Festool NFK 700 to trim edgebanding

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I googled this, but no good hits. What do you think of this as an edgebanding trimming machine? Is there a better way, or is this as good as it gets without a dedicated edgebander?

For what its worth, I hate trimming edgebanding, but because the quote for the new office's furniture came in at about 100x the cost of supplies, I'm going to be trimming edgebanding.

[Matt Meiser]

I just bought one for exactly this purpose last Saturday evening VERY lightly used from another Creeker. It didn't have the special bit required and was missing the 8mm collet so I just got those mid-week and haven't been back out to the shop.

Before buying I asked about it on the FOG site and the responses in summary are:
- Its an awesome solid wood banding trimmer
- Poor trimmer for iron or stick-on banding, and why use it for that as the razor trimmers work so well.
- Other than the dust collection, nothing super-special about it as a vertical trim router.
- Odd limitation for trimming banding at 5/8" thick banding instead of 3/4" There's a modification you can do to the base to make it take a longer bit though.
- Special bit dimensions pretty much mean buying the trimming bit from Festool. There's a replaceable edge version (think Byrd head) that would be the way to go for a heavy user.
- Comes with a 1.5-degree base for horizontal use. If you are butting two banded pieces together the 3-degree gap can be noticeable. The 0-degree base is extra (was $165, now $150 after the price "increases" that took effect today.) Probably not a big deal for thinner banding but becomes more noticeable as thickness increases.
- If you've got an MFT/3, there's a way to mount it to the side and make a pretty slick sliding dovetail maker.

I just wish they made a plunge base for it, but since they've also got the 1010, that's unlikely.

[Martin Jodoin]

This was my first Festool purchase (MFK700 BTW) and all i can say is that i love it, perfectly flush all the time.
Be aware that the thickness of you edge baning is limited to about 5/8 because of the bit design.
If you need more it can be done in 2 pass but 5/8 is plenty anyway.
I have tried all other methods and the MFK is the best.

Cheers

[Joe Cowan]

I bought the MFK700 for edge work and love it. Getting it set the first time took some light head scratching but not a big deal. Other than that, it is just a small router.

[Tom Ewell]

http://www.halfinchshy.com/2010/12/extending-capacity-of-mfk-700.html

Horizontal base mod for thicker edgeband trimming, one guy's solution.

[Matt Meiser]

That's the mod I spoke of--thanks for posting the link.

I'm considering picking up the 0 degree base and getting a friend with a mill to do this for me.

[Kevin Jenness]

At work we use a powerfed shaper for trimming edgebanding for mderate size panels. An auxiliary table is clamped to the shaper spaced back to allow the banding to overhang it and be cut with a straight cutterhead set flush to the auxiliary table. Climb cutting eliminates tearout. For large panels we use a router with a half width subbase or my homemade jig that holds a trimmer horizontally, including vac hookup, similar to the Festool but much less $.

[James Baker SD]

I used it on formica laminate. covered the flat surface, then cut narrow strips for edge banding. I was not super thrilled with the results. I think the laminate was too brittle for a really clean cut.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Thanks guys. Sounds like I better figure out my plans before I buy one. Will see what the supplier has for ply, and go from there.