Easy Workshop Storage Project with April Wilkerson and Matt Cremona

Easy Workshop Storage Project with April Wilkerson & Matt Cremona

In August, Triton and Matt Cremona visited April Wilkerson's amazing new workshop in Texas. We teamed up with Matt and April to build easy and effective workshop storage using Triton's new Clamping Pocket-Hole Jig. MAKE IT YOURSELF! Download April's SketchUp model here: PaintCaulk Storage Model (You'll need SketchUp).

Award-Winning Routers!

Great British Bake Off finalist Richard Burr puts Triton Tools to the test...in the kitchen

We know Triton Tools excel in the workshop, but how do they perform in the heat of the kitchen?

We teamed up with The Great British Bake Off finalist Richard Burr to find out.

View full video now! Building a Bake with Triton Tools

When I was on the Great British Bake Off in 2014, Mary Berry remarked how surprised she was that my builder hands were able to produce such dainty bakes. But as most builders know, working with your hands is second nature and having precision with the tools you use is particularly important.

I recently had the pleasure of working on a fun baking project with Triton Tools. Triton make woodworking tools – chisels, planes, drills, sanders and the like. They asked me to make a tool box cake, simple enough. However, they asked me to make it using woodworking tools. Now, as a builder, I am very familiar with the tools of my trade and what constitutes appropriate use for them. So, armed with my trusty pencil, an orbital sander and the all-important can-do attitude I set to work.

I’m in the middle of rebuilding my own kitchen, and Triton’s tools have come in so useful for this. As my home kitchen is a work in progress, we were filming across the road in my parents’ house this time, in the kitchen where I learned to cook years ago. My Dad and I built a new kitchen here recently, so gone is all the evidence of my youthful cooking disasters including (but not limited to) pan burns in the lino, burn marks on the ceiling, gouges in the worktops, and one broken window. Sorry Mum!

If you’re going to construct something out of food, gingerbread is a good place to start. Not only is it strong, stable and easy to shape, but when made correctly it is delicious – especially if you have a good supply of tea for dunking. Sticking with the ginger theme, I made a ginger sponge cake to line the toolbox.

I used a Triton cordless electric drill to whisk the cake mix but fitted it with a balloon whisk attachment. This was the first time I’d mixed a cake with a cordless drill but it worked so well I might end up keeping one in the kitchen permanently.

With the sponge in the oven, it was time for the main event – the gingerbread. No matter the time of year, as soon as I smell gingerbread in a kitchen it makes me think of Christmas. The gingerbread recipe in my book, B.I.Y. Bake It Yourself, is perfect for building bakes – it’s both delicious and stable.

I always roll my gingerbread out on a piece of parchment paper to about 3mm thick – the thickness of a pound coin. For this Triton project, I pre-made templates for the box and the tools and dusted them with flour, so they didn’t stick to the raw gingerbread. Once the shapes were cut and in the oven it was time to get the kettle on again – baking is always thirsty work! My top tip for gingerbread construction: half way through the bake, take the gingerbread out of the oven, put the templates back over them and cut away any gingerbread that has expanded beyond their original shapes. Then pop them back in the oven and finish baking.

When the gingerbread had cooled, Triton’s gear came into play. I set the toolbox pieces in a massive Triton SuperJaws vice and set to smoothing off the edges. For this I used an orbital sander, like all bakers should! Seriously – the fine, straight edge an orbital sander gives to a piece of gingerbread is astonishing! If I’d had one of those in the tent I would have been a happy man. I used the Triton orbital sander again at work today to sand some oak worktops and I can assure you the saw dust wasn’t as tasty this time around. The sides of the toolbox were designed to slot together so with my gingerbread still clamped I used my sharp chisels to tidy up the interlocking parts.

Once I had built the body of the box I reinforced it with a little royal icing – mixed up using my balloon whisk and drill combo again – and left it to set while I decorated my gingerbread tools. The easiest way to decorate gingerbread (or any biscuits) is using the flooding technique. To do this, I pipe the outline of each tool, along with a little detail and leave the icing to dry for 10 minutes – the exact time it takes to make and drink another cup of tea. Once the icing had set, I flooded the biscuits. I made some more icing and coloured it. This icing needs to be a looser mix that will flow when piped. I piped this directly on to the gingerbread tools and it sets with a smooth glossy surface. With the edible tools now set aside to dry I could crack on with my toolbox.

The ginger sponge I made at the start of the day had well and truly cooled so it was its turn to go into the Triton vice for cutting to shape, which now seems like a perfectly normal thing to do with a sponge cake! I used a tape to measure the inside dimensions of the toolbox and marked them on the sponge. Using a Triton handheld oscillating saw I cut the sponge exactly to size. Honestly, I don’t reckon I’ll ever need a knife in the kitchen again! I laid the sponge in the toolbox box with some ginger buttercream and filled it with the gingerbread tools. The final touch was slotting the rice-crispie and marshmallow handle through the toolbox holes and we are done. Without a doubt, the most precise baking job I’ve completed in a while – thanks Triton!

Triton goes BOOM!

We visited BOOM Festival in Portugal to see how Daniel Popper and team used the Triton Range to create his 12-metre tall wooden masterpiece ‘Emergence’.

Creative Director /Lead artist : Daniel Popper Crew: Brett Blake, Marinus Kriek, Brian Tompkins, Robert Bernicchi, Samuel Murgatroyd, Daniel Graham Projection mapping : Wayne Ellis Check out Daniel Popper's other work: http://www.danielpopper.com/

Woodworking Book Review - Joinery by the Editors of Fine Woodworking

The editors at Fine Woodworking have a reputation for delivering great information - well-presented and backed up by real expertise. so if you pick up one of their volumes, you expect it to be right on the money and this one is no exception. compiled form a series of articles previously published on the magazine, this is a collection of joinery techniques from the most basic to some seriously advanced stuff.

Some people may worry that a publication that placed emphasis on hand tool work might be setting them up to fail (I have heard on more than once occasion it can be like watching a historical re-enactment rather than modern woodworking techniques!), but this book presents joinery techniques for both hand and power tools in equal measure. 

As for the layout of the book, it starts with straightforward rabbet, dowel and pocket hole joints, and gradually turn the screw to introduce increasingly more complex techniques that may take a while to master. I like the fact that attention to details on simple joints is taken seriously, so even if this is your first attempt, critical, straightforward instructions have not been glossed over. There is also no attempt to knock the use of machined joints such as biscuits joints, which for some purists have no place. 

One section I think makes brilliant reading is the 'shoot out' test, where the editors have worked with a testing lab to evaluate the structural strength of a range of joints under a standard load test. The results may surprise you! I'm not going to offer a spoiler a this point, suffice to say that some of the most popular fast jointing systems didn't stand up to the test nearly as well as many of the more traditional shop-made joints. Sure, they are quick to carry out, and may well be sufficient for the needs of the piece envisaged, but you can't always know how something might be treated long term. It makes a good read anyhow.

Several people we interviewed for the blog and Triton YouTube channel in the past told us that no matter how good you get, covering up your mistakes has a vital part to play in getting better results. This book has a great section on correcting common mistakes as well as lots of advice on how to avoid them in the first place. So if you are jsut starting out or want to improve your craft with  anew challenge, this book is a great investment. Sure, you can watch a video on YouTube, but there is something very satisfying about quality book (with no annoying adverts) that you can read at your own place.

Joinery by Editos of Fine Woodworking is published by Taunton Press ASBN 978-1-63186-448-3

Best of the Woodworking web - How to build a strip canoe

‘Wood stuff, boat stuff, other stuff’ is where creator of A Guy Doing Stuff stands for.

In 2015 Adam built his first canoe, as a perfectionist he was really unhappy with his first attempt that had flaws and was undocumented.

With the idea of making fast paced, instructional video series he successfully started a YouTube channel which now includes the 18-video series about the 8 month canoe project. Although, keep an eye on Adams channel for more projects to follow as he loves presenting big woodworking projects in a way that shows they are accessible to the average person that wants to make something amazing. 

To see more of Adams work check out his instagram https://www.instagram.com/aguydoingstuff/

How to make a classic bookcase - A Woodworkers Journal project

Last year Triton challenged the team at Woodworkers Journal to come up with a project to show off the versatility and accuracy of the TWX7 Workcentre. They didn’t disappoint with a great project build and plans set for a classic Tool Chest if you missed that post catch it here. Tool Chest Project

This time round the challenge is a little different; we wanted the team to show how you could make a quality piece of furniture with a greatly reduced set of power tools. If your relatively new to woodworking and haven’t yet committed to a table saw or simply don’t have room for one in your workspace, can you still make a great project that will be something to shout about?

Well Chris Marshall picked up the challenge and using a Track saw, a Router and Triton's Dowel Jointer and came up a classic bookcase made from regular dimensional timber that would look great in any home. 

You can down load the full plans for this project at this link Book Case plans