How to Apply Mitered Edge Banding
Charlie KocourekDescription
Mitering the corners on banding that’s being applied to all four edges of a table top can be extremely frustrating. The length of each piece has to be perfect, and each angle needs to be just right. This process calls for a methodical approach, and Charlie Kocourek has that technique nailed down. Follow his recipe, and the banding on each of your projects will be dead on. For a more detailed look at this process, check out Charlie’s related article on the topic.
Hi, I'm Charlie Kocourek, and today, I have a veneered panel. It has some beautiful, bookmatched walnut burled veneer on it, and I'm going to edge band this panel today. The challenge with edge banding, and one of the most difficult parts anyway, is getting perfect miters on all four corners. In order for the miters to be right, the angle on each piece has to be right, and the length of each piece has to be exactly perfect too. So today, I'm going to show you a super easy trick on how to make sure that all of those things are right and your miters are just as tight and nice, and perfect as can be. Here's how I do it. I start by cutting a 45 degree miter on one piece of edge banding, then I'll take that piece back to the panel and hold it up and I'll mark the length required for that piece so I know where to cut the miter for the next panel. I'm very careful not to cut the piece too short. If anything, I might leave it just a little bit too long. And then if it is a little bit too long, I'll go back to the miter saw and I'll just cut a tiny amount off the end of that miter, and then I'll check it. And I'll just keep going back and forth, sneaking up on the length until it is exactly perfect. As soon as I have that first piece cut to the right length and the angles are good, then I'll go ahead and glue it on. When I place the edge banding up against the panel, I want it to be just a little bit proud of the top of the panel, maybe 1/32 of an inch. Not very much. And it's easy to come back later and flush that up after the edge banding is completed. You could attach the edge banding with a pin nailer too, but clamping really doesn't take that much more time, and so, I prefer to do it that way, but either way is okay. then I'll cut a 45 degree miter on the next piece, and I'll hold that piece up against the first one that I already glued and check to make sure that I have a good fit. If those two pieces don't fit perfectly together, then I'll take that piece back to the miter saw, and I'll adjust the cut on it and just keep checking and adjusting until they do have a perfect fit on that particular miter. Now I will temporarily clamp that second piece in place and mark the end where I want to cut it. I also like to mark the direction that the miter has to be cut just to make sure I don't make any mistakes. After I cut it, I'll put it back against the panel and I'll check it, and keep adjusting until I have the correct length just like I did with the first piece. Now, I will glue and clamp the second piece in place. Then I will cut, adjust and attach the third piece exactly the same way that I did the second piece. Okay, so I've got all three, these first three sides on here, and I've got the last side of edge banding to install. So here's the tricky part. What I'd been doing up 'til now, I make a miter on the end of the stock, and I hold it up to the previous one and I can adjust that on the miter saw until I have a perfect fit. Well, how do you do that with the last one, because your stock is longer than the space that you're putting it in? It has to be to start with, and once you cut it, you've ruined your piece if it's wrong. Okay, so like I said, here's the trick. You take a shorter piece, a little piece of scrap of the same edge banding stock. You go over to the miter saw and you'll make a cut that you think is right. Then you come back and you check it. This one happens to be pretty good. But okay, suppose it wasn't. What I would do is, I would adjust this scrap until I have a perfect fit. Then, and only then, then I take my actual stock that I'm going to use and don't change the settings on the miter saw at all, you leave the saw set to whatever it was on the scrap piece that worked, then you make your cut. Now you know that your first cut is a perfect match. Then I'll take that scrap piece back to the miter saw and I'll cut that first test miter off completely and I'll square it off to make sure there's no confusion. Then I'll make a fresh 45 degree cut and bring it back to the panel and test it. Okay, now here I've got something. All right. This miter, I can see that miter doesn't quite, it's not a perfect miter. It's good, bu it's not what I really want. It's not a tight, perfect tight miter. So, then I adjusted my miter saw, made a few cuts until I had it just right. Once the saw is set to the right angle, I will mark the edge banding and make sure I cut it to the right length. Actually, I cut it just a little bit long and I sneak up on the perfect length, just as I did earlier. The only thing left now is to glue and clamp that last piece in place. And here's a closeup of the miter, just so you can see how well this works out it's really easy to get the edge banding flush to the panel. I start with a hand plane and then when I get close, I switch to a scraper. And then finally, I just use a random orbit sander. And then of course, the fun part is putting the finish on and see how great everything looks. Well, I flushed up the edges with the hand plane, a scraper and some sandpaper, and here's how it looks. I think it turned out great. I'm really very happy with this. And this edge banding trick is so easy and the miters come out so perfectly that I just love it. So anyway, if you want more information about this technique, there's an accompanying article on the Guild's website, and I would encourage you to check that out, and thanks for watching.
If the saw is adjusted right the 45-degree angle should always fit perfectly, and as long as you are measuring correctly then you should be able to cut all 8 cuts and put them together. When I was building frames we didn't use clamps we used a string method that I am sure you can look up on Google. It is how you insure the corners don't slip.
For the 4th piece would it not make more sense to make the first cut (to join to the first piece that was attached) before you attach the 3rd piece? That saves time and a piece of edge banding.
Great tips with block plane and scraper! I started marking the outer edge, then flip it over. I leave the line and although it won't fit you can actually see if the angle is off before final cut.
I've done this many times and it is always frustrating. In my mind the last piece is the easiest. This is especially true if your have installed the other 3 pieces perfectly which is really the issue. The trick is in determining the exact length of the first piece. It is difficult to see if the corner of the piece is truely aligned with the mitre. Any error are all here will result in a gap (or whatever the opposite of a gap is) when you add the second and third pieces.. This is what I do. Before you install the first piece, mitre 2 dummy pieces and clamp them to the opposite sides where you will add the first piece. This makes it possible to be perfect with the first joint by adjusting the dummy piece. Do the same thing with a 3rd dummy piece for the other end of the first piece. Now you can sneak up on the first piece length for a perfect fit. If you make it too short, start again. Only now should you glue the first piece in place. Move a dummy piece to the next side and adjust the dummy until perfect. Then the third side. This essentially makes you add the last piece 4 times instead of once. And as I said the last piece is the easiest. darwin.witzel@gmail.com
Hello Just curious, when you go to mark and attach the 2nd piece, are you waiting until the glue dries on the first piece? You show that to make the final cuts the first set of clamps are no longer in place. I know that you could take the clamps off for a short time without creating a problem with the glue joint. Is that the approach that you use here? Thanks
If you are having to tweak your miter saw cuts on the last two cuts, it's an indication your saw is not cutting accurately to begin with, or that your panel wasn't square. I would first look to dialing in the miter saw before making any of the cuts and making sure my panel had square corners. The technique presented is a good way to compensate though if you're not cutting accurate 45 degree angles.
Excellent Technique .
Thank you. Good information.