I've been building some frameless cabinets from prefinished plywood over the last year, with the help of my Festool tracksaw, MFT3, domino, and MFK 700 for trimming edge banding. I've been using preglued edge banding on the exposed plywood on the fronts of the cabinets/shelves, and using partial or full overlay doors and drawers. I've completed 2- book cases, 2- credenzas, 2- bathroom vanities, and a full set of upper and lower cabinets including a pantry for a small kitchen in an investment property. I'm honing my skills and refining my build process slowly, and I'm gaining confidence in my abilities. Applying the preglued edge banding with an iron is kind of a drag on the process, and I get loose spots where the glue didn't get heated long enough. I find these in assembly typically, and have to carefully reheat the area to get the glue to stick. I think the Conturo would speed up the process significantly, and I would hope eliminate the loose areas. The price of the Conturo is where I pause. It's just so dang expensive.

It looks like I will be tackling the task of building all new cabinets for my medium sized home kitchen. If this project happens, I see my edge banding options as:

1- keep using the preglued edge banding and iron, work on my technique to eliminate the loose spots, and come to terms with the time it will take to iron all this on.
2- purchase a less expensive edge banding machine. My issue with the others I've looked at, are the floor space they take because it's a dedicated machine that requires floor space (which I don't want to give up). I also have some concerns with the glue clean up/maintenance on this style of machine between uses.
3- purchase the Conturo and hopefully eliminate all my issues while significantly speeding up the application process.

Any advice???

I have 2 Conturo’s that were the workhorses of our edge banding. Got the first one when the first came to NA. The trimmer is a must.

I bought this used for 3K, there are still times we use the Conturos.



Conturo in use;
https://youtu.be/f0_ok_tjV1o?si=OYH6OcY4h5fcoQ33

Tom

I considered buying a Conturo, but decided I wouldn't use it enough to justify the cost.  However, I watched this video last night about the Co-Matic BR600 that is hand-held and less expensive than the Conturo. 

I'm working on a DIY VAC-SYS currently, so I can eliminate the manual clamping. 

I looked at the Co-Matic when the reviewer said it was half the price. The one I found for sale was only around $400 cheaper.

What is this Recon site? Does Festool recondition these tools? Are they used, or items that were defective on delivery?

   

Probably my #1 reason for not getting the Conturo... discovering your affinity towards thick solid edging that ties two cabinets together.  Basically face-frame, but no overlap and extremely tight tolerance.

It's not the standard euro-cabinet one can knock out and make RTA, but dang it looks way nicer and justifies doing this yourself.  A Conturo will do nothing in this world.

All that said, your investment property monetary bracket would dictate whether you want to go this custom or just knock out euro style cabinets.  If it's the later, get the Conturo.  If your investment property is on such slim margins that this is a meaningful thing, then just work on your ironing technique, which includes proper cleaning, pads, etc, etc.  Also shelf life/storage is a concern with pre-glued, but is even more of an issue with PVC so be aware.  You'll need a reliable supplier - it had to be said.

Buy a Conturo, maintain it carefully and re-sell it once you’re done. I can’t imagine it’d be difficult to move one of these if the asking price is right.

Guido Henn just did another excellent video on manually applying and trimming 3mm plastic tape to melamine-clad board. I’ve found that Titebond Quick & Thick works well for this type of application with wood tape. Certainly not as fast as a hot-melt machine but far stronger and basically zero investment.