Router bit question for edge band trim

[Craig D Peltier]

Hi in the near future im going to be using some beech plywood with jatoba edge band 1/2 inch thick. Since it will inevitably sit proud after glued up or you want it too anyways an then trim it back. Whats the easiest way to do this? I have a drum sander? I have a straight bit with a bearing for router? Block plane?

[glenn bradley]

The purists will say hand plane. I use a flush bit and a router. I clamp a scrap to the board if it is thin to allow better support for the router base. My preferred router for this is the Bosch Colt with a bearing guided spiral downshear bit.

[Jamie Buxton]

There are at least a dozen ways to trim solid edging. I'm mostly a power-tool guy, but the way I use most is a handplane. The important part is the lighting. Clamp the panel flat to the workbench. Arrange a work light so that it is at the height of the panel, with the shadow of the edging on the face of the panel. It may help to turn off other lights in the room. That shadow tells you very clearly how proud the edging is from the panel face. Put the heel of the plane on the face of the panel, and take strips off the edging. If you want, you can take it down to the point that the edging is only a few thousandths proud. Then you can take it the rest of the way with a cabinet scraper or a sander.

[frank shic]

i just did this the other day with a flush trip bit and a laminate trimmer and it worked fine. i still had to sand afterwards, though.

[Micah Carter]

your local hardware store should have an edge-banding trimmer... the last one I bought was a yellow plastic piece with a razor blade mounted 90 degrees to a square face.

A laminate trimmer works well too. If you're worried about it burning the plywood, you can lubricate it with some crisco. Lacquer thinner removes crisco nicely after you're done.

[frank shic]

micah, he's trimming 1/2" material so the edgebanding trimmer will not work.

[Prashun Patel]

I just got a laminate trim router with a set of edge bits for about $70 (Grizzly). Not as sexy as the Colt, but it gets the job done well. I vote for a trim router vs a handplane bkz it gives you more edge options (roundover, bevel, etc).

Only prob is the dust.

[Craig D Peltier]

your local hardware store should have an edge-banding trimmer... the last one I bought was a yellow plastic piece with a razor blade mounted 90 degrees to a square face.

A laminate trimmer works well too. If you're worried about it burning the plywood, you can lubricate it with some crisco. Lacquer thinner removes crisco nicely after you're done.
Wrong kind of trimmer for this job.Thats for thin veneer edge band.

[Craig D Peltier]

Wrong kind of trimmer for this job.Thats for thin veneer edge band.
Thanks, I may order a laminate trimmer today. Griz is a good idea , I did see a Ryobi battery operated one that a contractor was using at post office. It seemed pretty useful.Said it cost 40.Not sure of that was with a battery.I have a ryobi 70 piece router bit set that includes a flush trim bit with a bearing 1/4 shank.

[Roland Chung]

I've seen a router jig for this purpose. The router is mounted on a large block of wood that rests on the table. The bit is kind of floating with nothing on three sides. You can lower the bit to cut a piece of paper without marking the table top. If you're interested, I'll try to find the link.

Betterley offers a tool that looks just like it, but it is expensive.

[frank shic]

craig, what i did on my last tabletop was apply two bessey clamps in different directions on the LONG edge to keep it standing on its side and then i just ran the laminate trimmer (PC 310) across the top edge of the maple edging.

[Prashun Patel]

craig, what i did on my last tabletop was apply two bessey clamps in different directions on the LONG edge to keep it standing on its side and then i just ran the laminate trimmer (PC 310) across the top edge of the maple edging.

Once you get the hang of it, trimming a 3/4" edge isn't that hard. But the first couple times I ended up with wavy and lines and slight unevenness. IMHO, it's best to clamp a 2nd shelf flush with the one to be trimmed. It'll help the faceplace to ride truer.

[Marty Barron]

Craig this is what I used to trim a piece of cherry molding flush to a mantle shelf made of particle core cherry plywood. It worked great.

Hope this helps.

Marty
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/projectplans_display/?planid=11141

[frank shic]

forgot about that option, marty! thanks for reminding all of us.

[Craig D Peltier]

Craig this is what I used to trim a piece of cherry molding flush to a mantle shelf made of particle core cherry plywood. It worked great.

Hope this helps.

Marty
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/projectplans_display/?planid=11141

Thanks for all the ideas.
Alos this jig is pretty nice.Thanks

[Craig D Peltier]

Thanks for the help. Minutes ago I ordered the Bosch Colt of amazon for 110 free ship.
Does anyone know where I can order a piece of clear acrylic say 10 x20. I was at rockler today and their piece was 12x12 only. I need it for the jig mentioned in this post with the link to the article.

Thanks

[Greg Crawford]

The book Router Magic shows how to make a base like the popular woodworking article. I built one and love it. I've trimmed edge banding many ways with a router, and this is my favorite.

[Rod Sheridan]

Craig, look up plastic suppliers in the phone book, they'll be able to sell you whatever size you want for far less money than a retailer.

Regards, Rod.

[Craig D Peltier]

Thanks everyone, alot of good ideas. I ended up buying a Bosch colt and used a bottom bearing flush trimming bit and just rode it on edge. I realized that top bearing doesnt work.I didn tknow they had them made both ways. It worked great.I had one nasty tearout on the jatoba.
I also bought a jig handle and 1/4 acrylic to make the floating jig for other jobs.
Thanks again