Triton 1100W Surface Planer 152mm TSPL152 (350767)

I wrestled with the decision to buy this and was strongly influenced by reviews. I'm so glad I did. There's a great video showing assembly and setup of the machine and this made it simple. I had a problem trying to adjust the cutting depth and contacted the seller, 'Charnwood' for help. They answered quickly (within an hour) with their advice. I followed their instructions and resolved the issue. This service was excellent. The adjusting screw is really tight but hopefully will loosen off through use. This is the first proper surface planer I've used and wish I'd bought one earlier. The build quality is excellent and feels quite bomb proof. I worried about the fence and even when assembling it, I still had reservations. Once assembled and locked in position however, it is rock solid. I did have to do a simple adjustment to get it to 90 degrees exactly but the process was simple and it hasn't needed further adjustment. The locking handle for the fence feels a little vulnerable but time will tell if my fears are founded. I've jointed a couple of pieces already and this planer make the jointing process so much easier. The whole unit is solid but is quite manageable to move around the shop. I waxed the whole base area (in feed and out feed) and that made a huge difference when in use. All in all, I'm delighted with the unit and also the after sales support from Charnwood.

Planer (or jointer if you prefer) does exactly what it needs to do - make sure wood surfaces are square. I had looked at Rutlands offer but saw lots of complaints about the squareness and stability of the fence, the Triton has a very solid fence mechanism and got to 90 degrees easily and stays there. Its about 25 kg and takes up most of the workbench when in use, so you need to have somewhere to store it. Assembly was straightforward even though - being designed for many languages - you have to refer to 3 pages in the manual simultaneously (your language instruction words; rather murky instruction pictures; & the component id page), so some care is needed. Output so far has been very clean (& square). I have been working with side table components - so quite small - but I am confident it will deal with bigger future components solidly. The cut height adjustment is pretty basic (a rotating handle under the infeed) without any gauge, but that works fine: this is a tool to make several small passes rather than testing its capacity. I always thought Triton was Australian brand, but this one is designed in Europe (UK I think) and provides excellent value for money.

Easy enough setting it up and getting good results after watching the Triton video on YT. It's cheap for a surface planer and not bad at all. Dust extraction (OD 60mm) is brilliant connected to a dust extractor and gets rid of most of the dust and shavings. Fence is slightly bowed, it's expected though as it is a aluminium extrude and could easily made better with a simple piece of plywood. The bed again has a slight bow and I believe it's made out of cast alloy. The bed has not been finished for a perfect bed surface it's just painted. So if you are looking for "high precision" this planer might struggle a little as it's not professional grade machine. For its price it is good enough for most jobs and much better quality than other brands at this price point. Not much plastic is used at all and the construction is solid. The only thing that could much better are the blades, they struggle with hard woods like Oak. Blades cost around £10 so not too expensive and haven't looked around yet for better quality replacement blades. Happy woodworking!

I was looking forward to having this surface planer for a long time but after I realised that the planer bed wasn't level (and not adjustable) I had to send it back. Triton weren't interested in exchanging it for another so I'm still in the market for one but it just won't be a Triton.

For better assembly instructions watch the triton video YouTube as this makes much more sense. I double checked everything for square and after a few test pieces run maple and walnut through with fantastic results. Really pleased with my purchase and it doesn’t take a huge amount of space in my tiny workshop.

Great item! My partner use many times.Great price