Conturo destroying edge banding material

[NorcalMike]

I tried using a Conturo for 3mm wood edge banding. It continually cracked the edge banding as it went along. Does anyone have experience with real wood edge banding at that thickness? The wood species is Sapele.

 

[tjbnwi]

I've never used 3mm wood in the Conturo. I do find warming the 3mm vinyl helps.

This may sound crazy, if you can soak the wood in fabric softener it may help. Wipe it dry, run it, see what happens. All I got, good luck.

Tom

 

[stvrowe]

I have tried 2mm thick Sapele edgebanding with the Conturo and it also cracks and breaks.  After going through this, I started making different thicknesses of hardwood banding and found that 1.3 to 1.5 mm banding works without breaking.  I must admit that if I had tried this within the 30 day trial period, the Conturo would have been returned - this is very disappointing. 
Hope this helps.
Steve

 

[peter halle]

I totally respect Steve's experience.  What he does is top notch and he is a perfectionist.

I would advise anyone who is having issues edge banding to contact Festool directly via phone and discuss their issues.

In real life I suspect that talking to Festool and hearing what they recommend and possibly having help funneled back from Germany might be helpful.

This is not meant as any sort of disrespect that those here who will offer their thoughts and experiences.

Peter

 

[Kev]

Just an opinion here ... putting thin timber through rollers of any kind and forcing it to bend will stress it. Steam will probably help .. I'd even try running a steam iron over the timber a few times both sides to try and get it supple.

 

[Linbro]

The timber edge banding we use is 3mm thick, but made up like plywood - ie. layers pressed together to make up the 3mm thickness. This is a commercially available product, not something we run up ourselves. No problem with it breaking when put through our edge bander.

 

[stvrowe]

I will offer some clarification of my previous post. First,the 2mm Sapele I used was commercially purchased.  The shop made edgebanding was intended only to determine what thickness wood edgebanding will work in the Conturo.  The Conturo is a quality machine but it just doesn't do everything I wanted it to do nor does it do everything advertised by Festool (even today).  It handles PVC edgebanding of up to 3mm thickness admirably.  It does not handle all thicknesses of wood edgebanding as implied by Festool's own technical specifications.  I believe the problem lies with the feedpath of the wood having to bend at a tighter radius than what 2mm wood (or greater) will do.  I honestly cannot say whether or not any other handheld edgebander would perform any better than the Conturo with wood edgebanding.

I have looked at stationary edgebanders at the IWF and they appear to have much straighter feedpaths than the Conturo so probably work well with wood edgebanding.  The stationary edgebanders are quite complex, costly, and take up a lot of space.  If I was cranking out cabinets every day, I would opt to get one but for my use, the handheld unit works.  I just need to learn to live with its limitations. 

I would suggest that Festool provides some truth in advertising and specifically state all the limitations of their machines with different materials.
Steve