Triton Workcentre 2000

You may know the name Triton as the makers of Superjaws which has been around for some years now. The 2000 Workcentre is also no spring chicken and has sold in its millions all over the world but it has been updated. We took a close look at this Australian product. Training manager Wayne Beckwith gave the demonstration at the UK distributors, Toolstream who are the company behind the well known brand Silverline tools.

The trouble with a lot of work centres that claim to turn your power tools into something else is that they are often a bit naff. DIYers might be happy with them but a professional needs something better. The Triton 2000 is different because it goes a long way to fulfilling the needs of the professional. Having said that let’s not pretend that it is as good as having a dedicated saw table and chop saw on site, for one thing it ties up your circular saw but considering that you only have to take one fold-flat table and your normal portable power tools onto site has obvious appeal. I can see it appealing to kitchen fitters and self builders in particular because you can rip down plinths, cut mitres for mouldings and even route out your own mouldings and MDF doors. It takes a couple of minutes to change from rip to cross cut which is not much longer than a flip saw. Making the other changes takes a bit longer so you need to organise your work rather than chopping and changing every few minutes.

The table will take any circular saw that you own, but we used the excellent Triton saw which we will review in its own right later in the year. When you see the Triton range of power tools it builds your confidence in all their kit. It is very well designed and rugged. Somehow you can’t imagine Australians going for cheap plastic but you feel the input of site users in this stuff. They avoid over complication, such as tee pieces on extractor hoses by hanging a bag under the saw to catch the bulk of the dust. The extractor can then be used to clear the top of the table. I would also recommend looking at the Silveline low velocity dust catcher as an add-on because it saves clogging the filter and filling the bag on a cleaner or dust extractor.

We looked at the circular saw operation, and the router table adjustment in the saw incarnation, and here's a run-down of the features.

• 3 sided protractor (adjusts 45 Degrees to 0 Degrees to 45 Degrees)
• Rip fence with 45 Degree bevel face
• Folding legs
• Self levelling stand
• Blade guard with dust port and kick-back protection
• Crosscut fence
• Safety pusher and side pressure finger (very good idea)
• Sliding latch lock mechanism for table top
• Rigid, slide chassis with micro-alignment cams

If you buy the router table insert it gives you top adjustment and top tool change. Again these are two ideas that many dedicated router tables don’t have. You can also buy attachments to change the Workstation to any of the following.

• Overhead router
• Router shaper table
• Jigsaw table
• Finger Jointer
• Biscuit joiner
• Edge planer
• Face plate sander
• Panel saw

The whole thing comes with a big instruction book in English and Australian, and there is also a very good video.

• TRITON TOOLS  -  Find out more about the Triton Workcentre 2000 on the Triton Tools web site.