Talk me into/out of purchasing a Conturo

[Onebean]

I've been building some frameless cabinets from prefinished plywood over the last year, with the help of my Festool tracksaw, MFT3, domino, and MFK 700 for trimming edge banding. I've been using preglued edge banding on the exposed plywood on the fronts of the cabinets/shelves, and using partial or full overlay doors and drawers. I've completed 2- book cases, 2- credenzas, 2- bathroom vanities, and a full set of upper and lower cabinets including a pantry for a small kitchen in an investment property. I'm honing my skills and refining my build process slowly, and I'm gaining confidence in my abilities. Applying the preglued edge banding with an iron is kind of a drag on the process, and I get loose spots where the glue didn't get heated long enough. I find these in assembly typically, and have to carefully reheat the area to get the glue to stick. I think the Conturo would speed up the process significantly, and I would hope eliminate the loose areas. The price of the Conturo is where I pause. It's just so dang expensive.

It looks like I will be tackling the task of building all new cabinets for my medium sized home kitchen. If this project happens, I see my edge banding options as:

1- keep using the preglued edge banding and iron, work on my technique to eliminate the loose spots, and come to terms with the time it will take to iron all this on.
2- purchase a less expensive edge banding machine. My issue with the others I've looked at, are the floor space they take because it's a dedicated machine that requires floor space (which I don't want to give up). I also have some concerns with the glue clean up/maintenance on this style of machine between uses.
3- purchase the Conturo and hopefully eliminate all my issues while significantly speeding up the application process.

Any advice???

 

[squall_line]

My advice is to perfect your ironing technique.  Or find a really clean but really cheap used Conturo.

I've tossed back and forth the idea of getting a Conturo myself, and almost pulled the trigger on Recon once or twice, but the time it would take me to put enough hobby production through it to justify the cost is pretty insane.  If I had money burning a hole in my pocket, then maybe.  But even then, without the accessory set...

I already have a Vac-SYS, and I feel like that or some other form of vacuum clamp to keep access to all 4 edges at the same time is part of what makes the Conturo worth having.  Clamping a panel to a table, running the Conturo on only one side, trimming, releasing, turning, clamping...  Although I'm sure that applies almost as equally with iron-on banding.

 

[tjbnwi]

I have 2 Conturo’s that were the workhorses of our edge banding. Got the first one when the first came to NA. The trimmer is a must.

I bought this used for 3K, there are still times we use the Conturos.

[attachimg=1]

Conturo in use;=OYH6OcY4h5fcoQ33

Tom

 

[bwehman]

Looks like a conturo is about to pop on on the recon site:https://www.festoolrecon.com/collections/oneanddone

 

[MikeGE]

I considered buying a Conturo, but decided I wouldn't use it enough to justify the cost.  However, I watched this video last night about the Co-Matic BR600 that is hand-held and less expensive than the Conturo. 

 

[denovo]

Just the ability to use 1mm edge banding with the conturo is worth the investment for me.  The finished product is far superior to the iron on edgebanding.  The pucks are more expensive but not having to deal with a glue pot is worth the expense.  You can also buy non-festool pucks and cut them down with ratcheting pipe cutter. 

If mine died tomorrow I'd buy another without hesitation.  I've also let a few other contractors borrow it and they bought one after I took it back.  They couldn't go back to iron-on, 

 

[Onebean]

I'm working on a DIY VAC-SYS currently, so I can eliminate the manual clamping. 

I looked at the Co-Matic when the reviewer said it was half the price. The one I found for sale was only around $400 cheaper.

What is this Recon site? Does Festool recondition these tools? Are they used, or items that were defective on delivery?

 

 

[slavi.yordanov]

I'm working on a DIY VAC-SYS currently, so I can eliminate the manual clamping. 

I looked at the Co-Matic when the reviewer said it was half the price. The one I found for sale was only around $400 cheaper.

What is this Recon site? Does Festool recondition these tools? Are they used, or items that were defective on delivery?

Some are used and repaired, but mostly returned items. Warranty is only 1 year instead of 3.

Buying that type of machine for a single project won’t make much sense in my opinion. You can always resale later for a good price I guess..

Or you can build the boxes from 13-ply birch and leave the edges exposed.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[woodferret]

Probably my #1 reason for not getting the Conturo... discovering your affinity towards thick solid edging that ties two cabinets together.  Basically face-frame, but no overlap and extremely tight tolerance.

It's not the standard euro-cabinet one can knock out and make RTA, but dang it looks way nicer and justifies doing this yourself.  A Conturo will do nothing in this world.

All that said, your investment property monetary bracket would dictate whether you want to go this custom or just knock out euro style cabinets.  If it's the later, get the Conturo.  If your investment property is on such slim margins that this is a meaningful thing, then just work on your ironing technique, which includes proper cleaning, pads, etc, etc.  Also shelf life/storage is a concern with pre-glued, but is even more of an issue with PVC so be aware.  You'll need a reliable supplier - it had to be said.

 

[SoonerFan]

I have talked myself out of one a couple times.  Initially, it was the cost.  Lately, I find myself building face frame cabinets more and more often thus very little need for a Conturo.  When edge banding is needed for shelves, I typically use hard wood, glue on and flush trim.  If my needs change I would look at the Conturo again.

 

[Peter Kelly]

Buy a Conturo, maintain it carefully and re-sell it once you’re done. I can’t imagine it’d be difficult to move one of these if the asking price is right.

Guido Henn just did another excellent video on manually applying and trimming 3mm plastic tape to melamine-clad board. I’ve found that Titebond Quick & Thick works well for this type of application with wood tape. Certainly not as fast as a hot-melt machine but far stronger and basically zero investment.

 

[cider]

I'm just a hobbyist, and I picked up a refurb Conturo for a cabinet project.  It was an extravagance for me, and I planned to sell it afterwards, but I'm having second thoughts now that it's getting towards the end of the project.  When I added up all the individual edges to be covered, it was in the hundreds, so I'm glad I bought it.

Keep in mind glue is expensive, and comes in large-ish quantities.  The trimmer is really expensive, IMO, but it works as advertised and makes things easy.

 

[Onebean]

I took the plunge and purchased the Conturo along with the Conturo table, accessory kit, and LR32 system. I'm about to kick off a small kitchen cabinet build utilizing all these tools.

 

[Chainring]

What is this Recon site? Does Festool recondition these tools? Are they used, or items that were defective on delivery?

It's the official site of Festool US where they sell reconditioned tools. I don't know what all qualifies to go up there, but I'd suspect a large majority are tools that came back from the 30 day no questions asked return policy.

www.festoolrecon.com

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Even in a large commercial cabinet shop, with two full sized edge banders, we still have the occasional need for a hand-held unit too. It is generally used when curved edges or rounded corners come up, since the big machines can only do straight edges.
We got a great deal on a Co-matic, with the optional mounting base and everything. It uses pellet type glue, so not proprietary. It can even stick edge banding as thick as 3mm. You pretty much have to use pre-cut strips though. That stuff is so stiff, that coiling it is quite a chore.
As [member=75217]squall_line[/member] mentioned, work holding becomes the slow-down point with these types of machines. A vacuum system is going to be your friend, but a dog table (MFT) can get it done too. It's slower, but that is not necessarily a deal breaker for a hobbyist.
Since you already have an MFK700, you're on the way to making it happen. The Co-matic people sell an off-set base router as part of their system, but the MFK is far superior.

 

[sancho57]

I own a conturo.  I bought because I thought Id be using it a lot more then I actually do. Its one of those tools that you dont always use but when you need it you are glad you got it.
[big grin]
My advice about using it is not with the conturo but with the edge banding. I suggest using 1mm thick edge banding.
Most of the edge banding that you hobbiest stores, Rockler, Woodcraft, Big boxes are .5mm thick.
I find that the extra .5 mm makes a big difference in not only how well the contouro applies it but overall satisfaction with the results. 

Though they sell a kit with all the accessories I for once didnt buy the entire kit.

I bought the carbide trimmer and the attachment that attaches to the conturo that helps using longer lengths of edge banding. Ifour going to be using longer lengths of banding say 5 ft then get it.

I dont always use it but when I do Im glad I got it

 

[Crazyraceguy]

100 % agreed on the 1mm edgebanding. That .5mm stuff sucks.

 

[mino]

Af the cost of the Conturo, for one or two projects, you may as well invest in proper wood and use raw wood edges attached with Dominos in place of banding.

At least that was my calculation when considered various options ... for me I decided to "switch" all the way to proper oak boards. Cost me € 2000 in materials, still cheaper than an edge bander, and the real thing is a real thing. I actually decided to forego even a DOMINO at the time as have a good doweling jig and, with nips skipped, it was not really crtitical for the few cabinets I needed to make.

 

[cider]

Hardwood edging is definitely nice, but much slower.  In my case, my one project had hundreds of individual edges.  I had planned to sell the Conturo afterwards, but (no surprise) decided to keep it around a bit.

 

[sancho57]

[member=69042]Onebean[/member]

as I mentioned I dont use my conturo much but when I need it, i got it.

from yesterday... along with some TSO paralell guide photos