Consolidated FAQ for the CONTURO Edge Bander

[Blakkness]

Does anyone know if the conturo is able to edge band pieces thinner than 18mm ?
In a stationnary use I mean.

And what is the minimum length a piece should measure to be edge banded ?

Thanks.

 

[afish]

yes, it will do thinner than 18mm and I just banded some 2" long edges the other day.  **note you will need to cut the edgebanding about 5 or 6" long to get it to go through the machine.**  Anything less could get stuck or jammed in the conturo NOT what you want.  The down fall of this method is its going to waste some material both banding and glue.  So if its something that is going to be an all the time deal you will have to consider that but just an occasional thing it works.  The conturo works differently than most banders as it applies the glue to the banding not to the panel.  This results in excess glue if your banding is much larger than the panel thickness.  Most banding doesnt come narrower than 7/8 ish.  The excess glue can make trimming more difficult especially the thicker banding because not only do you have the thickness of the banding but also the glue which is probably another 2mm.  A MFK will or little lipper will be needed here you will not be able to trim reliably or easily any other way.  Also since you are going to be cutting through a bunch of excess glue its going to messy.  The glue starts to heat up again on the chips and gets tacky so they like to stick to things.  You can also run the banding through a laminate slitter to get it closer to the correct size.  This will work when doing wider banding but with anything less than 18mm you will just need to run the banding through at full width and trim off the excess. 

 

[Blakkness]

yes, it will do thinner than 18mm and I just banded some 2" long edges the other day.

Thank you so much !
You highlight some very interesting points.

Blakk

 

[afish]

I'm using the Conturo with 22mm x 1mm PVC edge banding on 18mm boards. 

I've noticed that one of the glue lines is right at the face surface. When I trim the edges using the MFK700 EQ/B with the Festool 1mm radius bit it doesn't clean up all the glue but al ot sticks to the surface of the router bit and then some gets deposited on the face of the edge banding. I then need to clean up a lot of glue off the face and edgeband using the carbide blade.

I've tried turning down the amount of glue. But this gets to the point where the edgebanding hasn't adhered enough.

I tried moving the router quicker, and also slowing down the speed.  I use vacuum extraction on the router.  But I don't seem to have found away around it.

Any tips?  Is there anything that can be sprayed on the router bit to stop the glue sticking and making a mess?

-Simon

I know this is old but I just saw this.  I have posted about this issue before and its one of the drawbacks of the conturo.  Its not so much the mfk's fault. Since the conturo puts glue on the banding not the part you end up with extra glue which wants to reheat when getting trimmed with a router.  The glue gets hot enough to get tacky and the shavings then want to stick to everything.  The problem gets worse if the banding is oversized more than needed for the part (more overhang = more glue) and thicker banding which is harder to rout off and generates more heat is worse.  The pest advise I have to avoid the issue is try to avoid pvc banding thicker than 1.5mm This allows you to trim the banding using one of those push/pull razor type trimmers.  These are my preferred trimmer for pvc they produce a very nice edge with no sticky glue issues, produce no messy chips or shavings all over. They wont do radius work so I keep the MFk for that and wood edge banding.  Once you get into 2mm edgebanding the manual trimmer wont work good anymore.  1mm banding is my standard goto banding for most its a good compromise between protection and workability.  That said I still love my conturo.  Its a perfect compromise between applying banding quickly, easily and takes up almost zero floor space when not in use. 

 

[denovo]

I know this is old but I just saw this.  I have posted about this issue before and its one of the drawbacks of the conturo.  Its not so much the mfk's fault. Since the conturo puts glue on the banding not the part you end up with extra glue which wants to reheat when getting trimmed with a router.  The glue gets hot enough to get tacky and the shavings then want to stick to everything.  The problem gets worse if the banding is oversized more than needed for the part (more overhang = more glue) and thicker banding which is harder to rout off and generates more heat is worse.  The pest advise I have to avoid the issue is try to avoid pvc banding thicker than 1.5mm This allows you to trim the banding using one of those push/pull razor type trimmers.  These are my preferred trimmer for pvc they produce a very nice edge with no sticky glue issues, produce no messy chips or shavings all over. They wont do radius work so I keep the MFk for that and wood edge banding.  Once you get into 2mm edgebanding the manual trimmer wont work good anymore.  1mm banding is my standard goto banding for most its a good compromise between protection and workability.  That said I still love my conturo.  Its a perfect compromise between applying banding quickly, easily and takes up almost zero floor space when not in use.

I've found if you wait 2-3 hours after banding before trimming with a router it helps solve the issue.  The glue has time to cool and harden so that it doesn't melt with the router.  I'll band an entire kitchen and then go back and trim all the edge banding

 

[afish]

That would probably help in cooler climates with lots of break time for the bit.  Once the bit heats up its going to be an issue too.  I typically have at least an hour of cooling time between banding and trimming but here in south Florida its always hot and humid. I dont think its going to help much but I will try next time I have the need for thicker banding that cant be trimmed with the razor style.  I attached the one I use below.  Per the reviews it does have some rough spots on the base which is also the blade.  I took it apart and rubbed it back and forth on some fine grit paper to remove the burs and its super slick and smooth now.  It cuts very clean and is better in every way to using the mfk on straight edges with 1mm pvc banding.  Even with a CT hooked up to the mfk it leaves a good amount of chips on the floor/bench etc. Its cleaner, faster and less cleanup.  The edge is so flush and clean I wouldnt even need to touch it after if it wasnt so sharp.  A light touch with a small round over is all that is needed. 

 

[tkcamper]

My question is does a template for the plate adaptor cut out come with the plate adaptor?

[member=26162]Jimmy FineCut[/member], yes, it comes with a template.

We're trying to set up a table with the adapter, which we got years ago, but haven't used.
Is there a pdf of the template floating around? We'd love to make it on our CNC if we can.