Honest Review of the Carbatec Benchtop Edge Bander

[@wykem-h3r]

Reasonable Comments that Carbatec should Pick up! I recently wrote to their management after really good & helpful service from one of their sales people in Richmond... I am glad I told him personally because I never got a response from their management in Brisbane..... which was a dissappointment... I agree with your comments about the instruction manuals Thank goodness for someone like David Stanton who actually takes the time to explain & show things in a good way .... I did press the 'like' button, The Emoji jumped up like usual but it didn't seem the register that I had been there..... Marcus

[@RichmondWoodworks]

Thanks Marcus, I really like Carbatec, the team is amazing and knowledgeable. All the best!

[@grahamkindberg7037]

Thank you for your informative review. Have now purchased one after procrastinating for quite some time. It will be a few months before I get to use it, as I am not ready to fit out wardrobes and hall cupboards yet.

[@RichmondWoodworks]

Hey good luck with the wardrobes! I have them on my to-do list as well. Would be great to hear how you go with the machine and see if you have the same issues, or is it just me...

[@grahamkindberg7037]

@@RichmondWoodworks Will keep you posted, should start the first robe next week. Painting will be completed this weekend in the first room. There are four bedrooms, one with a walk in robe, and a large hall cupboard. Longest run is 1800 as I am making the cabinets modular.

[@TheWoodKnight]

HDPE would actually be worse than the MDF for the table. It's not the most stable material, would require a *lot* of bolts to get it flat, and generally bulges when screwed into. The heat would likely cause a bit of warping too. Funnily enough, I've never used it with melamine tape, but only 1mm ABS so I have some different experiences with it. * 1mm ABS tends to have a little bit less recoil, but the guides are a bit of a weak point, I'd agree there. I think the thicker material lets you get away with cleaning it less because its stiff enough to push the glue out of the way 🤣 * The cutter is impossible to cut through thicker banding, needs more of a mechanical advantage or in my case, a mallet to hit it hard enough to cut through. * It'd be great if there was a featherboard/roller pushing the panel down - 99% of the time that edging was out of alignment for long pieces for me was when I've had less pressure on it. A wider table would help, but I think featherboard would be the best approach * For the 100m rolls of 1mm ABS, the outrigger table is actually completely useless. Not far enough away from the guides. I had to make my own 'spool holder' that's about 50cm away. Agreed that its a super expensive tool - I had to convince myself to buy one, but now I have it I'm glad I've got it.

[@RichmondWoodworks]

I mispoke and meant to say Phenolic, which I think has better heat properties. I haven't had a chance yet to run 1mm ABS through just yet, but will be doing so when I tackle inside the house. I really hope it isn't too hard to cut through, as that would just drive me crazy. I think having an infeed, wider table or some feeders would really help but it would add to the already decent footprint. For the ABS, plyco sell it in 50m rolls, which should make the outrigger table ok enough, I haven't even seen 100m rolls...where do you get them from? Overall, I am happy I bought it as it did speed some things up, but $800 is a bit to spend.