I purchased the Burgess Edge router bits and I've spent a few hours working
with them. All things considered, I'm pretty satisfied and recommend them.
But there's a few things to be aware of.
I'm building a built-in workspace and cabinets in my daughter's room out of
cherry plywood, using edge banding on exposed plywood edges. I got cherry
veneer plywood on a 5-ply core. The veneer is pretty thin (3/128" or so).
The instructions that come w/ the bits describe the use of shims to match
the cuts to the plywood thickness. But my plywood (0.711") was a bit less
than the ususal thicknesses discussed in the instructions (0.724", +/-)
Its important to be able to measure the plywood thickness etc. acuurately.
I found that I had to fidget a lot to get the cut centered on the plywood so
that it left the right amount of veneer, and that a good micro-adjustment
for the depth-of-cut on the router is essential. I ended up going to my
router table. Ditto for the bit used to rout the band insert. I ended up
leaving the cut a little thin, so that I left more than the 1/2-veneer
thickness recommended in the instructions.
Once I got the depth-of-cut and cut-thickness adjustments nailed, the bits
worked well. Clean cuts, precise fit of the edge band in the cove, making a
good clean edge band.
The bottom line: measure your plywood before you purcahse to make sure its
workable, make sure your eyes and the router's micro-adjust mechanism is up
to the task, and plan to spend some time adjusting.
-JBB
"J.B. Bobbitt" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I purchased the Burgess Edge router bits and I've spent a few hours working
> with them. All things considered, I'm pretty satisfied and recommend them.
> But there's a few things to be aware of.
Would you say they're a better idea than using tongue and groove
joints for that purpose? Is there a reason to spend the extra money?
Thanks JB. I will fell better about ordering it now that I know it works albeit
with some friggin. Cheers, JG
"J.B. Bobbitt" wrote:
> I purchased the Burgess Edge router bits and I've spent a few hours working
> with them. All things considered, I'm pretty satisfied and recommend them.
> But there's a few things to be aware of.
>
> I'm building a built-in workspace and cabinets in my daughter's room out of
> cherry plywood, using edge banding on exposed plywood edges. I got cherry
> veneer plywood on a 5-ply core. The veneer is pretty thin (3/128" or so).
>
> The instructions that come w/ the bits describe the use of shims to match
> the cuts to the plywood thickness. But my plywood (0.711") was a bit less
> than the ususal thicknesses discussed in the instructions (0.724", +/-)
> Its important to be able to measure the plywood thickness etc. acuurately.
>
> I found that I had to fidget a lot to get the cut centered on the plywood so
> that it left the right amount of veneer, and that a good micro-adjustment
> for the depth-of-cut on the router is essential. I ended up going to my
> router table. Ditto for the bit used to rout the band insert. I ended up
> leaving the cut a little thin, so that I left more than the 1/2-veneer
> thickness recommended in the instructions.
>
> Once I got the depth-of-cut and cut-thickness adjustments nailed, the bits
> worked well. Clean cuts, precise fit of the edge band in the cove, making a
> good clean edge band.
>
> The bottom line: measure your plywood before you purcahse to make sure its
> workable, make sure your eyes and the router's micro-adjust mechanism is up
> to the task, and plan to spend some time adjusting.
>
> -JBB
"edfan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> Would you say they're a better idea than using tongue and groove
> joints for that purpose? Is there a reason to spend the extra money?
I'm no expert by any means, but here's what I think:
The Burgess Edge system produces an edge band with the glue seams along the
inner surface of the veneers of the plywood. The internal profile of the
band feathers into the veneers, so the seam is virtually invisible if the
band material matches the veneer and the cuts are set up right. With the
tounge and groove joint you've got to leave some thickness to the edge band
so the joint will show.
I've never used tounge and groove edge banding. I doubt that there's any
advantage to the Burgess Edge re: set up time or ease of use (I spent quite
a long time getting the setup just so). The only advantage would be the
virtually invisible seams.
-JBB
<JJ> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Did you trim your wood insert square to the plywood at the plywood
> edge? Or did you leave some extra thickness of wood, such as for
> rounding over or some other milling?
So far, I've done about 16' with the edge band hand-planed flush. I'm still
very impressed with the quality of the edge. I'm about to start the long
edges of the desktop; on these edges, I'm going to try a 3/4" thumbnail
profile. I'll let you know how it goes.
-JBB
J.B. Bobbitt wrote:
> The bottom line: measure your plywood before you purcahse
I seem to remember past dicusions about this and that the reason for
varience in plywood thickness is that it is manufactured to a strength
standard instead of a thickness standard. As technology gets better
plywood gets thinner.
jw
I've never used tongue and groove either.
You gotta' be careful around here or Larry and LRod will call you out.
-JBB
"J.B. Bobbitt" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "edfan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > Would you say they're a better idea than using tongue and groove
> > joints for that purpose? Is there a reason to spend the extra money?
>
> I'm no expert by any means, but here's what I think:
>
> The Burgess Edge system produces an edge band with the glue seams along
the
> inner surface of the veneers of the plywood. The internal profile of the
> band feathers into the veneers, so the seam is virtually invisible if the
> band material matches the veneer and the cuts are set up right. With the
> tounge and groove joint you've got to leave some thickness to the edge
band
> so the joint will show.
>
> I've never used tounge and groove edge banding. I doubt that there's any
> advantage to the Burgess Edge re: set up time or ease of use (I spent
quite
> a long time getting the setup just so). The only advantage would be the
> virtually invisible seams.
>
> -JBB
>
>