Triton

I've been lusting after a Triton workbench since I first saw one many years ago on display in Tokyu Hands, Tokyo's first and preeminent hardware/DIY/hobby shop.

The Triton display was backed up with a video in which someone was turning out amazing pieces of woodwork with little apparent effort. I wanted one, even though I was not really much of a woodworker. Unfortunately, a Triton saw bench in my small apartment would have left no room for my futon. And think of the sawdust!

Moving to Portugal, and getting ready to move into a house with a bit more space, I reckoned I had an excuse. Plus, I have lots of work to do in the house (beginning with another kitchen -- following the one I made for our apartment in Tokyo) and anything that makes it easier will be a bonus.... So I sent off an order to the European distributor in Holland.

With the delays on our house, the thing has been sitting in boxes here for several months. But the other day I decided I just had to get it out and begin work on the kitchen.

Setting everything up proved to be more of a chore than I expected. It took best part of a day to put together the kit of parts and then align everything. It was a learning experience, though, and made me very familiar with all the components and their functions. In general, everything went together as in the instructions. Using the Triton brand circular saw helped; I would imagine there may be a bit more work involved in aligning a different manufacturer's saw, even though the workbench is supposed to be universal. Indeed, I actually purchased the triton saw because my existing Skil saw does not fit.

Anyway, by last weekend I was ready to start on some real cutting. I managed to cut boards for all our kitchen base cabinets in a couple of days -- despite torrential rain. Given that I was new to the tool, I found that quite impressive. Work proved particularly quick where there were multiple identical cuts or multiple pieces of the same size. All of the cabinet ends (12 of them) are the same, so those were done very quickly.

(For my previous kitchen project, I had to work on the kitchen floor. I had no saw bench, so every cut was done with a circular saw against a manually clamped fence. Setting the fence was tricky, particularly for narrow pieces. I'd sometimes spend 10-20 minutes setting up for a single cut.)

So far, I'd say my experience with the Triton comes up to all my expectations. I'm looking foward to working with it much more and, in future, getting more sophisticated. I hope in the end to be producing nice pieces of furniture -- as oppposed to the simple boxes that make up a kitchen. Still in boxes, I have other bits of Triton kit: a router table, jigsaw/router top mount, and a proper dust collection system. There's enough to keep me out of trouble for quite some time!