Edge banders??

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johnelliott

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Does anybody here have experience of edge banders, especially portable one? I foresee a need for something that could be used on site to edge band MFC. The price isn't such a big concern, but I would need something that was reasonably quick and reliable.

John
 
Yes. They are a complete PIA. Are you looking to band a complete kitchen on site, just do repair work or something else? Will it just be pre-glued 1mm melamine edging or were upu thinking about something else? What width? Give me a clue or two and I'll try to give you the lowdown

Scrit
 
Not so much complete kitchens, but built-in cupboards etc which, by the time all the shelves were done, would amount to quite a bit. I was thinking probably 2mm pvc which would allow a bit of sharp edge removal/rounding over without danger of the core being exposed.

I expect to be using 22mm edging on 15 or 18mm MFC

John
 
I'd be interested in this too. I'm doing a bunch of birch edging at the mo - trouble is trimming as much as application. The trimmers seem to work best on artificials.

Cheers

Tim
 
johnelliott":mwl7sbk5 said:
Not so much complete kitchens, but built-in cupboards etc which, by the time all the shelves were done, would amount to quite a bit. I was thinking probably 2mm pvc which would allow a bit of sharp edge removal/rounding over without danger of the core being exposed.

John

That's the problem. There are to my knowledge just three devices available on the market in the UK which you could describe as truly portable - the KoolKut, Hebrock and Virutex. All are hand held hot air devices which require pre-glued edging tape. Go above 1mm thick tapes to achieve a radius edge and you need to use either PVC or ABS edge banding - neither generally available pre-glued in the UK. Another problem is that PVC in particular starts to deform/scorch somewhere around the melt point of the glue (190 to 220 degrees C, depending on spec.) so a hand held unit is really only suitable for melamine pre-glueds. If you do go to hand held I'd recommend the Virutex as being the pick of the bunch - both in build quality and on cost/performance grounds, but you'll still have to deal with the problem of trimming and glue squeeze out by hand. Raukontex do a set of trimming and profiling tools available through PWS, but at around £200 they are hardly cheap.

The same problems apply to bench-top units such as the Jet and Freud - they simply cannot handle the thicker tapes, either. In fact any hot air bander can only really apply melamine tapes as, unlike PVC, it is relative heat insensitive. ABS is relatively hear insensitive, too, but the problem with that stuff is that it is also quite inflexible and so needs an edge bander with good side pressure and a power feeder unit to get it to stick - and they're hardly what you could call portable.

To get thicker edge banding on the only solutions are to go to a glue pot edgebander with a power feeder - and they are static machines which are too big and heavy to get out of the shop (not to mention the fact that they almost always require compressed air and 3-phase) or glue the stuff on using a KG glue spreader and contact adhesive. Basic glue pot static solutions start at around £7k + VAT these days, although at that price you'd get a maximum thickness of 3mm edging. They do come with end cut-off at front/rear (thicker stuff over 2mm and ABS may require an upgrade to a saw cut-off, though) as well as profiling cutters - but don't expect buffers (to remove glue squeeze-out) or polishers (to remove milling chatter marks) at that price as you won't get them. With glue pot warm-up periods being in the order of 20 to 30 minutes you really need a serious amount of work to justify buying one of these machines. To round-over the square ends you need to have a round-end profile machine - and Brandt will happily supply one for about £6k to £8k (and secondhand they are like hens teeth)

This is not a good answer if you are in the market - but be wary of buying secondhand. Edgebanders are notoriously temperamental (especially glue pot ones), complex and prone to going wrong - so make sure you find a local edge bander engineer to get you out of the mire if you hit a problem (and that advice is from someone who maintains his own CNC router and has had a half share in a Cehisa glue pot bander!). Once set-up they work best if left there - which means picking a type and thickness of tape and sticking with it RIGIDLY - every time you change the banding settings it can take an hour or more fiddling around the get the feed, glue, side pressure, trim, etc right again.

Tim

A standard double edge trimmer won't work at all well with veneer edging. I tend to use a thick plane iron or a block plane with a fine set mouth and go carefully at it. To finish off I use a piece of abrasive paper. To apply it any of the hot air machines will do the job, either the bench tops or the hand-helds.

Scrit
 
Tim as scrit says the trimmers work best on melamine edging but if its real wood veneer I find my veritas flush plane (plane blade with a handle) works best as you can come from either direction to suit the grain of the edging. Did some wenge iron on the other day, that was a real pain to stop the blade digging in even going with the grain.

I find the flush plane better on melamine & seldon use my trimmer, just got through a 50m roll last week on a wardrobe job, hand iron & flushplane then a quick touch with 180g on a block.

Jason
 
One little but annoying point..... When putting on white beech edging be careful not to overheat it as it has a tendency to turn pink just like steamed beech! :oops:

Scrit
 
I've actually started using a craft knife to trim excess - put the panel on edge onto a sacrificial surface, extend the snap off blade to its maximum and then use the blade length to guide the cut along the edge. Only requires a bit of plane work if you are unlucky or just a sanding block. Its still a PIA though!

Cheers

Tim
 
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