When you&#;re choosing your residence hall furniture and deciding on the specs, you&#;ll inevitably choose what materials you want.

You will get efficient and thoughtful service from Lituo.

Should it be totally solid wood, including the top? Or should you get solid wood or plywood substrates with laminate tops, or all laminate?

Whatever the selection, your furniture is probably going to include edge banding. Why?

Because it&#;s an important part of the construction. And depending on where we use it in the cabinet, it improves the longevity of your furniture.

In this short guide&#;part of our Nuts & Bolts Series for operational and facilities leaders&#;you&#;ll learn some of the basics of edge banding.

What is edge banding?

So let&#;s start at the beginning. What is edge banding?

It&#;s actually kind of simple, and the video below will help you understand it even better, but this is a simple overview to get you started.

Here&#;s the basic non-technical idea.

Plywood, particle board, and other manufactured wood cores like MDF have rough, unfinished, unprotected, and generally unsightly edges.

To account for that, some clever folks developed technologies that allow you to glue different bands of glossy finished material to those rough edges to match the tops and sides.

Those narrow bands or strips are called edging tape, and they range in thickness from 0.018-inch to 5mm thick and come in 250 ft rolls.

The thicker edging is used in high traffic and commercial environments because it provides greater resilience and impact resistance. For example, the military requires a thicker &#;&#; solid wood edge banding for maximum impact resistance.

And edge banders are the industrial grade machines that apply the edging tape to the raw edges of the wood panels with a hot-melt adhesive or glue.

What&#;s the purpose of edge banding?

Edge banding serves both functional and aesthetic purposes.

Functionally, edge bands perform some key duties for your furniture. First, they keeps moisture out serving as de facto seals on the edge of the core material. Second, edge banding improves durability and resilience by providing impact resistance. If you&#;re using solid wood edging, it can also add to the overall strength of the furniture.

Aesthetically, edge banding covers up unsightly rough edges and creates a glossy finish to match your tops and sides. You can also create radial edges to soften sharp angles.

Where do we apply edge banding?

Where can you expect to find edge banding in your furniture? That depends on your overall material specification.

A solid wood product won&#;t include any edge banding, except where we can&#;t use solid wood. Wardrobe doors, for example, are made of veneer core plywood or MDF.

And even when we use solid wood for case sides and drawer fronts, many customers still use high pressure laminate tops. Those tops need edge banding.

If you&#;re using plywood or laminate as your material specification, that needs edge banding too.

DCI uses edge banding in places you might not expect, like plywood bed decks. Why? Because a fully sealed deck prevents bed bugs. You can read more about bed bug mitigation here.

Where won&#;t you find edge banding?

DCI doesn&#;t use edge banding on cabinet backs or drawer bottoms because they are already embedded (sealed) in dato grooves. Likewise we don&#;t edge band internal plywood drawer parts because it doesn&#;t add value.

You should note that some manufactures don&#;t use edge banding where they should&#;like on the bottom and back edges of plywood cabinets. That&#;s a problem because moisture, even small amounts, can destroy unsealed furniture.

What is edge banding made from?

What are the edging tapes made from? There are different materials, and we&#;ll just focus on a few here.

PVC

1. PVC is the most popular material for edge banding on case good tops. Pros: It&#;s inexpensive, durable, and boasts a long life. It doesn&#;t require any finishing process. It&#;s also easy, albeit tedious, to repair. Cons: You can&#;t recycle it. It doesn&#;t biodegrade. Once it&#;s blemished, you can&#;t refinish it. (NB: ABS&#;Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene&#;is an eco-friendly alternative to PVC because it&#;s both recyclable and safe to incinerate.)

When it comes to PVC, we recommend 3mm edging in general because it goes on cleaner, quicker, and with better adhesion. Another advantage is that you get a graceful radius and a nice soft-looking finish. In general, we avoid .5mm edging because the corners tend to be too sharp.

Solid Wood

2. Solid Wood is still a favorite for case good tops in many woodworking camps. It&#;s durable, recyclable, easy to fix and refinish, strong, stiff, and economical.

Benefits: it&#;s more resistant to chipping than veneer edge tape. Solid wood glues are more reliable and less prone to peeling than veneer and PVC. It provides additional dimensional support to plywood and mdf. Climate neutral manufacturing. Cons: Difficult to use for curves.

We offer solid wood edge banding for tops in a range of thicknesses. And you can apply it internally or externally.

When it comes to solid wood we recommend 9.5mm on case good tops.

As we explain below, at DCI, we believe the best way to apply wood edge banding is &#;internally&#; with a HPL top. Why? Because in our experience, it&#;s incredibly durable and never requires additional service.

Wood Veneer

3. Wood Veneer is the most common edge banding material for plywood cabinet sides, drawer fronts, and MDF wardrobe doors. It&#;s made from thin slices of wood&#;typically oak, maple, ash, walnut, birch, and mahogany&#;that are joined together in a roll using finger jointing.

It usually features a heat-sensitive glue backing. And it comes in a range of thicknesses, so it&#;s important to use the right one depending on the application.

Pros: It&#;s attractive, durable, and strong. It provides a clean solid-wood look, and it&#;s pre-sanded to absorb stains and finishes and seamlessly match your wood. Cons: It&#;s not heat resistant. Avoid putting it near a heater. It doesn&#;t do well in high-use environments.

How is edge banding applied?

According to RA Learning Center, there are at least four methods of applying edge banding. There are a lot of things to say about each of these but for now, here&#;s a simple list of application methods and mediums.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Cupboard PVC Edge Banding.

• Hot-melt glue
• Hot air/laser
• Iron-on
• Laser edging

Additional considerations

Peeling

There&#;s no doubt, edge banding is essential to most campus and dorm furniture. When applied improperly, or used incorrectly in critical components, it&#;s a huge maintenance issue.

One issue you might find in furniture that has edge banding is that it peels. Why?

Sometimes, for different reasons, the adhesive can fail. When that happens, the edge banding will start to peel away from the edge.

Peeling can also happen because of rough use. For example, .5mm edging doesn&#;t provide much resistance to impact. Therefore you don&#;t want to use it on the front end of a case side. If you do, your edging might start to peel.

If your furniture starts to peel, we can fix it. Just reach out to your local DCI account rep, and we&#;ll take care of it for you.

Cost

Generally speaking, we recommend PVC edge banding for projects where budget is the first and driving priority. That is not to say there is anything wrong with this material. There are just fewer steps in the manufacturing process and the raw material is less expensive.

Solid wood edge banding is more expensive because it&#;s labor intensive and the material is higher quality. And with more steps involved in the manufacturing process, we consider this a premium solution. As we alluded to above, internal solid wood edge banding with HPL tops are probably our strongest and most durable solution.

Adhesives

We choose to use a hot melt glue for our adhesive solution because it&#;s user friendly and provides a great seal. We apply the glue to the edge while it&#;s still hot and then apply the banding, pressing it to the side.

Ambient temperature plays an important role in the edge banding process. We need to regulate the temperature of both the building and our materials. In essence, we need a warm environment for the optimal adhesion process. It can&#;t be cold in the building.

And finally, you need a good clean glue edge for the process to work. At DCI, we have state of the art machinery that improves the glue edge and squares it up perfectly.

Your Choices

It&#;s our responsibility to edge band correctly. But you should know, there are still choices you&#;ll need to make when evaluating edge banding options.

Those choices can feel daunting if you don&#;t live and breathe this stuff like we do. Our experts will help you navigate your edge banding options to ensure you get the right product for your project.

Our goal is to help you understand the process and give you confidence that our products are designed based on years of manufacturing experience and time-tested performance in the field.

Videos: Edge Banding Basics

Here is a stripped down version of edge banding. Of course, when building furniture for Higher Education and Military customers, we do this on an industrial scale. But this video will help you visualize the process in its simplest form.

If you enjoyed this article, you can check out the full Nuts & Bolts Series here.

  

Applying PVC Edgebanding Without an Edgebander

PVC edgebanding can be applied by hand, but it's tricky and difficult. Here is a handful of tips and advice. November 20,

Question
I've been a pro cabinet maker for a couple of years now and I've got a repeat customer that wants me to build some matching office furniture they already have. (I did their house cabinets). 99% of my work is with plywood or lumber, not melamine or laminated panels. I have to build (7) 60" computer desks, with 2 DBs for each one.

The material is 1" panolam with 3mm edgebanding. I was planning to use a solvent based contact cement and brush it on, apply the 3mm PVC edgband and trim with a handheld router with a small round-over bit to match the other stuff.

My questions are:
1. Is this the best way without a edgebander?
2. Will the handheld router method work, or just cause grief?
3. Do I need to file or buff the 3mm edge after I trim it?
4. If I have to buff, buff with what?

Any other advice is greatly appreciated.

Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor H:
The solvent based contact will work fine and a 3/16" round-over bit is fine. Use some oil or thinner with some very fine steel wool or a buffer wheel on a drill press to polish.

From contributor M:
You might want to try it first. Ask for a sample of the material and give it a shot. I tried to do a 12" radius with 3mm PVC once and had a hard time with it. I used 2 guys and we used a dead-blow to pound it on the curve. The results were mixed. I also used a Lamelo Cantex to flush the edges, and then used a 1/8" round-over bit.

You might want to try it first. Ask for a sample of the material and give it a shot. I tried to do a 12" radius with 3mm PVC once and had a hard time with it. I used 2 guys and we used a dead-blow to pound it on the curve. The results were mixed. I also used a Lamelo Cantex to flush the edges, and then used a 1/8" round-over bit.

By far the easiest way to do this is to sub this out to someone with an edgebander. To do 3mm on a machine you need a scraper and a buffer. The scraper will remove the knife marks left by the trimmers, and the buffer will polish out the edge. If you are doing a dark color, you would benefit from a re-generator - a heater at the end that will bring the color back. While Harold recommends a 3/16" r, 1/8" (3mm) is most common. I have tried to buff with a buffer, but again, mixed results.

Can 3mm PVC be applied by hand, yes. But the results will not compare to an edgebander. PVC is very stiff (unless you get the kind for contour edgebanding - another story). It has been coiled up, and retains its memory. You will have to fight this. I tried to warm this up on a Texas parking lot, and it still was fighting me. An edgebander has a pressure roller(s) that apply an incredible amount of pressure to the edge, which is difficult to reproduce by hand.

There is a reason these banders are so expensive. Because the do a much better job than we can do by hand. Again, try it and see if you are satisfied.

From contributor A:
I have applied many miles of 3mm by hand. As far as doing radiuses go, be sure you have full coverage of contact cement and, for doing radiuses, use a heat gun to get the 3mm really hot, then use a palm roller and apply pressure the entire length of the radius.

I have applied many miles of 3mm by hand. As far as doing radiuses go, be sure you have full coverage of contact cement and, for doing radiuses, use a heat gun to get the 3mm really hot, then use a palm roller and apply pressure the entire length of the radius.

(A caution is in order here. If you get the 3mm too hot, it will start to bubble.) Go back and forth applying the pressure until the 3mm cools off and gets hard again. If you stop rolling before it cools, it has been my experience that it will come loose. Also, I have never polished 3mm after routering with and kind of abrasive.

Instead I use Seamfil solvent. It has to be Seamfil solvent, others, like Wilsonart 110, will not polish the edges. I am not a chemist, but Seamfil solvent will actually dissolve pvc whereas the other solvents I have tried do not. I would think that if you used steel wool or something similar, it would eave a dull finish. The Seamfil method leaves a very shiny edge.

Are you interested in learning more about 1mm PVC edge banding? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!