Thread: Upgrade From Triton Router table

I don't know what your budget is but a friend of mine brought one of these a couple of years ago and he is very happy with it. The only difference is he got the router motor included with his for the price the table itself is selling for now. This is the actual unit my friend brought, so about another $500 for the motor.

I got one of these second hand early this year for $150, including Hitachi TR12 router which on their own currently sell around $200 second hand. Mine is branded Carbatec.
Just a moment...

It's a cast iron table on top of the router and a sliding aluminium table beside it. Built like a tank. I checked the table top with a certified straight edge before buying it and it was perfectly flat.

Fence adjustment is fiddly and I think there are some threads on this forum about it, but I found that the trick is to undo every nut and bolt on the fence and then set it up to zero against a straight edge and it works fine. I can't fault it.

Table top is very heavy to lift and potentially quite dangerous on the ends as it'll act like a guillotine if you get your fingers caught. The risk is easily avoided by keeping your fingers away from the danger area by lifting from the front (aluminium table side). Mine is a 2001 model according to the plate on it and unlike the current models which have gas struts on the sides of the table mine has sliding slots. For safety I prop it up with a bit of framing timber. The link above shows a picture with lifting handles on the front of the table, which mine doesn't have. I might add a pair of handles to mine.

I modified the dust extraction port slightly and it's now +95% efficient dust extraction with a ShopVac vacuum cleaner.

The only complaints I have are that there's no router lift, which I solved by putting a $20 second hand car scissor jack under it, and I don't like having to lift the table or muck around under it to change router bits. I couldn't find or make offset spanners to change bits from above so I'm going to get a collet extension to solve that problem but haven't decided yet on which type. If I can find an old style car screw bottle jack I'll use that as it takes up less space under the table.

You wouldn't have a problem with height adjustment if your Triton router accepts the Triton winder handle as you could easily drill a hole in the cast iron table top to accept it.

I like the idea of this sort of bench top table Just a moment... with a built in motor and rise and fall wheel on it. There's one on Facebook Marketplace in Melbourne now for $300 that's advertised as being used only twice. I suspect it's only been used twice because it's crap. There's lots of reviews on the internet about it, many on this forum going back many years, and it has a host of problems from rubbish motors that don't last to fences that aren't straight and everything in between. Scheppach trades on being German designed but they're certainly not German made and from the few products of theirs that I've looked at, including the wetstone sharpener I bought about 10 years ago, you'd be better off spending more money on better quality.

Originally Posted by 419

I like the idea of this sort of bench top table Just a moment... with a built in motor and rise and fall wheel on it. There's one on Facebook Marketplace in Melbourne now for $300 that's advertised as being used only twice. I suspect it's only been used twice because it's crap. There's lots of reviews on the internet about it, many on this forum going back many years, and it has a host of problems from rubbish motors that don't last to fences that aren't straight and everything in between. Scheppach trades on being German designed but they're certainly not German made and from the few products of theirs that I've looked at, including the wetstone sharpener I bought about 10 years ago, you'd be better off spending more money on better quality.

If you paid $50 for it you have paid too much. All reviews say they are very poor quality and not worth buying as nothing is straight nor do many parts line up and the motor is difficult to raise and lower.

Thank you so far
Noriek

Make your own table from parts?

DIY Router Table finally complete (sort of..)

A simple car jack can make for a decent makeshift router lift if budget doesnt allow for a purpose built product. I built the table in the thread linked above and it worked very well for what it was. Base was a basic $90 workbench available at Bunnings and stiffened with 90x35 and I got a 25mm particle board top from a local joiner for nothing.

Originally Posted by Treecycle

If you paid $50 for it you have paid too much. All reviews say they are very poor quality and not worth buying as nothing is straight nor do many parts line up and the motor is difficult to raise and lower.

I have to confess that I had to restrain myself from buying one on the basis that it's essentially a perfect machine idea and maybe I could make the parts necessary to make it work up to its potential.

Then I had a dose of reality and decided that if countless other people who actually had one of these machines couldn't get a decent result, then neither would I, at least not without an absurd amount of time fixing it.

Still, it has all the elements for a great machine, just clearly very badly executed.

Originally Posted by samo

A simple car jack can make for a decent makeshift router lift if budget doesnt allow for a purpose built product.

I use a car jack scissor lift for one heavy duty router table, but what's even simpler and doesn't take up as much space that I use on another lighter duty Triton is an airbag on a bit of timber of the appropriate height to get the airbag flat under the router.

Winbag Just a moment... is one that Bunnings offers around $30 and that I have, but there's many much cheaper on Temu etc but of unknown quality. Against that, I had a Winbag in my ute for occasional use and used maybe a couple of times on site and it died after a year or so, perhaps from the heat in the toolbox.

The big issue in both cases is holding the height. I suspect that plunge routers clamped upside down onto router tables don't hold their height or router bit perpendicular to table perfectly in use with the plunge lock on one side of the router and being vibrated, especially with large diameter bits. Debatable whether it's worse or better with springs removed as springs resist uplift with some bits. I'm basing these issues in part on some issues I'm having now experimenting with mitre lock bits. I think that in these applications the router needs a lockable base under its bottom (i.e. top in normal use) to reinforce the plunge lock, which is designed to hold the router the other way up with the assistance of gravity. There's also an issue I'm concerned about with ventilation of the router motor with a lift sitting on the vents on the top of the motor which is now the bottom of the motor upside down under the table.

I've think I've worked out how to put lock nuts on a car jack scissor lift or old style car jack screw lift bottle jack to keep the router in place and support the router without interfering with router ventilation. The best idea seems to be to make a cradle that lifts on the metal frame wings where the handles are attached so that there is equal pressure on those points and thus a vertical bit.