Replies

1. 
   RickL | Mar 10, 2004 09:22pm | #1

   http://www.ersystech.com/models/mobile_wood_edge_press.htm

   Hess s-mobile press is awesome. Uses regular glue and is ready to machine in 5 minutes. I used one in a shop. You have to try it before you say no way. 

2. 
   JBD | Mar 10, 2004 10:39pm | #2

   Boy oh boy Jamie, you asked the right question at the right time - I rarely have time to log in to Knots, but I believe I have the holy grail of cheap/effective edgebanders for you.

   I, too was ticked off at the huge market vacuum for small edgebanders - none out there except a hand-held unit by Freud and a small t-top model for 500 bucks by somebody.

   Soooo, go back to 1989 when I was at your dillemma, and I decided to buy a 27 dollar heat gun and at the end of the day I had a killer edgebander.

   Fast forward fifteen years and over 12,000 lineal feet of edgebanding run through it successfully, and it still works like the day I made it.  Can't believe the B&D heat gun still works.  It helps to see pictures of other benchtop models, but my design is quite logical.  You'll have to wait a day or so til I take a picture of it at my shop, if your interested.

   Basically, I put two 3" screws through the heat gun "fuselodge" to fasten it to the deck of a simple, fat, "L" shaped table made of 3/4" melamine (perfect material - slick).  the inside of the long leg of the "L" had a 2" high pressure bar of melamine that you push the freshly glued panel against, and the short leg of the "L" is where the supply coil of pre-glued edgebanding is mounted.  At the inside junction of the "L" is where the gun is mounted, directly hitting the hot-melt side of the tape, milliseconds before it contacts the panel as you feed the panel in, applying pressure to the "fence".

   As far as guiding the 13/16" or 7/8" tape so that your panel is centered inside, I lay a piece of 1/32" laminate (formica) onto the panel feed table, leaving a 1/4" space from the pressure bar (fence) so that the veneer tape hangs over the edge.  I then have an aluminum bar clamped to the top of the fence to keep the tape from riding up. 

   See picture later for more details.

   Starting it is a little tricky, but quickly learned, and feed rate is fine at high heat setting - about ten seconds per foot ±.  If your good, you can mount a hotter heat gun, but ya gotta move faster.  I heat til I see the glue start to bubble.  Slower if you want real good adhesion, though I rarely ever had peeling.

   I trim with a 1-1/2" chisel minus the handle - just the tang, so that I can hold it the way a jazz drummer holds a drumstick, and reference some of the flat back of the chisel onto the face of the panel, then slice with an angular hold - real well as long as you watch the grain, then I ease over the edge with a sanding block.  Trimming melamine banding is super fast this way.

   All for less than fifty bucks.

    

   "The furniture designer is an architect." - Maurice DuFrenes (French Art Deco furniture designer, contemporary of Ruhlmann)

   http://www.pbase.com/dr_dichro   http://www.johnblazydesigns.com

1. 
   PlaneWood | Mar 10, 2004 11:45pm | #3

   Many years ago I used a regular household electric iron for hundreds of doors.  Then a Stanley 101 plane (the little sucker) to trim up the edges.  The blade must be VERY sharp.

   I'd do one edge then cut off the excess at the corner with a sharp pair of scissors.  A small block sander to even up the corner.  Being right handed, I worked right to left around each door.  Each door went pretty fast.  I precut the banding to be about 1/8" longer than each side.  I used a woodworking vise to hold the doors.

   PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)PlaneWood

1. 
   JBD | Mar 11, 2004 03:30am | #4

   Wow, Mike, hearing your story of "manually" banding over a hundred doors sure makes me appreciate my bander all the more.  Does that mean you turned each door in the vise for each edge you banded?  Too much work.  I've found that the only way to use an iron effectively is to follow the iron with a block of hardwood or something similar, or else the veneer peels up a little on each edge - after all, your heating the snot out of the tape in order to get the glue underneath to melt, then the tape itself has to cool, while pressure is still applied.  Thats half the reason I figured out a way to use a heat gun - heat the glue only, not the banding.  I wouldn't suggest an iron at all unless you rarely do edgebanding, at least not for a pro shop, anyway.  - JB 

   "The furniture designer is an architect." - Maurice DuFrenes (French Art Deco furniture designer, contemporary of Ruhlmann)

   http://www.pbase.com/dr_dichro   http://www.johnblazydesigns.com

1. 
   PlaneWood | Mar 11, 2004 07:24am | #7

   Speciality tool were not easy to find before the days of the internet, let alone afford.

   I had no trouble getting the banding to stick.  I ran a polished steel bar behind the iron to cool off the banding.

   I remember one job had around 300 cabinet doors.  I think it took me 3 days to edge band the doors.  Well, nights actually.  This was a moonlight job.   I could do about 15 an hour.

   PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)PlaneWood

1. 
   JBD | Mar 11, 2004 07:02pm | #8

   Very prolific Planewood!  Good point on using a steel bar to cool the banding - good heat sink. 

   If one could afford it, the benchtop model that Doug referenced by Freud is the way to go - price is low enough these days to beat your labor cost, but if you were to build one - see the pics below.

   I even thought about attaching my power feeder to it once, but its too fast.   

   "The furniture designer is an architect." - Maurice DuFrenes (French Art Deco furniture designer, contemporary of Ruhlmann)

   http://www.pbase.com/dr_dichro   http://www.johnblazydesigns.com

   
2. 
   Jamie_Buxton | Mar 11, 2004 04:08am | #5

   JB --

      Some pix would be very interesting.

          Jamie

3. 
   dbrett | Mar 11, 2004 06:30am | #6

   Freud also makes a table top (not handheld) unit that utilizes a mounted heat gun with a roller and alignment guides for the tape. Price was about $350 CDN (~$250 US?). I've had one for 4 years and while I'm not sure how many lineal feet I've put through it, I have done a full kitchen, wall unit and a whack of shelving units. It works well after a slighly fussy alignment set up.

   Combined with a double sided edge trimmer and end trimmer (mine are from virutex), you can pump out banded panels at a good clip.

   I think it's a good, well-priced option between an iron and the industrial edge-banding units.

   Hope this helps,

   Doug

4. 
   migraine | Mar 11, 2004 08:19pm | #9

   Well, here's my take on it.  I've worked for some very large shops many years ago and we had $80k+ banders and I have had my little Cehissa EP2(Adwood) for about 18 years and I love it.  I have also mounted the machine to a rolling table and I have a power feeeder mounted to the table.  Takes 45min to an hour to warm up. This machine is the type that applies the glue to the edge of the board and then the edge tape is applied, not pre-glued tape.  I usually run all my pieces at 1 full 8' lenght or an inch or two oversized.  The leading edge of the board usually winds up being a little light on the adhesive.  There is a guillotine that rough trims the end and there is no top/bottom trim.  I use a green Virotex trimmer to trim the edges by hand.  I also use 1mm thick edge tape.  It is not easy to trim this thick stuff, but it works. I can also apply wood veneer tape, plastic laminate and even thin pieces of hardwood(1/16-1/8").  Most of the veneer tape that I use is done with an iron.  You can pick these up for about $1000 and up used.

   Virotex also make s a few hot air models that have trimming and self feeding capacity, but they start at about $5,000 and go up from there

   If you start to look for a new/used machine,  most are 3 phase machines and you may or may now have it where you are or where you might be in the future.

1. 
   JBD | Mar 11, 2004 10:52pm | #10

   Sounds like a sweet machine.  A used one does sound like the way to go.  I am amazed at the price spread on these things.  Seems like their either in the 400 to 4000 dollar range for pre-glued banders, then they jump to $50 - 80k.  With the bad economy, I'll bet there are good deals out there. - Good info  

   "The furniture designer is an architect." - Maurice DuFrenes (French Art Deco furniture designer, contemporary of Ruhlmann)

   http://www.pbase.com/dr_dichro   http://www.johnblazydesigns.com

5. 
   Jamie_Buxton | Mar 12, 2004 08:58pm | #11

   Thanks for your suggestions, guys.   It seems like a heat-gun-based system (either commercial or homebrew) is the thing for me to try.