I build commercial plam cabinets with the .018 edgebanding. I currently have a SCMI Basic 2 thats worn out and looking for a quality used edgebander. My SCMI does not have scraper and buffer station and set my bottom trimmer to cut flush and leave a little on top and shave with 4" razor knife. I have to clean glue residue off doors and cabinet parts. Will the scraper station and buffer station eliminate the glue clean up ? I see several post where it mentions the stations are for 3mm will it work for .018 as well ? I really want a edgebander where my parts come out ready to hardware with very minimal if any clean up. Thanks in advance
From contributor Do
I meant .5mm on my edgebanding >
From contributor Le
I had the exact same bander with the exact same wear. I got tired of paying a full time person to clean doors and cabinet parts. I wanted in one end out the other with min. amout of work. I bought a Felder G500 with scrapers and buffers and I do both wood banding and pvc and some 3mill it will do all of this and .125" solid wood edge. Quick changes between flat and quarter rounded edges. The Buffers and scrapers are great. I bought this machine for two reasons space and price and I have owned a felder F7 shaper for 12 years and still get great service and parts if it is ever needed. I hope this helps.
From contributor Sc
The answer is neither will remove a bunch of glue. Scrapers are designed and used for 3 mm PVC edging. Your cutters first cut your 3 mm radius and then the scrapers remove the chatter marks left by the cutters. They will remove a small amount of glue, but generally if you are leaving a bunch of glue on the face it will just be smeared around as it is warm.
The buffing wheels will remove a very small amount of glue, but they will also smear it around if there is to much glue.
From contributor Sc
I forgot to mention that a new edgebander will basically get rid of the glue line for most of the entry level banders that have glue pots. The quality then goes up with the price. The expensive banders use technology where the glue lines are invisible to the naked eye. All the best.
From contributor La
There are two totally different "scrappers" sold on banders. The radius scrapers remove the rotary tooling marks, the last station uses heat to remove the slight tear from the radius scraper on dark banding. The scraper used to remove glue uses a 4 sided carbide insert that slides along the surface of the panel and removes the excess glue before the buffs. They work well when clean but the ones on my backup bander get to be a mess very quickly then don't work so well. Higher $ machines have better solutions. Speaking of solutions there are systems that apply a small amount of "resist" @ the input so the glue scrapers work better and then apply another solution just in front of the buffers to polish it up. Do any of you use one of these systems?
From contributor Do
Thanks for the response everyone. I wonder if the " solution" sprayers are aftermarket and can be easily put on any banders ? right now I scrape top surface as soon as it exits bander. Reason I dont set my top trimmers really close is that I mass produce standard endpanels and shelving and it swells if it dits around awhile and the trimmers will cut into the melamine in some of the panels . I thought maybe that was why there was scrapers, for that reason ( no cutting into panels that may have swelled edges or a slight raise from glue , etc. )
From contributor La
I think you need to change your methods. Band as soon as possible after cutting panels. Once the edges have swelled from moisture gain you will always have a problem with the edgebanding process. To make matters worse after the panels have been banded in a swelled condition they will equalize internally and the edge will shrink making the banding stand proud of the panel. You aren't saving anything by "mass producing" panels ahead of use. It is costing you in terms of quality and manual time spent after banding. Go to a quick turn around manufacturing process and eliminate waste. WIP is waste.The more of it you make the more waste you create.
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From contributor Sc
Wow, that is hard to believe, where is your shop that you are ending up with that kind of moisture. I live in Canada and it is so dry here that something like that is unheard of. It wouldn't matter what kind of edgebander you had or how it was set up, it is impossible to do a good job on swollen panels.
From contributor Do
When I say swollen , I mean only some of the pieces that have been in stock for quite awhile and it would be not even 1/2 the thickness of melamine. I'm not talking a 1/16 but 1000's. But , its enough to go from perfect to barely cutting into the melamine and thats rare. The biggest problem would be when the panels I have laid up for doors from a company I use to lay up foor doors, there is no way panels are 100% flat when laminate is laid with glue, If I set my top trimmer perfect there would eventually be a door ran that wasnt perfectly flat and burn the laminate because of a little more glue in a area or slight inperfection . I will never stop mass producing standard cabinet parts in the slow times to be ready when alot of work comes , I go through it pretty quickly. Larry , I am a 1 man shop ( myself ) if I am stocked I can build 10 LF of cabinets from start to finish in 12 hours which is $2,350.00 not bad for a 1 man show !
From contributor La
Doni, Laminate is often a PIA. It isn't so much a thicker glue line that is getting you it's usually something stuck in the glue-line. There is a, sort of, solution for that. Set your trimmer knives so they just cut the banding and don't overhang the laminate. You may end up with some banding not fully trimmed but won't cut the laminate. Far cheaper to file a bit of banding than replace a laminated part. If your bander has digital readouts you can easily go back & forth for banding thickness. A kitchen shop can make parts ahead since many of them are common to all kitchens/closets. Just be sure to band them ASAP. We avoid using laminate banding as much as possible. It's not as durable as 2 or 3mm PVC. About the only time we may use it is for open front cabinets/fixtures.
