Upgrade from Triton

**Prle77** · 7th August 2012, 12:45 AM

Heya Tiger
I went down the same path of upgrading the Triton set
Got the Carbatec contractor saw
Same reasons.. renting property and don't have 15Amp in garage
Been using it for few months now..
well good things
quite solid
takes dado blades (bought them but yet to try them out)

tilts 45 degrees (main reason why I have decided to upgrade from triton)
quite easy to align it (as every saw, factory alignment is not really up to scratch)

bad things
fence is less than ordinary so recommend upgrade of the fence
the guard is absolute rubbish... (still looking at a good replacement with vaccum hose connector)
Measurement on the fence... inaccurate at best... Fixed it by mounting digital fence (best investment ever.. accurate to 0.1 mm and it can do inches too for those who are more into imperials)

Overall
for the $$$ it is pretty good machine..
wouldn't mind a bit more powerful motor but for my needs it is sufficient
the mitre could be a bit more precise.. mine came about 2 degrees out...
I've got mine from carbatec when it was on special (they chucked 2 x CMT blades in the package)
very quiet (especially comparing to the triton setup)

it may also be a good idea to install wheel base.. makes it much easier to move around (if required)

Install is pretty straight forward... instruction manual is pretty good
Recommend buying dust collector.. (I've got the 1HP one from carbatec too which does the job)

Cutting smaller pieces is very smooth and easy... large pannels (like 2400x1200 sheet) are a bit more difficult.. (i've made expansion support table for those panels) but the guard is spitting dust towards you big time when cutting them (thus my need of replacing it with different one with an vacuum outlet.

Also guard is very anoying. constantly falls down by itself (fixed problem a bit by sticking a bit of double sided tape but still not sufficiently stable..) also it wobbles so much that it is actually possible to push it sideways by accident and saw will catch it...

**Tiger** · 9th August 2012, 01:50 PM

Thanks PRLE, really appreciate that analysis especially good vs bad points but it looks like a few after-sale items required to get some precision. Are you happy with the sort of precision you're getting? Tilting the blade is probably the number one reason I would upgrade as well, amazing how many times I wished I had the ability to do this.

**Prle77** · 9th August 2012, 09:05 PM

Heya Tiger
to be honest... original fence and measurement are sufficiently precise for a standard cutting job...
I do have to admit that I have replaced the original blade with CMT blade (so it might have bit of thickness related offset... I doubt it but you never know

)
But in my case the measurement strip was off about 2 mm which would be more than difference in blade thickness.. so effectively you can get it precise as long as you take those 2 mm into account (ie setting the fence to 602 instead of 600)
What I don't like with the measurement was that measuring lines are bloody thick.. as in almost 2mm thick....

Being in IT and gadget / digital tech geek.. I've decided to move onto the most precise option and that is installing digital fence... it is accurate to 10th of the mm...
I could've done it on a cheaper by purchasing self adhesive measurement tape (carbatec sells them for i think $5which will sort out precision issue) but me being a newbie in woodworking (as in cabinetmaking stuff) I need all the help I can get...

All in all.. i'm quite happy with the saw... It is quite hard to find something that is super duper in table saws and still runs on 10A...
Anything that was catching my eye in terms of features, quality etc (predominantly features) was running on 15A
So 10A is quite limited..

There are smaller saw like Bosch and Makita which are more portable than this baby but they were more expensive and you can forget about trying to rip plywood sheet.. Mainly due to having much smaller table surface and not enough height
This saw handles plywood sheet quite nice.. and it was very easy to quickly build sheet support frame around it. the biggest downfall of the carbatec saw is the guard

I have spoken to the salesperson at carbatec (PS VERY HAPPY with their service.. all questions answered, and happy to provide any information)

Unfortunately we couldn't find any guards with vacuum outlet which would fit the saw...
Thinking of attempting to bend some clear perspex into the shape place hole for the vacuum and fit it as a guard... (still in planning process)

**Tiger** · 10th August 2012, 01:50 PM

Originally Posted by Prle77

There are smaller saw like Bosch and Makita which are more portable than this baby but they were more expensive and you can forget about trying to rip plywood sheet.. Mainly due to having much smaller table surface and not enough height

I had a look at these at Bunnies and I like the portability but they have universal motors and had a very limited ripping capability otherwise I would have probably gone for one of these.

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