I've got a TS-55, rails, and some other random Festools. I need to cut edgebanding for a new project. In other words, I'm going to take a hardwood board and cut it down into long strips 1/4" thick, 7/8" wide, and 6 to 8 feet long. This is a job traditionally pawned off on a table saw but I don't have a table saw and have no interest in getting one. Is there a reasonable way to cut this within the Festool system? My thoughts are either mark it by hand on the board, align the rail, and hope I cut parallel or to buy the Parallel Guide Set (P00108, ouch on price) and use the Extensions to repeatedly rip such a thin piece. Any better options? Thoughts? I'd obviously love to avoid having to buy the Parallel Guide Set.
What's the Best Way to Cut Edgebanding?
- Thread starter williaty
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I am enclosing a link to a video I did in 2010 on this subject. The parallel guide extensions are dynamite for cutting narrow edge banding. Video_3_Festool Parallel Guide Extensions for cutting narrow pieces
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For a narrow board put a same thickness board under the rail to support it.
Do you have a planer? To make these with a track saw I usually just cut strips a bit wider than what I need and run them through the planer. Which also means no measuring / marking, just eyeball the width when setting the rail. This is especially usefull method if using the Panther blade since the planer does the cleanup of saw blade marks.
Seth
Do you have a planer? To make these with a track saw I usually just cut strips a bit wider than what I need and run them through the planer. Which also means no measuring / marking, just eyeball the width when setting the rail. This is especially usefull method if using the Panther blade since the planer does the cleanup of saw blade marks.
Seth
One point I did not emphasize enough in the video is that you need to keep material of the same thickness under the back edge of the guide to provide some degree of rigidity in the system. As long as the strip on the guide is in contact with the board being cut, you should be able to continue to whittle away at the piece. Once that contact is no longer there, you are done.
Alternative approach, if you are willing to "fiddle" with it and accept a little variation in the thickness of your pieces --- make some spacers from wood that are the width of the saw blade plus the desired width of the edgebanding. Position these on top of your stock at the front edge and push the guide rail up to them. Use several spacers along the length. Once you are satisfied, remove them and bring on the saw and see what you get. I'll bet you do pretty well after you have done a few. Check them with a digital caliper or better, swap every other one end or end, lay them out on a flat table and feel them with your hands as well as looking at them visually. I would guess that 8 our 10 would be acceptable.
Cutting thin strips on a table saw is extremely precarious.
Let us know how you do. There is alot of interest in this subject. The video now has 32000 views
Alternative approach, if you are willing to "fiddle" with it and accept a little variation in the thickness of your pieces --- make some spacers from wood that are the width of the saw blade plus the desired width of the edgebanding. Position these on top of your stock at the front edge and push the guide rail up to them. Use several spacers along the length. Once you are satisfied, remove them and bring on the saw and see what you get. I'll bet you do pretty well after you have done a few. Check them with a digital caliper or better, swap every other one end or end, lay them out on a flat table and feel them with your hands as well as looking at them visually. I would guess that 8 our 10 would be acceptable.
Cutting thin strips on a table saw is extremely precarious.
Let us know how you do. There is alot of interest in this subject. The video now has 32000 views
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Why not use edge banding material you can buy already thin and iron it on and trim the edges? You can buy it in maple oak or whatever and it looks great
What are you doing or making?
What are you doing or making?
Ken Nagrod
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Something to keep in mind. We had a little discussion over at Woodworking Cafe website (woodworkingcafe.com) recently about putting narrow pieces under the guide rail for cutting and Qwas (Steve) pointed out that the guide rails have a recessed area that may allow the rail to tip on your wood giving you a bevel on your cut. Look down the length of the underside of the guide rail while it's resting on your wood to see if that's the case.
I've used the PSA edge banding and HATED it. I've used the iron-on edge banding and it was very serviceable, but there's still a tiny edge where you can see it's not all wood if you get up close enough to it. Thick real wood edge banding is basically invisible if you want it to be.honeydokreg said:
For the project I'm doing next, I'm making a set of hollow grid shelves like the Ikea Expedit stuff, sort of. I'm doing the body of the thing out of oak ply and then going to do a thick edge band on every face out of walnut to provide a contrasting line and the front of each shelf as well as to hide the fact that it's ply.
You might take a peek at a method I have used with great success on an earlier post referenced to setting up a new MFT and TS55 saw. Using your guide rail cut piece that is slightly longer than the edge banding that you are going to use. Place stops on each end, dominoes work really well. Now clamp or affix this guide fence to your cutting table. Run your TS along the rail to mark a kerf line in your cutting table. Now measure from the edge of the kerf line to the guide fence for whatever thickness you want on both the near end and far end to insure a parallel cut and edge banding of consistent thickness. set your material under the rail and secure it with a clamp so it will not creep as you cut the material. Once the feed material is shorter than the thickness os the guide rail simply place another same thickness piece of material as your edge band material under the rail and set it up tight against the material to be cut. The beauty of this method is very simple to set up and one will get very very accurate sized cuts. Also there is no need to use a thickness planer which not everybody has the luxury of owning. And no snipe!
Just got done reading your post and think that will look great! I was cutting some 1/2 inch thick banding with my above method with excellent results. For my shelves it needed to be about 23 inches log which nicely fitted on the MFT3 with its 1080 rail. But as I said you can make edge banding as long as you want and only the rail length and cutting table size will be the limiting factor. Also a very stout and accurate way to attach this edge banding to your project is to use the 4mm dominos and offset the plunge depths for no punch through. Or for an alternate look I have allowed the domino to show as it looks very nice.
[attachimg=#1]
This shows a through domino. Sexy huh.
[attachimg=#1]
This shows a through domino. Sexy huh.
Ken Nagrod
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williaty said:
They look like Sipo dominos.
Actually they are the regular beech dominos as in son of a beech. Ha ha! The reason they appear to be sipo is because the tung oil that I like to use slightly darkens the wood that it is applied to and of course end grain of the wood will absorb more finish.
Regarding the jig is can be made in these easy steps.
Step one: Use the guide rail and TS55 to cut a piece of fence material to the desired length.
[attachimg=#1]
Step two: Set a stop piece at the far end of the fence. This will keep the offcut piece (the banding) from flying off the end of the MFT. I like to use a domino cause it is quick and easy.
[attachimg=#2]
Step 3:Now decide on the desired thickness of the banding that you want. I like to use 1/2 inch.
[attachimg=#3]
Step 4:Measure at both ends of the fence 1/2 inch to the near edge of the kerf line. This will give a consistent thickness along the length of the banding.
[attachimg=#4]
[attachimg=#5]
View showing clamps holding the jig.
[attachimg=#6]
Close up of the kerf line. Sorry I do not have a macro lens so please excuse the soft focus.
[attachimg=#7]
View showing feed stock butted up against the fence and domino stop.
[attachimg=#8]
Another view from the near side of the cutting table.
[attachimg=#9]
The rail is down, the feed stock is clamped and we are ready for cutting.
[attachimg=#10]
The saw is in position and raring to cut.
[attachimg=#11]
We have just made the cut.
[attachimg=#12]
And this is the result. It is within 12 thousandths of a half an inch. Of course with a little more fussing around you could achieve exactly 1/2 an inch. Consider that I set this up in less than five minutes.
[attachimg=#13]
So in conclusion if it does not have to be precisely a given value this can be done rather quickly with very nice looking pieces of banding. Here is a sample of some oak banding that I did on a custom countertop video game that I built.
[attachimg=#14]
Hope this helps.
Regarding the jig is can be made in these easy steps.
Step one: Use the guide rail and TS55 to cut a piece of fence material to the desired length.
[attachimg=#1]
Step two: Set a stop piece at the far end of the fence. This will keep the offcut piece (the banding) from flying off the end of the MFT. I like to use a domino cause it is quick and easy.
[attachimg=#2]
Step 3:Now decide on the desired thickness of the banding that you want. I like to use 1/2 inch.
[attachimg=#3]
Step 4:Measure at both ends of the fence 1/2 inch to the near edge of the kerf line. This will give a consistent thickness along the length of the banding.
[attachimg=#4]
[attachimg=#5]
View showing clamps holding the jig.
[attachimg=#6]
Close up of the kerf line. Sorry I do not have a macro lens so please excuse the soft focus.
[attachimg=#7]
View showing feed stock butted up against the fence and domino stop.
[attachimg=#8]
Another view from the near side of the cutting table.
[attachimg=#9]
The rail is down, the feed stock is clamped and we are ready for cutting.
[attachimg=#10]
The saw is in position and raring to cut.
[attachimg=#11]
We have just made the cut.
[attachimg=#12]
And this is the result. It is within 12 thousandths of a half an inch. Of course with a little more fussing around you could achieve exactly 1/2 an inch. Consider that I set this up in less than five minutes.
[attachimg=#13]
So in conclusion if it does not have to be precisely a given value this can be done rather quickly with very nice looking pieces of banding. Here is a sample of some oak banding that I did on a custom countertop video game that I built.
[attachimg=#14]
Hope this helps.
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