Question (WOODWEB Member) :
My production manager has our guys filing (by hand) laminate work that has come out of our $30K Brandt edgebander. Does this sound right? Do people still file by hand using those large farmer files? I'm sure they have better tools and much faster on the market, do you know of any? Shouldn't we be able to calibrate our edgebander for no filing once it is done? We spend a lot of time filing laminate jobs and it drives me crazy as a business owner.
Forum Responses
(Laminate and Solid Surfacing Forum)
From contributor J:
I can tell you that we still have to do some handwork through our 46K Brandt bander. When we run PVC it pretty much comes out finished other than some possible glue to clean off here and there, but when we run laminate strips there always seems to be some filing to do just to get rid of the chatter marks.
Keeping the cutters sharp does help, but they will dull pretty fast with the HPL. Also depending on what material we are banding we may set the trimmers slightly high just so we don’t have to worry about burn-through on a possible high spot of glue from when the panel was laid up.
I have seen banders that do not require any hand work when the parts come out, however this has always been at a mfg. showroom where the bander is not being used in a production setting and is only running sample pieces. I'm sure others will chime in that they have banders that require no hand work, perhaps 30 to 46K is not enough. I guess it would also depend on what condition you want to send your parts out in. I know of a company that employs three to four people and their only job is to file and clean parts when they come out of the bander.
1. The tooling has to be sharp and it does not last long for this, but I think sharpening is less expensive than filing. I keep one or two extra sets of tooling available so I have at least one to use when I get them sharpened.
2. Use laid up panels from a factory if you can't get them flat enough in your shop. We can't do it that flat with contact cement.
3. If your machine allows, set the routers at a very slight bevel so if there is a high spot on the panel, it will not cut into the laminate very much. If your machine does not allow it, there may be a bevel tool available for your machine or have one made. I use a very slight bevel, less than 1/2 degree.
4. At this point, I either have no filing or just breaking the edge. I only go through this much trouble if I have a large quantity of parts to run, or else it takes more time to set up the bander this way than to file.
