Flush Trimming Edge Banding?

[Marty Tippin]

What's a good way to trim edge banding flush?

I'm applying edge banding to a bunch of drawer faces made from oak veneer plywood. The banding is 3/4" so hangs over the edge of the plywood by a little on each side.

Router seems like overkill and sanding block seems like too much work... ;-)

[Adam Herman]

is it the iron on / stick on type? the little banding trim tool works well. i used a trim router and a flush trim bit when making about 10 doors with maple ply and edge banding. hit the corners once or twice with a block after. i find sometimes the trimmer tool will catch the grain if you are going against it.

similar to: https://www.amazon.com/Cloverdale-33437-Band-it-Edge-Trimmer/dp/B001B1CHDA

[Mel Fulks]

I like those good ,sharp Plasticut files and I've seen a bunch of other guys use them,too.

[Jon Endres]

Best luck I've had is with a sharp flat Vixen file (autobody file) at an angle. File toward the substrate or you will tear off the banding. The Band-It edge trimmer is a piece of junk, in my opinion. If you have a lot of it to do, set up a trim router with an offset base and riser - it does not take long to do.

[Marty Tippin]

Thanks for all the input. I needed to get this done quickly so tried several methods last night. I had 6 12x30 drawer fronts to finish for a storage bed I'm building for my college-age son - so not a huge amount of work, but not a single piece either.

Started with a trim router and flush-cut bit but found it difficult to balance properly on the thin edge of the panel. I suppose I could have set up a jig of some kind to keep it square but I didn't want to go to that effort.

Next I tried just sanding with a block and 150 grit. Maybe it was the quality of the edge banding (bought on Amazon), but the adhesive was gummy and clogged the sanding block in no time.

Ended up switching to an Xacto knife with a brand new, sharp blade and was able to trim fairly close. Followed up with some 220 grit on my ROS and it came out OK.

One thing I discovered is that the veneer on Menard's cheap Chinese plywood is about as thin as a human hair - ended up sanding through the veneer in a few places and it happened in an instant...

[Martin Wasner]

If it's wood edge banding, I'd do the router. Pvc on melamine I always used a utility knife, but it's pretty easy to dig in on wood and the blade might follow the grain on the edging causing problems as well.

[Erik Loza]

Most everyone I've sold a bander to told me they used a sharp knife, a small chisel, a file, or some combination of all of those.

Erik

[Mark Gibney]

The veneer on Chinese plywood is crazy thin. Awful to work with. To my mind it must be more difficult to consistently get veneer down to that thickness that to aim for 1/16" or something, I don't know why they make it this way.

This is one of many reasons I avoid Chinese plywood.

[John Blazy]

Throughout my 15 years as a pro cabinetmaker and trimming over 15K feet of edgebanding, I always used a short 1-1/2" chisel that was missing its handle. The shortness balanced nice in my hand, and I waterstoned the back of the chisel mostly dead flat, with a slight lift-up on final sharpening passes. running the chisel flat on face of the ply or melamine assured a close trim without the risk of digging into the face veneer. Then followed with a sanding block to arris the edge. On wood edgebanding you have to watch the grain direction of course, and with practice I zipped though a stack of panels in minutes.

[paul cottingham]

A finish carpenter friend of mine uses a plane blade. Works great.

[Wayne Lomman]

Other side of the world and I do exactly the same as John Blazey and have done for decades. Cheers

[Ed Edwards]

+ 1 on what Mel said, sharp Plasticut files

Ed

[Andy Giddings]

Saw a woodworker named Timothy Wilmots use this method with a router. Easy to make the jig and takes no time to trim a lot of panels and put a small bevel on. The relevant part of the video is 50 seconds in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMk8RceCCu4

[John Lankers]

I have a Bosch Colt set up with a 45* bearing guided chamfering bit and a notched out sub base and climb cut all hardwood edgebanding with the bearing riding on the edgebanding and the router base on the panel. Initial setup is somewhat finicky but it works like a dream.

[Don Jarvie]

I use a utility knife to get it close then a sanding block pushing the block against the banding so it removes the rest.

[jack duren]

When in commercial the edge bander got most of the material followed by a file. When I wasn't using an edge bander a razor knife followed by a file. Routers work for some veneers yet create more damage on such veneers as oak....

[John Lankers]

Saw a woodworker named Timothy Wilmots use this method with a router. Easy to make the jig and takes no time to trim a lot of panels and put a small bevel on. The relevant part of the video is 50 seconds in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMk8RceCCu4

That's exactly the way I do it - I must have reinvented the wheel :D

[Rick Fisher]

Plane blade, then a quick buff with sandpaper to ease the corner..

[Paul Girouard]

12" planer knife , I use my left hand on top of the knife which is laid flat on the piece , then pinch the knife down and " Skive" the edge banding off , slid the knife down as you Skive off the overhanging E/Bing.

Follow that up with PSA sand paper that's stuck to the maple block, works great.

[Mel Fulks]

Haven't used all these methods but Ive used several and was slow to change to the file. Mainly because I thought I would have to still use a knife or chisel first. With the file most don't do any pre cutting with another tool. You remove excess wood and smooth all with file. Grain direction makes little if any difference with a file. But it has to be sharp. Plasticut files are sharp enough that you can easily cut your finger and it can be hard to remove blood from wood. Wear gloves.

[Mark Wooden]

Like Mel, I use a good, sharp file. A plain bastard cut works fine but cuts a little slower and loads quicker than a PlastiCut. I put a few wraps of masking tape on the end to keep the the file from scratching the surface and cutting only at the edge. I clean the file with a stiff bristle brush (not wire, dulls the file) while working. I sand the edge when I sand the rest of the piece.
I've used just about every router jig, table setup,ho'made and commercial slicer/trimmer and the file has always been fastest, easiest and most consistent way to get a quality trim with veneer edge tape. Nice and quiet, no cords or real sharp blades to deal with.

[Lee Schierer]

I use a flat "bastard cut" file and file toward the plywood being careful not to cut into the face veneer. It goes pretty fast. The file will leave little ridges that clean up easily with 220 grit hand sanding.

[Robert Engel]

I've done a ton of this.

+ 3, 4, 5 or whatever on a file. Its a snap once you get the technique down. Hold just off parallel to face. I usually cut the end short with scissers and file it over, too.
Follow up with 220. You're done in like 3 minutes/drawer.

Do NOT use a trimmer or knife they are intended for melamine. Due to grain direction you will have tearout if you're not extremely careful.

Also do NOT use a router for the same reason, plus very difficult to balance on edge of drawer, plus, its overkill for this.

[Robert Willing]

what bander do you sell?

[jack duren]

I've done a ton of this.

+ 3, 4, 5 or whatever on a file. Its a snap once you get the technique down. Hold just off parallel to face. I usually cut the end short with scissers and file it over, too.
Follow up with 220. You're done in like 3 minutes/drawer.

Do NOT use a trimmer or knife they are intended for melamine. Due to grain direction you will have tearout if you're not extremely careful.

Also do NOT use a router for the same reason, plus very difficult to balance on edge of drawer, plus, its overkill for this.

You can use a knife if you know what your doing on either melamine or ply.

On ply you can also use an orbital as long as your spinning it in the correct direction...

[brian zawatsky]

I also use a sharp file for wood veneer tape. For PVC edgebanding I use a 2" wide bench chisel, super sharp, with a very slight back bevel on it. This keeps from scraping or cutting in to the finished face, be it melamine or plywood.