Best Portable Edge Bander In 2024

Edge Banding is an essential finishing technique in woodworking. It can make the wood panel look polished to raw edges and enhance the workpiece’s durability.

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Whether crafting custom furniture or working on cabinetry, the edge banding‘s quality can significantly impact the final product.

If you want to get a beautiful edge banding, it is important to choose the right portable edge bander.

In this article, we’ll explore what makes a best portable edge bander for various woodworking projects, guiding you in getting the right Portable Edge Banding Machine.

The Festool Conturo KA 65 is a premium hand-held edgebander ideal for curved or on-site work. It uses EVA hot-melt glue cartridges (no messy pots) and handles edge heights from 18–65 mm, thickness 0.5–3.0 mm. With a 1,200 W heater (8 min warm-up) and dual feed speeds (2 or 4 m/min), it produces strong, factory-quality joints on wood, PVC, or melamine panels. 

• Pros: Excellent for inside/outside curves and corners; quick-change EVA glue (no glue pot); 3-year factory warranty; precise glue flow and trims included (see Festool supplies); ideal for precision cabinetry.

• Cons: Very expensive (Festool high-end); slower feed for large runs; requires Festool EVA glue cartridges; heavier and bulkier than some handhelds; extra cost for accessory table or trimmers.

Overall, the Conturo KA 65 delivers the best edge quality for finish carpentry, at a premium. Its system (hand bander + trimmers) lets you “create a perfect edge” without a stationary machine.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit 1mm PVC edge banding.

Additional reading:
4 Advice to Choose a PVC Skirting Board Supplier

The Virutex AG98F is a lightweight hot-air edgebander for pre-glued PVC/melamine/veneer tapes. It heats tape from below, so no glue pellets are needed. This makes setup very fast (under 1 min). It can apply pre-glued edging up to 50 mm wide with thickness up to 1 mm. 

• Pros: Very light (2.7 kg) and truly handheld; heats tape exactly at bond line for reliable adhesion; clamps ensure straight feed; quick to use on site; includes handy edge trimmer accessories; relatively low cost (tool-only price ≈$800).

• Cons: Only works with pre-glued tapes – you cannot use ungummed wood edge or raw PVC without prep; maximum width 50 mm is limiting for thick laminates; .

For a budget shop needing occasional banding, the AG98F is a portable, no-frills solution. It excels on straight and curved pieces when pre-glued edgeband is used. 

The Grizzly G is a true glue-pot portable edgebander, more akin to a mini-stationary machine. It can apply PVC or ABS tapes 3/8″ to 2½″ wide (10–63 mm) and thickness up to 1/8″. 

• Pros: Hot-melt glue gives very strong bonds; applies to straight, convex, concave, even inside corners; trim/router accessories yield professional edge finish; adjustable speed/temp means consistent application; one-year warranty; popular with professionals (Grizzly USA support).

• Cons: Heavy (~42 lb/19 kg) – not truly handheld; bulky with table/trimmer; fairly expensive ($1,395 on sale); glue pellets required (sold separately); 4 min warm-up time; overkill for very small jobs.

The G brings many stationary features into a portable package. It’s best for small shops doing frequent melamine or solid-surface edges on cabinets or furniture. The touchscreen control and glue flow mean professional speed and finish at a fraction of floor-model cost. 

For more information, please visit Conductive ABS Edge Banding.

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??? My advice is to perfect your ironing technique.  Or find a really clean but really cheap used Conturo.

I've tossed back and forth the idea of getting a Conturo myself, and almost pulled the trigger on Recon once or twice, but the time it would take me to put enough hobby production through it to justify the cost is pretty insane.  If I had money burning a hole in my pocket, then maybe.  But even then, without the accessory set...

I already have a Vac-SYS, and I feel like that or some other form of vacuum clamp to keep access to all 4 edges at the same time is part of what makes the Conturo worth having.  Clamping a panel to a table, running the Conturo on only one side, trimming, releasing, turning, clamping...  Although I'm sure that applies almost as equally with iron-on banding. Just the ability to use 1mm edge banding with the conturo is worth the investment for me.  The finished product is far superior to the iron on edgebanding.  The pucks are more expensive but not having to deal with a glue pot is worth the expense.  You can also buy non-festool pucks and cut them down with ratcheting pipe cutter. 

If mine died tomorrow I'd buy another without hesitation.  I've also let a few other contractors borrow it and they bought one after I took it back.  They couldn't go back to iron-on, 

Onebean said: 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?

Some are used and repaired, but mostly returned items. Warranty is only 1 year instead of 3.

Buying that type of machine for a single project won’t make much sense in my opinion. You can always resale later for a good price I guess..

Or you can build the boxes from 13-ply birch and leave the edges exposed.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 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. I'm just a hobbyist, and I picked up a refurb Conturo for a cabinet project.  It was an extravagance for me, and I planned to sell it afterwards, but I'm having second thoughts now that it's getting towards the end of the project.  When I added up all the individual edges to be covered, it was in the hundreds, so I'm glad I bought it.

Keep in mind glue is expensive, and comes in large-ish quantities.  The trimmer is really expensive, IMO, but it works as advertised and makes things easy. Even in a large commercial cabinet shop, with two full sized edge banders, we still have the occasional need for a hand-held unit too. It is generally used when curved edges or rounded corners come up, since the big machines can only do straight edges.
We got a great deal on a Co-matic, with the optional mounting base and everything. It uses pellet type glue, so not proprietary. It can even stick edge banding as thick as 3mm. You pretty much have to use pre-cut strips though. That stuff is so stiff, that coiling it is quite a chore.
As [member=]squall_line[/member] mentioned, work holding becomes the slow-down point with these types of machines. A vacuum system is going to be your friend, but a dog table (MFT) can get it done too. It's slower, but that is not necessarily a deal breaker for a hobbyist.
Since you already have an MFK700, you're on the way to making it happen. The Co-matic people sell an off-set base router as part of their system, but the MFK is far superior. I own a conturo.  I bought because I thought Id be using it a lot more then I actually do. Its one of those tools that you dont always use but when you need it you are glad you got it.
[big grin]
My advice about using it is not with the conturo but with the edge banding. I suggest using 1mm thick edge banding.
Most of the edge banding that you hobbiest stores, Rockler, Woodcraft, Big boxes are .5mm thick.
I find that the extra .5 mm makes a big difference in not only how well the contouro applies it but overall satisfaction with the results. 

Though they sell a kit with all the accessories I for once didnt buy the entire kit.

I bought the carbide trimmer and the attachment that attaches to the conturo that helps using longer lengths of edge banding. Ifour going to be using longer lengths of banding say 5 ft then get it.

I dont always use it but when I do Im glad I got it