Waldo
9th May 2009, 11:11 PM
G'day,
Two things have always bugged me about the Triton TRA-001:
• the micro-adjust, I've often spent more time trying to get the height I want with it than it takes me to run the stock through. As the micro-adjust had a mind of its own and might up or drop suddenly by 3 to 5mm; and
• the lever to lock the router to its set height. Sometimes it would drop height midway through routing.
Both for me were a real PITA.
Then one day I spoke with Grahame at PWS about the Unilift with the Wixey digital read out. They cost a pretty penny - $615 for the Unilift and a further $148 for the Wixey read out. It was the answer to my problems and would mean less time stuffing around and more time being productive.
So one day I got them.
The following is my experience.
1. what you get in the box.
2. On first observations this is a very nicely machined bit and rock solid. I'd expect to be able to pass this on to the little bloke one day (if he wants my gear) it's one of those things that is built like a truck.
3. The assembly instructions for fitting the router to the Unilift plate are dead simple to follow. However not everything is laid out and I messed up and mounted the plate wrongly orientated to the router as I was later to find out and spent ages trying to figure out what I'd done wrong. I later figured out when I had the Unilift in the table why I could get full height out of it as the rods where stopping when they hit against the cumbersome handles of the router.
I should have turned the mounting plate 90º clockwise to what I had done. :doh:
4. Router mounted the correct way.
1st snag:
There are two sets of instructions for mounting the Wixey to the Unilift; those from Woodpecker and from Professional Woodworking Supplies for retro fitting the Wixey to Unilifts (prior to the Digital ready Unilift). Not doing a retro fit I followed the Woodpecker instructions, until I hit a snag.
The Woodpecker instructions say to mount the elbow bracket which mounts either to the underside of the table or to the underside of the Unilift (for which you will need to tap a thread). The bracket in the W/pecker diagram shows it mounted with its slot facing in towards the Unilift, which I did.
To check things I assembled the Wixey for a test run. The readout was going haywire and it had me stumped. So I gave up for the night. That night, trying to sleep, I worked out the problem. With the elbow bracket mounted as per the W/pecker instructions it was against the green circuit board read out thingy (it's called something :shrug: ) Grahame's instructions say to mount the bracket out the readout with the slot facing away from the Unilift - problem solved. :2tsup:
The next hurdle I hit was mounting the readout to the Unilift.
There are two spots predrilled to mount the r/out to. All you have to do is tap it to the thread size of your choosing. I had an M5 tap. I first tapped the left post, bit after a bit of messing about I found out it was fruitless. As I couldn't get in under the table and bend my arm in three places to mount the r/out.
So I tapped the right side.
I chose to mount the r/out to the underside of the table, as to mount it to the underside of the Unilift I had to do so at least 10mm in from the edge of the Unilift so that was clear of the lip where the Unilift mounts into the table.
4a and 4b. This was possible but it meant the bracket would be bolted under where the chain runs. I tapped a thread to try this out just to see how this might work. The mounting screw for the bracket just kissed against the chain, but it meant the bracket had to face slot towards the Unilift, opposite to which was written in the instructions from PWS. So I went back to my initial method of mounting.
2nd snag:
Taking into consideration the depth of the PWS table top and position of the pre-drilled hole in the right post the mounting brackets to mount both to the Unilift and underside of the table wouldn't do the job. So with a lot more working out possible solutions I made up some extensions for the brackets.
5. Not pretty, but it works - after all it's meant to do a job nothing else.
6. Everything put together and mounted in the r/table.
7.and 8 A Slot cut into the access door to pass the coax through which attaches to the readout. And mounted to the top edge of the door for easy reading. The readout is very clear and legible, even for those of challenged sight :U It even reads to 100ths of a mm in increments of 5, eg. 11.95
9. There a two features of the plate I found very handy.
At bottom right there is a lock to lock the router to the preset height when in use. It's unlocked when changing height. Marked on the right side of the plate is a rule which marks 0 showing the centre of the plate, which is very handy, especially if you are going to mount an Incra LS on your router table :; and also too, for finding the centre of the bit when setting your fence up.
Conclusions.
The Unilift is beautifully built and strong. Operation is smooth and precise with each full revolution being 1.6mm? (correct me if wrong, but going from memory) Pricey? Yes, but for what it does, what it saves me in time and stuffing around with what I have found as shortcomings in the Triton, and for how well it's been thought out in it's simplicity and engineering - it's a beautiful thing.
I haven't done a review to go over ground that you can read for yourself, for that you can read more at http://www.woodworksupplies.com.au/prod44.htm
Two things have always bugged me about the Triton TRA-001:
• the micro-adjust, I've often spent more time trying to get the height I want with it than it takes me to run the stock through. As the micro-adjust had a mind of its own and might up or drop suddenly by 3 to 5mm; and
• the lever to lock the router to its set height. Sometimes it would drop height midway through routing.
Both for me were a real PITA.
Then one day I spoke with Grahame at PWS about the Unilift with the Wixey digital read out. They cost a pretty penny - $615 for the Unilift and a further $148 for the Wixey read out. It was the answer to my problems and would mean less time stuffing around and more time being productive.
So one day I got them.
The following is my experience.
1. what you get in the box.
2. On first observations this is a very nicely machined bit and rock solid. I'd expect to be able to pass this on to the little bloke one day (if he wants my gear) it's one of those things that is built like a truck.
3. The assembly instructions for fitting the router to the Unilift plate are dead simple to follow. However not everything is laid out and I messed up and mounted the plate wrongly orientated to the router as I was later to find out and spent ages trying to figure out what I'd done wrong. I later figured out when I had the Unilift in the table why I could get full height out of it as the rods where stopping when they hit against the cumbersome handles of the router.
I should have turned the mounting plate 90º clockwise to what I had done. :doh:
4. Router mounted the correct way.
1st snag:
There are two sets of instructions for mounting the Wixey to the Unilift; those from Woodpecker and from Professional Woodworking Supplies for retro fitting the Wixey to Unilifts (prior to the Digital ready Unilift). Not doing a retro fit I followed the Woodpecker instructions, until I hit a snag.
The Woodpecker instructions say to mount the elbow bracket which mounts either to the underside of the table or to the underside of the Unilift (for which you will need to tap a thread). The bracket in the W/pecker diagram shows it mounted with its slot facing in towards the Unilift, which I did.
To check things I assembled the Wixey for a test run. The readout was going haywire and it had me stumped. So I gave up for the night. That night, trying to sleep, I worked out the problem. With the elbow bracket mounted as per the W/pecker instructions it was against the green circuit board read out thingy (it's called something :shrug: ) Grahame's instructions say to mount the bracket out the readout with the slot facing away from the Unilift - problem solved. :2tsup:
The next hurdle I hit was mounting the readout to the Unilift.
There are two spots predrilled to mount the r/out to. All you have to do is tap it to the thread size of your choosing. I had an M5 tap. I first tapped the left post, bit after a bit of messing about I found out it was fruitless. As I couldn't get in under the table and bend my arm in three places to mount the r/out.
So I tapped the right side.
I chose to mount the r/out to the underside of the table, as to mount it to the underside of the Unilift I had to do so at least 10mm in from the edge of the Unilift so that was clear of the lip where the Unilift mounts into the table.
4a and 4b. This was possible but it meant the bracket would be bolted under where the chain runs. I tapped a thread to try this out just to see how this might work. The mounting screw for the bracket just kissed against the chain, but it meant the bracket had to face slot towards the Unilift, opposite to which was written in the instructions from PWS. So I went back to my initial method of mounting.
2nd snag:
Taking into consideration the depth of the PWS table top and position of the pre-drilled hole in the right post the mounting brackets to mount both to the Unilift and underside of the table wouldn't do the job. So with a lot more working out possible solutions I made up some extensions for the brackets.
5. Not pretty, but it works - after all it's meant to do a job nothing else.
6. Everything put together and mounted in the r/table.
7.and 8 A Slot cut into the access door to pass the coax through which attaches to the readout. And mounted to the top edge of the door for easy reading. The readout is very clear and legible, even for those of challenged sight :U It even reads to 100ths of a mm in increments of 5, eg. 11.95
9. There a two features of the plate I found very handy.
At bottom right there is a lock to lock the router to the preset height when in use. It's unlocked when changing height. Marked on the right side of the plate is a rule which marks 0 showing the centre of the plate, which is very handy, especially if you are going to mount an Incra LS on your router table :; and also too, for finding the centre of the bit when setting your fence up.
Conclusions.
The Unilift is beautifully built and strong. Operation is smooth and precise with each full revolution being 1.6mm? (correct me if wrong, but going from memory) Pricey? Yes, but for what it does, what it saves me in time and stuffing around with what I have found as shortcomings in the Triton, and for how well it's been thought out in it's simplicity and engineering - it's a beautiful thing.
I haven't done a review to go over ground that you can read for yourself, for that you can read more at http://www.woodworksupplies.com.au/prod44.htm