So does anyone else here find that their edgebander horizontal trimmer settings vary from day to day, especially after installing new trimmer blade inserts?
We have always edgebanded case parts with a tiny bit of bevel, not a square flush trim.
The two machines I'm most familiar with are an old Holzer Sprint 1411 and currently we have a fairly new Brandt Ambition 1110.
The two banders have VERY different architecture and approaches to trimming edgeband. However, they are similar in how you adjust how aggressive you bevel them---- you have tracing shoe settings.
The Holz-Her always seemed mysterious. You could route and band 3/4" melamine for three days straight using half-mil, and you might end up having to adjust the trimmers all three days to some different number setting to get the same result. But sometimes, that same setting worked for a week or two straight.
The Brandt started out MUCH more consistent (because it was brand new, ostensibly). Once you figured out what number setting gave you the best results, you could predictably set those shoe/trimmer numbers to the same thing every day and get the same results. That lasted 6 months maybe (original trimmers lasted a year, so it wasn't a trimmer change that altered it). After about 6 months, we found that we had to make adjustments to it much more often.
I've found similar issues when we change the machine settings over to get a full radius on thick PVC or thick wood edgeband-- but those don't seem to vary as much.
We change settings, by necessity, usually at least once or twice a day, depending on what we are routing.
It's frustrating to know that having your shoes set to "0.8" worked in the morning, but after lunch you find "0.8" is too aggressive and bevels into the melamine.