Fixing Edgebanding Failure (FT Conturo)

[Minh Tran]

I bought the Conturo recently and am still learning how to use it. I made a mistake just now where I cut the EB too short (the EB was actually longer than the length of the workpiece but I think I gave it 3/4"-1" extra on each side). The Conturo didn't apply glue along the entire length of the EB, stopping 3/4" shy of the end of the workpiece (even though it fed the entire EB through the rollers), and I had to chisel the entire 16" EB off. I still had 60%+ glue "fuel" left.

Scraping the failed EB was really painful. Even worse, though I tried to scrape as much glue off as possible, there is still a thin layer of glue left. So I'm a bit stuck:

1. How do I avoid this issue - where glue is not applied to the entire EB? Did I press a button that stop dispensing the glue? Did I hit a weird region where the Conturo is programed to stop dispensing glue?

2. If this happens again, is there a better alternative to chiseling off the entire 16" EB? I thought about splicing in a new section where the section failed but the glue adds thickness so I can't just CA-glue a new piece in.

3. Can the FT glue adhere to itself? Or do I have to scrape all of the dried glue off in order to reapply the EB?

 

[Peter Kelly]

Run an iron over the tape until it loosens getting it good and hot. The moment you pull the tape up, run a putty knife over the edge and scrape off the remaining glue while it’s warm. As long as the edge is relatively smooth and most of the glue is gone, new tape can be applied over it.

Hot melt bander glue is usually easy enough to remove with either a heat gun on low or a hair dryer otherwise.

 

[Minh Tran]

Run an iron over the tape until it loosens getting it good and hot. The moment you pull the tape up, run a putty knife over the edge and scrape off the remaining glue while it’s warm. As long as the edge is relatively smooth and most of the glue is gone, new tape can be applied over it.

Hot melt bander glue is usually easy enough to remove with either a heat gun on low or a hair dryer otherwise.

Great tips. Thanks, Peter.

 

[luvmytoolz]

I'm sorta impressed you found it difficult to remove!

 

[tjbnwi]

To remove the edge banding I run the TS-55 along the edge removing just the edge banding.

As others mentioned heat works.

The glue will stick to itself.

You need the piece ~4” longer than thew work piece.

Tom

 

[Minh Tran]

To remove the edge banding I run the TS-55 along the edge removing just the edge banding.

As others mentioned heat works.

The glue will stick to itself.

You need the piece ~4” longer than thew work piece.

Tom

Also a nice idea. 4" got it.

 

[Distinctive Interiors]

My Conturo always fails to apply adhesive to the last 20mm of any edgeband I run through.....I just allow for it when cutting the band to length.

To remove a recently applied edge,  just use a hot air gun and slowly peel/ stretch the edge off.

To remove the excess adhesive from the edge of the board, just place a sheet of paper on the edge and heat it with an old electric iron and peel the paper off, move the paper along using a different area on the paper, and repeat for the whole edge. The adhesive will stick to the paper, not the board!
You may need to go over the same area twice, depending on the material that you are applying the edging to.

I've found that using a tracksaw to remove the edge does work, but it makes a right mess over the blade teeth......The Iron & Paper trick is by far the cleaner option...

 

[Minh Tran]

EB failed again today (EB twisted while in the feeder wheel) so I had to replace the glued on EB.

This time, I applied a hot iron to the EB and it came off smoothly like buttah on a skillet. Since I only have two hands, I asked my roommate to scrape the glue behind me as I went along. Came back with a chisel to scrape off remaining glue (per advice to make it even) and reapplied another EB strip without issues.

Thanks all for the help!

1. Conturo is programmed to not dispense glue at the last 1"/25mm of the EB strip.
3. Yes, new glue will stick to the old glue; the Conturo will reheat the old glue (if there's any leftover after scraping) so that reapplication isn't a problem.

 

[Peter Kelly]

EB failed again today (EB twisted while in the feeder wheel) so I had to replace the glued on EB.

I've never seen this. What thickness tape are you applying? 1mm?

 

[Distinctive Interiors]

Neither have I.....I cant see how it could twist as its held nice & captive within the support....Very odd!

 

[sancho57]

maybe you need to adj your glue settings to apply more glue.

Do you let the machine run say letting 2-3" pass through the machine before applying the EB?

Also what Tom said

How long a piece are you edge banding?

FT makes a adapter to fit on the conturo for banding thats longer that 4' lengths. I dont know how you could possibly twist the EB.
Check out FT live on you tube look for the conturo episode. Sedge goes over the conturo pretty thoroughly

 

[Brian Livingstone]

Speaking of the Conturo, my client purchased pre finished maple edge banding with glue.  Would that work in the Conturo ?  Obviously with adhesive pucks in the Conturo.  I can’t find pre finished edge banding in my area.

Thank you.

 

[Distinctive Interiors]

I've never tried to run any pre glued edging through my Conturo,  but I imagine it would adhere to the board, albeit with a thicker glue line.

Also, I would assume that Festool would more than frown on using the tool in such a way as it's clearly not designed to do so.

 

[Ebuwan]

Yeah, i'd avoid the pre-glue banding through it, WAY too expensive if a machine to mess with that IMO.

I've never had the issue you describe. I have had some PVC edgebanding get kinda "stuck" and come out a melted mess, but I hadn't tried applying it to the work piece cuz the issues was immediately apparent. It was just a height adjustment for the banding that did the trick.

For length, i always do 3-4 fingers worth extra of banding at both ends when i'm measuring it out and cutting it off the roll.