Assessing a Used Edgebander
Advice on checking a previously owned edgebander for typical wear and tear issues, and some complaints about the inconsistent thickness of edgebanding these days. August 19, 2013
Question (WOODWEB Member) :
I'm planning to buy an SCM K208 edgebander, which has corner rounding. Can you please advise?
Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor L:
New or used? Have you ever set up a bander? If used: see it run, get the manual and read it. Make sure everything is clean and lubed. Prime all wood and HPL banding.
Things that are very expensive to replace on a bander: High frequency motors (stop using it if you hear bearing noise, replace bearings, far cheaper than a new motor). Glue pot system - check the application roller, if it was improperly adjusted there will be extra wear usually at the 3/4" area. The result will be uneven distribution. Has the pot been crudely scraped out, damaging the coating? Check that all the pot and tower heaters are working. Heaters aren't terribly expensive but the unit will not work well if some of them are not working. Make sure all the air regulators are set to factory recommendation. The biggest problem with banders is the operator. The SCM K208 is an okay bander.
From the original questioner:
Thanks. I just sold my Cehisa EP 7 and I found a used SCM K208 with corner rounding. I was wondering if this is a good choice or not. I would like to have a good edgebander with corner rounding.
From contributor C:
SCMI makes good stuff. Call and look around. Look on this site for Lee Johnson, good honest tech that could advise you, or Johhan Huck or the guys at machineconsult.com. I would certainly see it run and get some training, especially on the 3mm application.
From contributor L:
We've got a 4 motor corner rounding station on our bander. Works amazingly well, but looks like a Chinese fire drill when running. It does take some tweaking to get right on the money, but once set seems to hold its positions well. I have noticed that 3mm banding has variations in thickness from roll to roll and even within rolls. There are 2 motor units available for PVC/ABS, but don't work on wood bands. They seem like a better deal if you don't do wood. What system does the bander you are considering use?
From the original questioner:
I won't use so much corner rounding. I just want to have if I need and I need a machine that is good for residential and commercial jobs.
From contributor R:
I would like to emphasize the comment on varying thickness of edge banding. We use mostly 1 mm thick tape, and find it varies from .94 to 1.15 mm in thickness. Not an issue with common .018 tape, but we solved a lot of problems by measuring and marking the tape thickness on the inside of the roll. We then adjust the trimmers accordingly.
From contributor N:
We have had for the last 5 years a Holzher 1320-2 bander all servo controlled. This has been a fabulous machine. We have run miles of banding through it with nothing more than typical maintenance costs. We run 1/2mm, 3mm PVC and wood and up to 1/2" thick solid wood up to 1-3/4" thick. Given this experience I would run to buy another Holzher if I needed another one. Even with the stiff competition of other brands, this one has proved to be good.
From contributor L:
The banding thickness variations aren't a big issue if the entire roll is one thickness. Easy to adjust for that as long as you aren't running production using many rolls. It's when the thickness varies within the roll that really causes problems. My operator is good and always tries to set the machine so no handwork is required. We have a heavy bander that can hold tolerances and run all day without adjustments. What's discouraging is getting a pallet load of banding that varies in thickness, either roll to roll or within rolls. A 360' roll of 3mm banding only lasts about 15 minutes, 20 tops. No one wants to adjust for banding thickness every 15 or 20 minutes! (Our machine feeds at a foot a second.) Sorry for the rant, just suffered through a pallet load of assorted thickness 3mm +-!
As for the question of corner rounding on a bander, great if you use it enough to justify its added cost, space and whatever added time it takes in setup.
