2 model where the rip fence only had one adjusting bolt in the middle instead of each end. I also has an early Mk3 which had provision for a router in the middle. THe instruction manual for taht even had various jigs taht you could make to extend its use, which they no longer added to teh newer manuals

It did slowly evolve over time from those early days. Hills also owned Triton for a time, before GMC.

The original saw was a remake of another brand, I think it was a Ruckman. It had the same body and a normal style base plate, the Triton had the base that had alll the micro adjusters added.

Hills were the ones who bought the company from its founder & ran it into the ground - no repairs to the production jigs making the various benches, got rid of all the R&D staff (then found out that Triton did not own all the designs, the staff owned some like the SuperJaws) & moved as much as possible off shore.

When they saw that they were going to be unable to keep pumping money out of Triton, they sold it to GMC who tried to get things going again - paid for repairs & new jigging for the benches, new products etc. Unfortunately GMC got caught by the Oz version of the Borg, who ordered tens of millions of dollars worth of tools, didn't pay anything up front & then cancelled the order when it was ready for shipping - which is why there was a lot of GMC product going very cheap for a while, as they slid under.