Published: Dec 23, 2013

Updated: Dec 30, 2013 - added info on second failure and a proper fix

An update on the Triton interlock removal

A problem showed up after a while ...

In the original article, I showed you how to remove the "safety" interlock on the Triton router. Today, I discovered a small problem with the modification ...

Two years ago, I put my Triton TRC001 3HP router into my new router table, but the power switch safety interlock was a major pain, so I figured out a way to remove it. I've been happily using it ever since.

However, I've noticed it was getting a bit difficult to raise it up for bit changes. Specifically, the self-locking collar wasn't engaging very well. Today, however, it wouldn't engage at all. It appeared that the plunge mechanism wasn't moving far enough.

After checking to make sure there wasn't anything blocking it, like the depth-stop mechanism, I began to suspect that the area where the guide rods went was filling up with sawdust. When I hit the end of the travel, it just felt ... soft.

So I pulled the head apart, as I showed in the original tip article. Sure enough, the doggone thing was full of fine sawdust and that was preventing the end of the guide rod from fully retracting.

In the image above, you can see what I suspect is the culprit: the small opening left where the interlock used to slide through. I believe the sawdust drifts in here or is sucked in by the motor fan suction and, over time, collects in the upside-down body.

OK, I'm in the middle of a project and I don't have time for a sophisticated solution. Plus, the router lives in an enclosed box. So, I partially disassembled the routher and vacuumed it out, then grabbed a roll of friction tape and just sort of taped over the whole area. After thinking about it, I wasn't sure there the culprit wasn't the removed handle (it hit the side of the box), so I taped that up as well. It wasn't pretty, but I was in a hurry. After getting the router back in the table, the locking mechanism worked but still didn't seem quite right.
A couple days later, the automatic lock wasn't working again. So I pulled it apart again and discovered a lot more sawdust in body, blocking the rod again. I think it was packed in the body and came loose after I got the other part out, falling down where it blocked the rod. This time, I did a full teardown like the original article and got all the sawdust out of the entire body. As long as I had it apart, I sealed up the body properly this time, using some foam weatherstripping and then a couple pieces of tape to get a complete seal.