Thread: Cannot rout in a straight line - what am i doing wrong ?

Have you checked that the bit is tight in the collet. If it isn't , the bit can raise & fall

Inconsistant process can produce that sort of result. Are you machining off the flattest surface?

Welcome to the forums,

There are a number of things to check. As skot says, the fixing of the bit is one, though if not tight, my experience is they can come out (dangerously). Another is whether the router is firmly fixed in the table. Does the fence move around? Is it all square?

I am not very experienced with the Triton table, but the few times I tried a mates old one the top flexed and moved a bit - led to lack of accuracy. That was the reason I didn't buy one. I built my own table with a thick 40 or 50 mm top of marine ply laminated and a big solid fence - it works much better than the old Triton table set-up. I use a Triton router in it though.

Is the router new or old? If old there could be some run-out in the bearing contributing to the problem.

No experience with the Triton tables either, but a few people here and on routerforums (US) have had similar issues and a solution for a lot of them has been to set the bit height by whatever means suits and then to lock the height with the plunge lock. Provided that the lock is working properly, it should avoid the height changing due to vibration etc during the cut.

Hi,
Are you sure your material is not slightly twisted?
Regards

I had the same issues with my Triton,the table flexed and i never got a consistent result even using all the hold downs ,my table was one of the very first models
Sorry to give you that news,I bought a cast iron table one from Carbatec,(it wasn't that expensive)have not looked back I can now get repeatable cuts

thanks guys - will double check the tightness of the bit ( been in & out about 200 times ! )
but i'm afraid nrb may be correct - pressed steel vs cast iron
Fathers Day this weekend - I may be too late !!
thanks for the replies
Allan

I dumped my Triton including the router table for the exact reasons here... have to say as a beginner it was a great place to start, but then as your skills build, the shorcomings become apparent..A huge improvement could be made cheaply by sourcing some 40mm "laminex" covered board, even as an offcut from a benchtop builder, and mounting the router to the bottom of that...solid and flat; the top two things you need...