I'm in a situation where I'm hoping some contributors here can help me with some questions. I am a one man shop, and I also produce parts to other cabinet shops and find myself needing a bander. I don't build a lot of cabinets, except for a couple builders for new construction and it's generally a whole house worth. Averaging around 60 sheet jobs each. But I cut about 80 sheets a month for a couple shops on my cnc, both frameless and face frame work. A couple of them are wanting me to be able to do there banding work as well, both melamine and prefinished maple. A couple issues are
1. shop space. I'm limited and only have 1 space it would actually fit
2. Needs to be premill
3. For those who outsource there banding work, what are you paying?
4. For those who band other shops panels, what are you charging?
5. Does anyone use or similar to the Minimax banders?
I'm looking at the Minimax ME 35T. It's a glue pot bander with premill, trims, buffs, end trim, and an option for radius end trimming. It will just fit in my space.
I'm looking at a new machine due to the fact I have no experience in a bander and not that anything is wrong with new, I just don't want to learn from someone else lack of maintenance or care for the machine. Rep isn't far for service/warranty work for this brand.
Thanks for all the help.