Beadlock Joinery. Have you used it?

[Eric Roberge]

I don’t do a lot of mortise and tenon joinery, but as my experience has grown, I’ve found that I want to tackle more furniture projects. I don’t really want to spend a bunch of money and purchase a mortiser right now, so this system seems to be a good alternative at an attractive price.
http://www.beadlock.com/index.html
The questions is, has anyone used this jig or know someone that has? What are your thoughts?

[Charlie Barnes]

I have it and don't like it. I tried to use it to join the rails and stiles for some light weight cabinet doors vs. traditional sub tenons. I had a hard time keeping the pieces from twisting when I clamped them up and it took a ton of sanding to get it to look OK. Maybe I wasn't doing something right, but I've gone back to good old fashioned M&T joinery and haven't tried it again. Maybe I need to stick it out on Craigs list and get rid of it.

[Loren Blount]

I used it on a headboard project. it worked , but the version I have is held in place only on one side with your own clamp & you have to shim it to get it centered on the work piece (kinda time consuming especially if the rail is set back from the leg). It would be better if it self centered like a doweling jig. I thought it would be a fast way to do M&T work where I only needed to make 1 or 2 and didn't want to install the mortiser on my drill press, unfortunately it didn't seem much faster to me + you have to buy the beadlock stock. I believe I would save up for a mortise pal if I was to do it over.

Loren

[Charles Lent]

I have one of the original version of the Beadlock (3/8 & 1/2") that I used quite heavily when I was first starting to build furniture. I have since loaned it out several times (with some training) and all who used it were very happy with the results. It works quite well if you take the time to learn how to use it properly. If you drill the holes too quickly, using excessive drill pressure, it's easy to push the beadlock guide off position, and you won't get good results. It needs to be positioned accurately and it needs to stay in position. To keep the Beadlock guide from slipping when it is clamped to a board I added some 100 grit sandpaper to the back side of the clamping/alignment piece (with a hole for the alignment guide). I also carefully filed the plating off of the alignment guide's edge so that I could see it better. The plated alignment edge is sometimes difficult to position and needs a bit more contrast to see it well. Just take the plating off with a small file and don't remove any of the metal. These changes were all that was necessary for it to work very satisfactorily. A newer version of the Beadlock is available now, but I have never tried it.


Charley

[Chris Kennedy]

I have one, and it's okay. The biggest problem that I had was I put in the tenons to dry fit and couldn't extract them again.

Cheers,

Chris

[Vince Shriver]

Eric,

Take a look at the Mortise Pal. A bit more expensive, but well made and very good reviews. It's a loose tennon jig.

www.mortisepal.com (http://www.mortisepal.com)

[Cole Dunlay]

I have the BeadLock and it's OK. I've found that it requires excessive clamping force to hold the jig in place and as one poster noted, the workpieces can become twisted. I've found that using two clamps alleviates both of these issues although it takes a little more time.
The real issue I have with the system is cost. You can buy the tennon stock for $5.49 for 3-12" sections of 3/8" stock. This amounts to about 18 -2" tennons; enough for one medium sized project. A similar situation exists for the 1/2" stock. While this won't break the bank, it will add a few dollars to every project you do, and it's a shame to see your cutoffs go to waste. But wait!! You can buy router bits to make the tennons out of your cutoffs - for $70 each. So, if you buy both bits and the system itself you've spent about $180; close to the price of the Mortise Pal. But either way, you're spending a substantial sum of money to do something you can do with a router and an edge guide. And if you go this route, you have the additional capabilities of an edge guide. That's my vote.

Cole