Frameless Euro Style Cabinets - What to do about the edge banding?

[Rob Wright]

I will be starting a cabinet project for my basement in a few weeks. I have always used face frame cabinets, but have been looking to go over to the dark side of frameless. I have seen a number of good threads on here as well as the FOG

festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=1315.0

festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=452.0


(One explains Euro-style cabinets frameless cabinets, the other details an easy way to use the LR32-SYS From Festool to create balnced upper cabinets. )

I have also completely confused myself trying to read the http://32mm.dalrun.com/ website on balanced vs. unbalanced panels and drawer spacing but have not had too much luck in the over deciphering of what to do. I

I have heard good things about the Blum Process 32 manual; (www.ncwood.org/BlumProcess32sm.pdf (http://www.ncwood.org/BlumProcess32sm.pdf)) downloaded it and have read it. I like the fact that this has dimensioned drawings and lays out just what needs to be done for panel, door, drawers, and standard cabinet sizes/dimensions. However - it is unbalanced and was wondering just how much of a pain this is.

So the $5 question is – When making frameless cabinets (melamine or BB) what do you do on the exposed edges of the cabinet carcase? Edge Band? So,
if I were making cherry mission style drawers and doors, would you edge band the white melamine with a cherry edge banding to match the door? The doors and drawers fit very tight so you may not be able to see much of the carcase when the doors/drawers are closed.

Looking for some input. I have a few good ideas on laying out the system holes, but that thread will wait a few weeks so I can iron out the bugs.

Hopefully the master of all Euro-Cabinets (AKA Frank Shic :D) can come to my rescue!


Thanks in advance!

[Eric DeSilva]

Yes, edge banding. Look at FastEdge--they made real wood edgebanding that is very easy to apply. Recommend their trimming tools as well.

[Paul Girouard]

Yes you can edge band on the wood tape , it comes in a variety of wood types.

You can get pre-glue iron / heat activated glue , iron it on with and a household iron and wood rub block. Once it's iron on I trim it off by "skiving" with a 12" planer blade , then a sanding block.

Some guys glue and clamp on solid wood strips then flush trim off the excess with a router. Or block plane it off. Sand it off etc.

Every one has thier " way" of doing that it seems.

Pros "generally " have a edge bander that

#1: applies a hot melt glue,

#2: applies the edgebanding , either made of solid wood strips , wood E/B'ing , or or PVC color matching or solid colored E/B'ing .

#3: Some machine have routers in place , at least two that trim off the excess E/B'ing.

For about $800.00 you can have a small one , to $150,000.00 and up for a better one.

[Joe Chritz]

Matching wood species is the norm for edge banding frameless cabinet parts.

It is very expensive to get into frameless to be able to produce them rapidly.

Personally I prefer the face frame cabinets look in most situations. If I was building 50 kitchens a year it would be different.

I understand the principals of the 32 mm system but not the specifics so I can't help you there.

Joe

[Rob Wright]

I have used fastCap before and like it, easy to use and trim etc. My real question should have read:

" Are people banding melamine or BB ply with the same species of the doors/drawers and also finishing just the edge to match them, or are they just banding them with white for melamine and birch for BB and not having them match?"

Thanks

- Rob

[Paul Girouard]

I have used fastCap before and like it, easy to use and trim etc. My real question should have read:

" Are people banding melamine or BB ply with the same species of the doors/drawers and also finishing just the edge to match them, or are they just banding them with white for melamine and birch for BB and not having them match?"

Thanks

- Rob


Generally you edge band the case to as close as possible match the finish / color of the door and draw fronts .

There are / can be a few exceptions , mostly in my experience , on commercial jobs where the designer / Architect spec's a dissimilar color of E/B.ing.

[Jim Becker]

Personally, I'd edge band with the door/drawer species and finish.

[Simon Dupay]

I myself am making some euro cabinets from maple ply, I would edge-band the cases cherry and use edge-banded 3/4" Cherry plywood for doors and drawer fronts, mission frame and panel would look odd on frameless.

[Steven Wilson]

Rob, I'm a fan of the 32mm system, and recognize that they like melamine because of it's consistant thickness but I hate melamine and MDF with a passion. If I want melamine/mdf cabinets I might as well go to Ikea, it's a lot cheaper than making stuff. So, I've been experimenting with something else - real wood, frame and panel for consistant thickness, and then use 32mm (mainly from the True32 system book). Another way that works is plywood (of course then you have thickness variation which doesn't play nice with a 32mm system production run) with solid wood edge banding. I've built a couple of cabinets with 1 1/2" solid wood edging that I left slightly thicker than the plywood and then hit them with the Lamello Cantex to trim flush; very nice edge and strong like a face frame. Best of all it won't delaminate like edge banding and the cabinets are lighter than melamine/mdf.

[frank shic]

rob, you rang and i answered!!! see if your confusion doesn't clear up a little bit with this EXCELLENT 32mm information put out originally my grass hardware:

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/The_KISS_II_System.html

BTW i use only fastcap PVC edgebanding and i match the edgebanding with the door species. i tried using the iron-applied edgebanding in the past and i even bought a tabletop hot air edgebander but the results were not great because the melamine edgebanding would chip too easily although the veneer edgebanding has worked pretty well so far on my own kitchen cabinets. it's just much easier to apply the fastedge stuff which sticks like crazy - wait until you trim the edges and you accidentally step on the scraps.

i've adoped the kiss 2 system mainly because it supports balanced end panels and is the simplest one to understand. no adding 10mm here or boring a different distance from either end, rob! BTW for anyone who has never built frameless before, it is an incredibly efficient system and will save you HOURS of labor and effort trying to fit cabinet hardware like drawer slides and hinges on to the cabinet box as well as provide you with more space (no stiles to navigate your dishes around!!!). it does require that you be able to cut extremely square panels, however.