High Volume Solid Edgebanding Process

[Dan Schmidt]

I'm planning to build about 30 maple base/wall cabinets in EURO style with solid edge banding. I plan to cut my panels to rough width/length and finalize after banding (~3/8 thick) is installed. What is your recommending banding process to facilitate accuracy but decent speed?

When I've done this at low volume I cut hardwood slightly wider than plywood thickness, face glued to plywood edge using cauls. Had to be careful to keep the banding from shifting during glueup. Then I cleaned up with flush router bit.

There are specialty bits for routing v-grooves, options for splines, new types of clamps for the glue up, etc.

So what is your go-to method?

[Erik Loza]

Do you have access to or can you sub the job out to a shop with a big edgebander?

Erik

[Bryan Wiesendahl]

If the panels are comfortably sized for you to be able to run them on edge over the table saw (this is a different size for different people...) you can set up a zero fence with a sacrificial board. Basically bury the blade in the fence and have the plywood surface bear on the fence, with room underneath for the edgebanding to slide under. Adjust the fence until you're taking off as comfortably close to the plywood as you can, and then sand the rest, just like you would with a router.

I've never fussed with any locked edge banding techniques, I just size the banding so that a little movement doesn't throw it off one edge. If trimming on the table saw extra wood doesn't cause any problems like it could with a router trim.

[Bill Orbine]

If you elect to go ahead with this yourself without outside help.....you could V cut a shallow recess (like a chevron pattern) on backside of edgeband and apply it using blue tape and wood glue. The Shallow V cut allows the edges of the edgeband to pull up tight against the edges of the panels using blue tape acting as clamps. Use a length of blue tape to pull the edge band against plywood edge every couple inches or so.

Use the table saw with the blade tilted 1 degree and the blade height just slightly higher than 1/2 the width of the edgeband to cut the backside of the edgeband. Make one cut, flip over end to end and make the second cut. There's your shallow chevron cut. As you have done before, the edgeband is slightly wider than the thickness of the panel and you'll need to use your router to trim the excess.

Comprehend? You'll need a few rolls of blue tape.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

I used 1/8" edgebanding on the 40+ doors and drawer fronts in my kitchen. Applied with blue tape, and trimmed on the table saw per Bryan's method. I did two edges at a time, and trimmed them with a crosscut sled.

[Kevin Jenness]

Erik's suggestion of subbing it out to a shop with a proper edgebander is a good one. Failing that, here is my process.

I use 1/4" x 13/16" banding on 3/4" ply applied with yellow glue, no splines, aluminum bar clamps and cauls about 2" wide. Blue tape works but gets rather expensive quickly. I band in 8' lengths to minimize handling. I use a laminate trimmer mounted in a shop-made jig that registers on the flat surface of the panel. Another good trimming technique is to use a shaper with the banding overhanging an auxiliary table and trimmed with a wing cutter set flush with the auxiliary table. A powerfeed is necessary for climb cutting to avoid breakout at the banding corner. If you are working with a calibrated panel material you might be able to avoid trimming by using a tight fitting spline in both parts.

It is difficult to get a perfectly flush trim at all points, especially with veneer core plywood, so if that's what you want count on some scraping/sanding. This works best with unfinished ply but adds considerable labor. You may find the milled edge acceptable. With prefinished ply you may be able to get an acceptable finish by levelling the banding, scuffing the prefinished surface back an inch or two and shooting a finish with the same sheen just at the edge. Otherwise, as with melamine, be careful not to cut into the prefinished panel surface and mask prior to finishing, or use a wiping varnish and leave no residue.

It's been a while since I built cabinets this way. Back then we didn't know about prefinished ply, maybe it wasn't available. We would rip out blanks, spray them, apply and trim the banding as precisely as possible using a shaper, then assemble the cabinets, sand the faces of the banding and ease the edges and apply wiping varnish. Faced with it now I would use prefinished material, the flatter the better, pre-sand the banding faces and lightly ease the edges after trimming/before finishing. You wind up with a slight v-joint at the corners, which I find acceptable when masked by doors/drawers.

[peter gagliardi]

I do solid wood edging on my 3/4" veneer core plywood shelves all the time. Usually my solid wood edge is 13/16" thick x 3/4" tall. Sometimes for long spans i will go 13/16" x 1 1/2"-2" .
I set it up in full 8' lengths for gluing.
I do 2 lengths of shelving edge to edge in the clamps with bandings toward the centers. I only need 2-3 clamps this way per set. It keeps things tight and square.
Then flush trim, mold edge if desired, sand and finish the whole piece.

[Mel Fulks]

I've used same method as Peter. And for big jobs a retired guy or kid will serve well. Seen a lot of money wasted on banding machines ,but some claim they have made money with them. They break down often. Worked for a guy who bought a used one cheap and spent $10,000 getting it fixed . I told him he should use it for a Trojan Horse....drag it over to a competitors door in the middle of night and let THEM go broke.

[Erik Christensen]

I have a matched tongue & groove cutter set for the shaper. I have done this for large cabinet runs as I also use frameless euro designs. My edge banding process is:

1. rough cut plywood panels slightly oversize with track saw - label with blue tape - run through shaper to groove edge for banding - groove centered in panel
2. use 4/4 stock that is slightly wider than the panels - run through shaper to cut matching centered tongue
3. rip on TS - width of visible edge banding is personal preference - I have done 1/4" but also 3/4" to match inset door/drawer front thickness
4. back to shaper for next pass on new tongue
5. continue until not enough for another pass, toss scrap and grab another board
6. cut edge banding 1/2" over length so don't have to fiddle with position on glue-up, run glue line in groove, install banding, caul, clamp, set aside
7. I have enough cauls/clamps that by the time I run out the 1st has been clamped for 30-45 minutes & is ready to come out
8. trim edge band to width with router - if 1/4" I like the light weight of a trim router - if 1/2"+ I use a festool 1010 with side plate guide
9. flatten/smooth front edge banding - I use a combination of track saw and/or hand plane
10. make 1 side 90 to front edge with track saw & mft table
11. cut to final dimension by running other 2 sides through table saw

[Denis Kenzior]

For trimming edge banding, have you considered a 'lipping planer'? For example, the Virutex AP98, Hoffman BH-556?

i find them more convenient than the router based methods, but have never tried the table saw method suggested here.

[John Blazy]

Ive run over ten thousand feet of edgebanding (wood and melamine) through my homemade bander. Not solid, if that's what you are sticking with, but for production, nothing beats it for the price.

337388

[Jeff Duncan]

I'm pretty much a blue tape and trim it guy for solid wood edges. Works fast especially with a router table set up to do the trimming....though I ended up buying a lipping planer which works even better.

As far as bander go you can easily spend too much on one, but it's hard not to make money with them. I bough a used entry level bander several years again and the 1st job I did paid for it. I do have a tech who I need to service it every so often, but otherwise it makes me happy almost every time I turn it on:D

good luck,
JeffD

[Walter Plummer]

An edgebander large enough to apply 3/8" hardwood would be way to cost prohibitive. When I worked in a commercial shop there was only one shop over in Maryland that had one big enough to do it. We subbed a couple of jobs to them. Banders are funny tools that run better and stay running better 10 hrs a day 5-7 days a week. They don't like down time.