Duo Dowel Jointer 710w - Triton

Great, but needs tweaking

There are other options on the market from Mafele (dowler like this) and Festool (loose tenons), but they are 5-6 times the price! This is not the same quality of either of those, I have played with the Festool and am just making an assumption based on the overall quality of Mafele. It does the same job, but mine has 2 issues that I have had to fix: Firstly the perspex screen with the guide lines for lining the work up is out by ~0.75mm. This seems to be a common problem across these units. Why Triton cannot just fix this, I do not know. The item is great value, but getting this right would cost next to nothing. That 0.75mm offset means that when you drill the dowel holes in your 2 pieces, then put them together, they are ~1.5mm out. It is quite difficult to compensate for this because the lines on the supplied perspex screen are very wide. You can get close, but not perfect. The fix to this is to remake the perspex window with more accurate lines, and lines that are very thin. This is a faff, but once done, transforms the tool. The other issue on my unit is that one of the screws that holds the perspex plate on sat proud as supplied. This left marks in my work pieces when engaging the tool. That is a problem that I have not come across before on previous reviews. I have ordered some replacement screws to resolve this. At the moment, my perspex screen is held by 2 of 3 screws only. I bought this knowing that it would need a bit of work to make it accurate. There are some reviews on the internet where a unit is not square or completely out of alignment. If that is the case, then there is no tweaking that, but where the only problem is the accuracy of the perspex, that is a relatively easy fix and turns an OK machine into something really useful. If I were a carpenter and using the machine all the time, then maybe the Mafele or Festool would be the way forward. I am not and only build a bit of furniture here and there, so this is ideal once 'fettled'.