Edgebander Choice: Hot Air Versus Glue Pot
A second-hand glue pot edgebander at a good price could be the better value. July 29, 2012
Question
I’m looking to buy a Verutex hot air edgebander. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor V:
How much Edgebanding are you doing on cabinets now? We have had a Virutex EB30 for about four years and then moved up to a glue pot bander and haven’t looked back. Our Virutex worked well but the tape was a lot harder to get pre-glued in PVC colors. Are you buying new or used, and what bander are you looking at?
From contributor F:
Are you buying new or used? Only reason I ask is because for the cost of a new one you could easily pick up a used glue pot bander in this market. I did recently and am very happy with it.
From contributor V:
I also picked up a $30,000 used glue pot bander for under $5,000. It’s a good market to buy and a bad market to sell used tools lately.
From contributor W:
I went Virutex and struggled with it for two years. I bought a KD53 glue pot and then started making money.
From contributor Y:
It's been a long time since I used a hot air bander. I think you would be a lot happier with the results of a used glue pot machine. Stay with a machine less than five years old. Most light duty glue pot machines will do 1mm which is a lot better than the 1/2mm typical of hot air machines.
From contributor S:
I agree with everything posted. A hot air bander will drive you nuts. A decent glue pot bander is much faster and will give you much more versatility. Some edgebanding is not available pre-glued, and the edgebanding that is available is more expensive. We use specialty veneers that are only available in regular un-glued edgebanding, and we can also cut our own strips of edgebanding from veneer sheets if we have thicker material to edgeband (up to 2-1/2" with our machine). In the long run it will be faster and cheaper. Honestly, I always worried about the long term holding power of pre-glued edgebanding.
