Thread: First impressions of Beadlock

In a thread below (buying from the US) I was asked to give my impressions on the Beadlock system. Now I've had the chance to use it for a few trial joints - here goes.

First up, I was interested in beadlock because it appeared to have pretty close to zero learning curve. That's the way it panned out in practice too - every joint was good right from the first one. Its so simple there really isnt much you can do wrong. Failing to clamp the jig tightly enough to the workpiece has been my only mistake - but this was rectified with a little effort spent getting the jig aligned back over the holes again.

In a number of posts on this forum and overseas people have noted that the stock was too thick and a very tight fit in the holes. My experience has been that the size is perfect - every so slightly undersized, enough to allow a good glue coat. I note that the instructions advise keeping the stock in an airtight container to prevent swelling, which is what I did and had no problems.

The jig is simple and rugged and looks like it will last about 100 years in service. Again, there isnt much to go wrong.

One feature that I really liked that no-one else has mentioned is safety. I have cut m&t joints using routers and tablesaws and both had inherent risks which led to a couple of near-accidents. With beadlock, you are using only a drill and even that is largely shrouded by a metal block - cant get much safer then that.

A big time saver with beadlock is marking up. Marking up m&T joints for me has been very time consuming and led to ocassional mistakes when I have cut the mortise in the wrong spot. With beadlock there is only one mark required and that is done across both pieces simultaneously during a dry-fit, so again not much can go wrong.

Time required to do a joint was the sum of dry-fitting, marking a single line with a square, marking the depth on a drill bit with masking tape, clamping on the jig, drilling 5 holes (or 3 for the half inch), repeating last two steps for other piece, cutting stock, glueing and fitting, and clamping. I didnt time it, but I guess thats about 3 or 4 mins for me.

One small issue was that the beadlock stock, when initially cut and pressed into a mortise, seemed to wobble more than I thought it would. I had naiively expected that the (unglued) beadlock would sit rock-steady in even shallow mortices. This is not so and seems to be in part due to the flattening on the edge of the stock. Deeper mortices of 20mm did not suffer from this problem. I also had better resulls after sharpening the drill bit. Im not sure about the practical implications of this.

After allowing a joint to dry overnight, I broke it apart with a hammer to see how the glue had been distributed. I noted that the valleys in the beadlock stock were filled with material broken off the workpiece, while most of the ridges were clear of dried glue. This suggests to me that a little too much of the glue had been forced off the ridges during fitting. Perhaps, if really concerned about joint strength, the ridges should be scored or even flattened slightly. In any case, it was good to see that the only way the joint came apart was by breaking the material of the workpiece, it wasnt the beadlock stock or the glue-line which gave way. Certainly the joint was a LOT stronger then I would have achieved with m&t.

The main difference though is confidence. I think most of my m&t joints are ok, but I'm sure some slip by that are really quite brittle. Not so beadlock. Again, its hard to do it wrong.

All up - as a relative newcomer with no great proficiency with m&t joints, this is the way to go and I look forward to using it whenever I get the chance.

Cost was $US50, plus about $Aus20 as a share of freight in a mixed order of tools.

Arron