Thread: Help needed to decide which new router table

Originally Posted by Dodgyboy

I am in need of a new router and router table. Since the budget won't stretch to a festool I have decided on a Triton TRA001.
I need help with which table to buy.
Option 1 Kreg benchtop unit
Option 2 Triton RTA300
Which one would you all suggest any comments both good and bad appreciated.

Triton router is GOOD, Triton router table is BAD

If you are on a tight budget, why not look at some of the online plans available on the net and build your own. It can be dirt cheap and you will learn a lot about what is important and what is not. then when you have saved up a few dollars you will know what is important for you. You can get a very high degree of accuracy from a home-made table.

I had the Triton router table and I had the big Triton router in it. I still have the triton router (x2) but I sold the table on a few years back. When I sold on the router table I kept the table on/off switch. It is now on my Incra table. For me, Incra is the only way to go. Others may differ.

Cheers

Doug

I have the Triton and it works ok. I ended up making the mdf fence from one piece rather than two separate pieces as the two were misaligned slightly otherwise.

Picked up mine including the stand in good condtion for $100 off gumtree.

Hey there. I'll throw in my experience for whatever it's worth. I have owned the rta300 in the past and I found two big things annoyed me over time. The top is just too busy. With the big gaping hole in the top for the crosscut mdf to slid across i just filled it in with a bit of scrap mdf to get a flat surface for my work to slide across.. Then the legs, they are to light weight and can have a habit of jumping around and because they protrude on an angle I found myself knocking it from time to time. I don't want any outside risks with my router table once it's turned on. I want into be straight forward and rock solid.

The Kreg is overall better made but the thing that I wouldn't like is the fact it's bench height, forme a bench top is already around 850-900mm from the ground so to add another 16" (350mm) roughly to that is silly. I wouldn't like to use a router table at that height. Sure you can make a little stand for it but if I was going to make anything for the router table it would be a solid carcass and then buy a laminate or make a smooth solid laminate top and just get an insert plate from Kreg or woodpeckers or something. Then you have a cheap sturdy decent router table that is flat and smooth on top for your work to be carried across.

Kreg is well built, if you were to build your own carcass you can be as basic or extravagant with draws and dust extraction etc as you like then buy a Kreg router table top and insert plate and attach it.

You got a few options you can take, they're just my experiences. Just depends what you like and what functionality you want.

Hope that is of some assistance in making your choice

Cheers
Nathan

Originally Posted by doug3030

If you are on a tight budget, why not look at some of the online plans available on the net and build your own. It can be dirt cheap and you will learn a lot about what is important and what is not.

Have a look at this one. Its simple and easy to build and it includes some good additional features you can add on. It would be home-made, you would not be scared to hack into it to do modifications. you would learn a lot from building it and modifying it, fine-tuning it and making improvements as you learn what you need and what you don't need.

http://www.woodsmithshop.com/downloa...outertable.pdf

Cheers

Doug

I had a triton router table and now I do not. That tells you what I think. You do not need to buy a router table. Make one. They are not rocket science. It will save you heaps and it is not hard to make a much better one than you will buy. Making a router table is a great project.

PS:
The Kregg router insert plate and hardware is worth getting if you decide to make your own.

I started with the Triton one, the grey plate was seriously not flat, it was dished, which made a slot or rebate vary in depth by several millimetres. That was a common problem, well discussed on this or the Triton forum.

Even apart from that show stopper it hasn't got a lot going for it in my view. I'd suggest making your own, probably buying a good quality plate. There's a lot of information on this forum.

Originally Posted by Glennet

I started with the Triton one, the grey plate was seriously not flat, it was dished, which made a slot or rebate vary in depth by several millimetres. That was a common problem, well discussed on this or the Triton forum.

Even apart from that show stopper it hasn't got a lot going for it in my view. I'd suggest making your own, probably buying a good quality plate. There's a lot of information on this forum.

That is exactly so.

Thanks for the advice and as much as I would like to make my own I have a project that I have to have done ASAP and I won't have time to do the build. So I bought a Kreg table but the freestanding model not the bench top one.

Good work. Sometimes having a project to use a tool can go on for ages and youl never use it. Now that youve bought one you can use it strsight away and it all just works. Good stuff

I too have trodden the Triton path.

I bought a MK1 Router table about 1979-80 with a Mk.III Table. It was excellent. I can't remember now whether the fence extrusions were steel or alloy, however the outfeed was micro-adjustable using steel set screws, and could be dialled in for micrometric accuracy. I think the fence was steel and the extrusions alloy.

Stupidly, I sold both to update both table and router plate, this time with "2000" series. Not really happy with either, and subsequently sold both, as I was similarly unimpressed with the later (latest) router plate.

I used Elu gear on both Saw table & Router plate, which is about as good a gear as was (or now is) available. I routed literally kilometers of mouldings from the table. Hardwood & Myrtle T&G strip flooring for 3 houses, Hardwood, Blackwood & Wattle VJ linings, skirtings, architraves and assorted furniture mouldings over about the 25 years I owned them.

If you can secure an old Triton router plate jump on it. Given it's age, it should be going for peanuts. Os an original Triton design, the table/plate is backwards & forwards compatible across the Triton range. It is recognised as being the only table that is metallic only, with no MDF or other wood fittings.

I have been very impressed with the quality of the Woodpecker Router Table Stands fitted with a ProRouter Table Top.

Originally Posted by Dodgyboy

I am in need of a new router and router table. Since the budget won't stretch to a festool I have decided on a Triton TRA001.
I need help with which table to buy.
Option 1 Kreg benchtop unit
Option 2 Triton RTA300
Which one would you all suggest any comments both good and bad appreciated.

Buy the Kreg if nuy you must ... the Triton is a toy, I'm just selling mine and making my own ... cheaper and better freedom to make it "Just Right"

david

i built mine out of 2 sheets of melamine glue together to give it some thickness. Then I welded up a steel frame a screwed it to the frame. Not because it needed it but because I like welding. I put a Kregg router plate in it and armed it with a Triton router.

Could not not be happier with it.