Conturo glue line help

[safety1st]

Hi,
I am new to the conturo. I am trying to edge band maple PVC 1mm edging to maple melamine board with natural glue.

I am getting a glue line no matter what. I tried reducing the glue and that didn't seem to help. I increased the temperature by 10 degrees as well. I tried to put sufficient pressure and it didn't seem to make much difference either.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[escan]

When I was researching issues with this bander, I remember someone from here recommending a special router bit before banding. It was a convex bit, that scooped out just enough material on the panel to account for the excess glue material and allowed the banding to sit tighter to the panel edge.

 

[Michael Kellough]

The ply-prep bit from Collins Tools.

 

[safety1st]

Thanks for the info.

I am however hoping that I am doing something wrong and I should be able to edge band with a very thin glue line. Hopefully that is the case.

Also if anyone has pictures of their edge banded stock that is deemed satisfactory it would be helpful. I'll take pictures of the ones I have been able to make.

 

[safety1st]

attached are couple of pictures of what i am getting.

looks like the left two were when the pressure seems to have been incorrectly applied. one side got a better glue line than the other.

the right most is probably my best (equal on both sides) so far.

also i noticed that the banding i used has a slight profile and not completely flat. looks like by design.
however it would seem that the profile would aid better adhesion at the edges.

one other banding (white) that i got from the same supplier is completely flat though. i am going to try with that later tonight.

 

[Oldwood]

I think some of those look acceptable. It is hard to judge by a photo but using the 1mm banding as a guide I think it looks pretty good. I don't own the Conturo but do run a Hozher stationary bander and the best of your edges is about what I get. It is always a trade off between enough glue for a good bond but not so much that it stands out. Higher temps and more pressure do help.

The big selling point of the Laser banders is that they have NO glueline.

 

[Laminator]

Check to make sure the cuts are true 90 degrees with the face.    Make sure (if using) the scoring blade is not set too wide and leaving a gap which  is being filled with with glue.

 

[grobkuschelig]

My question:

Why not use white glue?

Might stand out less, since the natural seems darker than both surrounding faces...

Disclaimer: I don’t or or operate edge banding machines (besides an iron. ).

 

[simonh]

also i noticed that the banding i used has a slight profile and not completely flat. looks like by design.
however it would seem that the profile would aid better adhesion at the edges.

I believe that edge-banding is probably pre-tensioned so excess glue disappears to the middle. 

Here's a picture of Egger 1mm ABS perfect sense matt edgebanding attached with the black conturo glue. This stuff was a baptism of fire as the board and edgebanding also have a protective plastic face to avoid damaging the matt surface which you can't catch with the carbide scraper or any tooling. Also this is MFMDF rather than MFC.  Note, the white/grey line is silicone between the tiles and the cupboard.

How big was the piece you were attaching to?  I use the machine hand-held for door or large items and the MFT/Conturo table for small narrow pieces as it is easier to apply pressure and handle them / keep them from tipping. 

I must admit, as a non-professional, it has probably took me around 50 meters of edgebanding until I started to get the hang of everything like pressure and speed and things like the MFK700 tuned.

 

[escan]

The ply-prep bit from Collins Tools.

Thanks for link.

Looking at the second image, third from the left, the gap on that piece looks consistently thin. Were there any spots with a slimmer gap?

 

[safety1st]

Thanks for all the replies, it helps a lot.

Oldwood, thanks for setting my expectations on this. I was earlier assuming I would get an invisible line.

Laminator, yes the cuts are 90 degree. now when i hold the conturo flat (without tipping) i get same glue line thickness on both sides.

grobkuschelig, i agree i should try white glue. i don't have it at the moment, and even though my 1st thought was to use natural glue for maple ply, i realized that the trimmed banding edge is more white than natural, and white might do better.

simonh, thanks for the photo. it looks great. when i zoom in i see the thin black glue line and it seems similar to what i am getting. good to know that i am not the only one with some learning curve on the tool. Peter Parfitt made it look very easy in his video.

escan, the 3rd from the left (rightmost one) was the best i could do. the only time i guess i got a bit thinner line was when the conturo was tipping (my initial attempts) and the bottom had a tighter glue line, but the top was much worse.

few more observations from my side:
. there was no difference with the white banding which was completely flat.
. start and stop are tricky. maybe over time i will get this right. i agree the mft table would be better for flat stock, but that is an additional expense and space need. also i bought this tool for the portability factor.
. the only pressure that needs to be applied is on the roller towards the piece, the rotating roller will help move the tool from right to left.
. it is necessary to have the 2" extra on both starting and ending sides, as there often is nonuniform application glue at the start end of the banding. not sure if i can do anything about this.
. it looks like the carbide cleanup tool is really needed to remove the extra sticking glue. i broke down and ordered it.
. as an experiment i tried to pull the edge banding off the next day (with the help of the untrimmed overhang). i was a bit surprised that it came off so easily. i guess this won't really be an issue once things are all trimmed down as there wouldn't be a way to pull it with that kind of leverage. still. but i read somewhere that it is much harder when glue is applied to the stock instead of the banding.