Speeding up edgebanding?

[Bryan Hall]

Historically, I do very little edge banding. However, I'm working on a kitchen right now that when all said and done has several hundred pieces. Somewhere along the way I realized I don't actually know how long it takes me to measure, cut, iron on, trim, sand and have a door set aside for finishing. So, I timed 4 doors, not rushing, and it came out to about 80 minutes, or approximately 5 minutes per piece of edge banding. Expanding on that calculation and having well over 200 pieces of edge banding to do in this project I'm looking at 16-20 hours of nothing but edge banding.

I'm all for a good audio book while I'm edge banding but this is a bit much. It got me looking around at alternatives to speed it up if I ever had a project like this again.

So, #1, am I just horribly slow at this?

#2 has anyone used a machine like this before? I looked at a few non iron on options and this looked like the fastest and best bang for the buck, but still a pricey investment.
https://tooltechindustry.com/edge-banding-machine/

[Kevin Jenness]

Historically, I do very little edge banding. However, I'm working on a kitchen right now that when all said and done has several hundred pieces. Somewhere along the way I realized I don't actually know how long it takes me to measure, cut, iron on, trim, sand and have a door set aside for finishing. So, I timed 4 doors, not rushing, and it came out to about 80 minutes, or approximately 5 minutes per piece of edge banding. Expanding on that calculation and having well over 200 pieces of edge banding to do in this project I'm looking at 16-20 hours of nothing but edge banding.

I'm all for a good audio book while I'm edge banding but this is a bit much. It got me looking around at alternatives to speed it up if I ever had a project like this again.

So, #1, am I just horribly slow at this?

#2 has anyone used a machine like this before? I looked at a few non iron on options and this looked like the fastest and best bang for the buck, but still a pricey investment.
https://tooltechindustry.com/edge-banding-machine/

No you're not horribly slow, it just takes time to do manual edgebanding. I don't have much use for veneer banding myself except for low wear situations, but if you are going to use it profitably you should definitely be looking at as good an edgebander as you can afford.

I have no experience with that line of machinery. The price and weight are very low for a glue pot bander (as opposed to a hot air machine using preglued tape). Edgebanders are typically the most complicated and sensitive machines in a cabinet shop so make sure you have tech support available. Almost any edgebander will put tape on but getting a decent looking glueline with the minimum amount of handwork is not simple.

[Michael Burnside]

With that many pieces, have you looked into the Festool Conturo?

[Bryan Hall]

With that many pieces, have you looked into the Festool Conturo?

I did, but to be honest that machine comes with a stiff price tag and I’m not convinced it would be wildly faster. I’d want an in person timed demo to confirm value before purchase.

[Michael Burnside]

I did, but to be honest that machine comes with a stiff price tag and I’m not convinced it would be wildly faster. I’d want an in person timed demo to confirm value before purchase.

Understood. I know it's expensive, but if you're like me, I always have to weigh my time cost too. If I had 200 to go, boy I don't know, that's a LOT of time.

Having said that, I've played with the Conturo a little bit as I have a friend in the cabinet business, it was pretty slick. Not for me as I almost always use hardwood edge banding, but he likes it quite a bit. He also has a floor tool that I don't know much about or model. I just figured I would mention it since he is a professional cabinet maker and has one, so it's not pure garbage. He does some pretty high-end builds, so if it was junk it wouldn't be in his shop.

[Bryan Hall]

Understood. I know it's expensive, but if you're like me, I always have to weigh my time cost too. If I had 200 to go, boy I don't know, that's a LOT of time.

Having said that, I've played with the Conturo a little bit as I have a friend in the cabinet business, it was pretty slick. Not for me as I almost always use hardwood edge banding, but he likes it quite a bit. He also has a floor tool that I don't know much about or model. I just figured I would mention it since he is a professional cabinet maker and has one, so it's not pure garbage. He does some pretty high-end builds, so if it was junk it wouldn't be in his shop.

Oh absolutely, time contribution is a big deal. Fully setup with the conturo is $4500 (with its table). If I did, even two kitchens in a year that were all edge banded I’d definitely be seeking out a demo for this machine. In general, I steer my clients away from edge banding but quite plainly I got caught on this one. Job was booked as a raw edge appleply kitchen and then while I was demoing the kitchen the client surprised me with a “Hey you know what let’s do doug fir ply instead.” So, here I am haha.

I think there’s also a piece of me that knows if I don’t have a nice edge bander then I will turn away edge banding work. If I do have one though….. I’ll be edge banding more than ever before.

[jack duren]

You can buy a roll of non glue edge banding and use contact adhesive.

I edge them as fast as I have room

[Richard Coers]

You can buy a roll of non glue edge banding and use contact adhesive.

I edge them as fast as I have room

Are you suggesting contact cement, or pressure sensitive tape? I can't imagine the mess of using contact cement on all the 3/4" edges.

[Richard Coers]

Virutex makes a hand held that also fits in an accessory table. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftzRKn4pzvA
But I would suggest you take all your parts to a local shop and have them run the parts through their edgebander. Easiest money you could spend.

[jack duren]

Are you suggesting contact cement, or pressure sensitive tape? I can't imagine the mess of using contact cement on all the 3/4" edges.

Yes. You stack or cover what you don’t want glue on. It’s not as hard as it looks..

[Kevin Jenness]

Richard's suggestion of subbing out the banding to another shop is good, but make sure you have them run some samples before you commit. A well set up bander will need no or very little subsequent handwork.

The handheld Festool bander could be useful for curved work, but painfully slow for quantities of rectangular parts compared to a feed-through stationary bander. The Conturo just glues on the banding, then the trimming is done with a manual end clipper and a laminate trimmer, plus it appears you have to precut the bands as opposed to working off a roll. Good banders are expensive because they save a lot of labor and are built for production. You'll have to make a business judgment as to what level of investment to make in light of what kind of work you want to pursue.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Is this paint grade or clear/stain grade cabinetry? Have you considered hardwood banding? I have used plenty of iron on commercial veneer banding and, like you, have found it to be a painful, tedious and slow process doing it all manually. It makes sense in certain budget scenarios, I suppose, but not really if you aren't set up with a decent edge bander that also trims. I also don't like how thin it is and it can be hard to make the corner glue line between the banding and veneer truly disappear in certain species and wood tones, which bothers me as a picky woodworker.

I have moved to using 1/4" solid hardwood, usually matching species of veneer on the ply, and glueing it on with PVA glue and painter's tape. Then trimming flush on the shaper (or router table...) and having a much better looking and much more durable edge. If I prep and mill the 1/4" x 7/8" strips at the beginning of the project all at once and have them ready to go by the time I need to edge then it's really not any/much more time or effort than the iron on...may even be faster overall once you get into the groove of it and set up. Just a thought.

[Bryan Hall]

Is this paint grade or clear/stain grade cabinetry? Have you considered hardwood banding? I have used plenty of iron on commercial veneer banding and, like you, have found it to be a painful, tedious and slow process doing it all manually. It makes sense in certain budget scenarios, I suppose, but not really if you aren't set up with a decent edge bander that also trims. I also don't like how thin it is and it can be hard to make the corner glue line between the banding and veneer truly disappear in certain species and wood tones, which bothers me as a picky woodworker.

I have moved to using 1/4" solid hardwood, usually matching species of veneer on the ply, and glueing it on with PVA glue and painter's tape. Then trimming flush on the shaper (or router table...) and having a much better looking and much more durable edge. If I prep and mill the 1/4" x 7/8" strips at the beginning of the project all at once and have them ready to go by the time I need to edge then it's really not any/much more time or effort than the iron on...may even be faster overall once you get into the groove of it and set up. Just a thought.

Your method is, undoubtedly, my preferred way of edge banding. However, this is stain grade work, all with the rift sawn doug fir look. The 1/4" top and bottom band running the opposite direction just wouldn't fly.

[Bryan Hall]

Richard's suggestion of subbing out the banding to another shop is good, but make sure you have them run some samples before you commit. A well set up bander will need no or very little subsequent handwork.

The handheld Festool bander could be useful for curved work, but painfully slow for quantities of rectangular parts compared to a feed-through stationary bander. The Conturo just glues on the banding, then the trimming is done with a manual end clipper and a laminate trimmer, plus it appears you have to precut the bands as opposed to working off a roll. Good banders are expensive because they save a lot of labor and are built for production. You'll have to make a business judgment as to what level of investment to make in light of what kind of work you want to pursue.

The speed of the Conturo is really what I fear about it. I'm sure it does excellent work but you are correct, every single piece of edge banding has to be individually cut and then fed into the machine. Then all of the manual cleanup after. The only time savings I can see would be had by simply getting to avoid the iron speed. Tasks like this make me think it would be nice to have an apprentice.

[Jim Becker]

The speed of the Conturo is really what I fear about it. I'm sure it does excellent work but you are correct, every single piece of edge banding has to be individually cut and then fed into the machine. Then all of the manual cleanup after. The only time savings I can see would be had by simply getting to avoid the iron speed. Tasks like this make me think it would be nice to have an apprentice.

The Conturo is definitely going to take more time than a dedicated, higher end edge banding machine. Where the Conturo shines is that it is portable...take the machine to the material which is handy for edge banding large components or assemblies in one piece, can also be fixed to a bench for processing smaller panels and what some folks like is that it handles thicker banding if desired, such as 1mm thick solid banding. It's worthy of consideration along those lines, is a much lower investment than a big machine and doesn't take any space up than a Systainer when not being used. But it's certainly not a "high volume" machine for sure!