Thread: New or Secondhand - Advice sought

Originally Posted by LS 11

First post - apologies if this is covered elsewhere

As a parttime "garage" woodworker Im looking at the WC2000 and the router table. All up from Bunnings it comes to around $1000 for what i want, So the question is...

Do I cough up the 1K or buy it secondhand (e-bay, trading post)

How is the longevity of Triton WC2000

Any other thoughts, feel free to post here

Notice the word "garage' woodworker if thats the case the Triton would suit as he can just push oit out of the way when bringing the car in

'Longevity" man they'll dig these up with dinasoirs.

Until they are told that the Triton workcentre works best with the Triton saw.

Who tells them that? Someone who knows what they are talking about, or someone who works for Bunnings? No-one ever said that to me, my Makita works just fine.

If they are logical then they wouldn’t have bought a Triton in the first place.

Can't let you get away with that. When I bought mine, it was the most logical purchase to make. If I had bought a Wongo brand tablesaw, I would have had to take everything to the shed every time I needed to use it. I wouldn't have been able to set it up in the house next to the job or outside next to the pile of timber. I still would have needed a decent circular saw, so add that to the cost of a tablesaw.

What's not logical is going into Bunnings and buying the workcentre, a Triton saw and all the attachments without first checking what you could get a decent tablesaw for, and then making an informed decision, based on your budget, work space, and portability requirements.

Let's be serious here... must have some amazing foresight to go the pro table saw as a first purchase. OK for a tradie but surley not your average weekend hack. I started with a nasty GMC table saw (1/2 price and mitre 10 and sold it a year later for the same price!!!) and have moved on to a WC 2000 and a makita saw (it works fine). I'd love a full blown set up but the car windows get iced up in winter.....

Good point - forgot that. I actually started with a tiny GMC thingy that cost $99. Needed it to build balustrades for my deck, and had no powertools. Cost of hiring something was more than buying the GMC, so I figured - good warranty, cheaper, can't go wrong.

Built the balustrades, saw lasted the job and more so bonus! It still works - 6 years on. I've converted it into a disk sander now (yeah- with the Triton disk thing).

Sure there are better options now - a $100 drop saw would have been better, but they weren't $100 back in 2001!! Man, have times changed in the powertool market in the last 6 years!!!!

Which does pick up the point Wongo made a couple of posts back.

But even now, as Silent pointed out - storage, portability, and using existing tools, even now, the Workcentre has its place.

I tutor woodworking, and occasionally do that 1 on 1, on site at a person's home. Can't do that with a Supersaw.

Do I want a cabinet saw - **** yes!! But I won't get a $500 one, or a $1000 one. I will go from my Triton to one in the $1500 - $2500 range. Because I have learned enough to get something out of upgrading properly.

Frustrating / hard to operate? No, I don't understand that - I have no problem setting up my Triton, on location, and ripping a board 127mm wide (or whatever). So I can't tilt the blade - perhaps my woodworking is too basic compared to everyone else, but I've only needed that a couple of times over the years. If I had it as a built-in feature, perhaps I'd use it more! Of course, I've never had an opportunity to use a cast-iron TS - perhaps I better avoid them like the plague until I can afford one of my own, otherwise my tune may change to something more anguished!!!

Originally Posted by Wongo

Why do people always say "you shuld start with a Triton and as your knowledge grows you upgrade to a real tablesaw?" Does it mean Triton is easier to operate then a tablesaw? I thought it was the opposite. Or do you learn it the hard way and you experience all the frustration which makes your decision to buy a real tablesaw easier?

Stuart, don’t get me wrong. I agree with what you said. After all there are a few of you out there. How much did a cast iron table saw cost when you started? Yes, what you said worked years ago. Nowadays there are plenty of better options out there.

To me, I upgraded right from the beginning. That put me WELL ahead.

Rant on

Wongo, by your own admission you have never owned a Triton, hence may I respectfully suggest you therefore don't know what you are talking about?

I, like many others here on the forum, Sturdee, Silentc etc etc, have or are using a Triton Workcentre.
I have done things with my original Triton Mk3 that your Jet tablesaw will never be able to do. I have recessed all the studs in my houseboat frame, as well as my house fram, both top and biottom, using the overhead Makita router with 35mm bit. I have cut all the studs to length using the overhead saw mode, try cutting 2.7m studs on your Jet tablesaw. Likewise there are things you can do on your Jet tablesaw, that no one will be able to match on their Triton.

I have for years successfully used a 235mm Makita saw in the Triton, long before the Triton saw was ever thought of.

The Triton, especially the WC2000, is an excellent tool for what it was designed, it is portable, very accurate and can do things a tablesaw cannot. It is easily transported, try transporting your Jet tablesaw to a houseboat on the Murray, it is easily stored away when not required (some people actually like parking their car in the garage!)

To bag the Triton Workcentre like you are, especially when it isn't based on fact or personal experience, does a disservice to the people that are asking for assistance in their purchasing decisions.

At one stage I would like to try scrollsawing. To this end I purchased a cheap ($79) GMC scrollsaw, if I had asked your opinion you would have had me go out and buy a $1000plus Hegner, just on the off chance I might actually like scrollsawing.

Please try and keep a bit of realism in your replies and people would be a lot better served.

End of rant.

by your own admission you have never owned a Triton

That's not strictly true

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Wongo, by your own admission you have never owned a Triton, hence may I respectfully suggest you therefore don't know what you are talking about?

Gotcha!

Yes I have never owned a Triton but who told you that I have never dealt with a Triton?

OR maybe I did but I just returned the lot after 2 weeks. This is what the guy at Bunnings said "I will take them all back. That will teach them a lesson"

I have seen the video a number of times too. There is something incorrect in the video but I won’t tell you which part.

Originally Posted by Wongo

Gotcha!

Yes I have never owned a Triton but who told you that I have never dealt with a Triton?

OR maybe I did but I just returned the lot after 2 weeks.

In that case, you DID own a Triton and you told a fib.

Originally Posted by Wongo

This is what the guy at Bunnings said "I will take them all back. That will teach them a lesson"

So now we have to judge Triton on "what the guy at Bunnings said"?

Please

Originally Posted by Wongo

I have seen the video a number of times too. There is something incorrect in the video but I won’t tell you which part.

Nahna, nanah!!!

I see you are 37 years old, but that sounds more like a 7 year old!

No need to get personal Mr.

As a happy Triton Workcentre owner, who will probably buy a good table saw some day, I will weigh in and say:

1. Buy a good second hand tRITON - unless it has been really badly abused, the Triton will be as good now as it was when it was bought.
2. Do take account of the cost of a saw, but only if you don't already have one.
3. As well as the portability, the cross cut facility is really useful for construction - so the comparison with a table saw means that you also need to add a SCMS to the price of the table saw.
4. It does fit in a garage with a car.
5. You can upgrade it with jigs and stuff so that it is almost as good as a table saw.

Do take account of the cost of a saw

To my mind, that's like taking into account the cost of a router when you buy a router table. Yes the router table is useless without it but you can use the router out of the table. The Workcentre is an accessory for your saw, not the other way around. When you sell the Workcentre, you can keep the saw, it's like selling a router table. Would you sell it with the router?

I know a lot of guys go in and buy both at once, but if you bought a table saw, would you still have a use for a circular saw? I say yes. So the Triton can be a cheap way to get into it. You have a circular saw that you can use hand-held or with a straight-edge for breaking up large sheets etc. You have a workcentre that you can use in combination with your circular saw to achieve the same results you would get with a table saw. You can also use your workcentre in cross cut mode to achieve the same results you would get with an SCMS.

When you sell the Triton, you still have the circular saw, which is a handy tool in it's own right.

Originally Posted by silentC

To my mind, that's like taking into account the cost of a router when you buy a router table. Yes the router table is useless without it but you can use the router out of the table. The Workcentre is an accessory for your saw, not the other way around. When you sell the Workcentre, you can keep the saw, it's like selling a router table. Would you sell it with the router?

I haven't owned a Triton WC, but all the blokes that I've talked to that have owned them said it's best to leave the saw in there.

Same deal with a router table. Advice to me has been "Get a plunge router for handheld use, and a big one for the table".

It seems that in actual use it's more hassle to keep removing the saw from the Triton than it is to just buy another circular saw...

On a tangential note, the point about buying a secondhand WC and selling it for roughly the price you bought it for also holds true with the hobbyist range tablesaws. You lose money with either if you buy new.

Originally Posted by jisk

It seems that in actual use it's more hassle to keep removing the saw from the Triton than it is to just buy another circular saw...

That was true with the MK3, but with the WC2000 it is very easy to take the saw out and put it back, without losing accuracy.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

That was true with the MK3, but with the WC2000 it is very easy to take the saw out and put it back, without losing accuracy.

Ah right. I wasn't aware of that.