Rockler 3/8'' Beadlock® Basic Starter Kit

I bought this to make 4 chairs and absolutely love it. I promptly cut off the tab so I could use a depth collar. I used 30 joints per chair. So 120 joints later-240 mortises,1,920 drilled holes, everything is dandy with no issues or mistakes. I plan on getting the pro model sometime as I can see using both jigs for unlimited joinery. The joints are rock solid and easy to align after practicing on scrap. I'm just mad I didn't think of this simple jig first.

Simple! Would be nice if there was enough room to use a drill collar for depth control, instead of marking the bit. Although this kit on sale is the same price at retail stores, the ones sold at retail stores are without the case, and the case included from Rockler will help with storage when you expand with 1/4" and 1/2" dies and drills.

I bought this to build a Walnut coffee table and a sofa table. About 16 joints in total. All came out perfectly using the 3/8 jig. Alignment was NOT a problem because I used an incra gauge to set up perfect registration. I used two ratchet clamps to hold the jig securely in place and facilitate quick release. Actually, this simple starter unit may be better than the pro in terms of secure clamping versus the small plastic knobs. Just bought the 1/4" add-on jig and quickly built two craftsman style 16x20 picture frames from quarter sawn oak. Another perfect alignment and secure joint without all of the hassle of mortise and tenon joints. Great product!

This is a very simple and effective tool. I received mine today and went right out to the shop to try it out. It worked great right out of the box, making a nice, tight mortise & tenon with 3/8" bead stock. The only thing I added was a flat washer under each of the tightening knobs. This will be a great time-saver.

I purchased the jig along with the 1/4 block which I used almost exclusively for my first project. I had no problems with the 1/4 lining up or drilling correctly. Two high chairs with no screws in them whatsoever later, it worked excellent. The only down side is that I put drill stop collars on my bit to get fast, consistent holes. The stop curved top piece of the jig does not have clearance for drill stops for the last holes. I removed a portion of the block to accommodate this. It takes a little more attention especially since I ripped all the stock to five beads instead of seven for this project. Very pleased.

I found the jig works better after I made a couple of modifications. I initially had problems with alignment. The alignment hole in the jig wasn't straight, so I straightened it up with some sandpaper wrapped around a piece of metal that fit the hole. I also cut a slot into the straight part of the alignment hole so that I could see where on my pencil line the alignment hole actually sits; right on the edge of the line or in the middle, for example. I draw the lines differently than the instructions suggest. I use my combo square to draw a line for each piece separately and measure from the side of each piece to be joined.

I have made 4 of the same bed for my grandchildren, and was about to start on the 5th. It has 72 mortise & tenon joints, so I hoped that this product would speed things up. It was easy to set up, easy to use, but the results are less than perfect, especially when drilling into the end grain of the 3/4" maple slats on the headboard and footboard. Maybe my clamping was to blame, but several of the mortises were skewed, and not centered across the width of the slat. Also, you can't use a drill bit collar to set the depth because of the "ear" sticking up at the side of the jig, so I had to use duct tape on the bit. The ear is redundant - yes, it stops you from drilling a 6th hole, but if you do that you probably shouldn't be using this jig in the first place... Bottom line: OK for a few joints, but if I make a 6th bed, I won't be using it. It's just as easy to cut the tenons on the table saw and drilling the mortises takes the same time as drilling the holes for the beadlock. Maybe the Pro kit is better, but I didn't want to spend over $100 to try it.

Great idea for a product, but a basic flaw in execution. The way the jig is aligned, you approach your centerline from the top on one piece, and the bottom of your centerline on the other. (I used to own a company that built registration systems for the printing industry.) If the jig isn't perfectly accurate, you will double your error because you are effectively flipping the error over. If you aren't aligned exactly in to the center of your line on both pieces, you double your error. If you don't view the alignment exactly perpendicular to the surface, you get parallax error, again doubling the misalignment because you are coming at the registration from opposite sides of the line. This explains why so many reviewers get more accurate results when working horizontally (then they can look straight down) versus vertically, where they are probably viewing the alignment mark from an angle. I'm still practicing, so hopefully I'll get the touch. The idea one reviewer had to cut a small "V" in the register edge (accompanied with a magnifying glass or lamp) to accurately assess whether your mark is bisected is probably the best option.

In the past I've cut mortises blind on a router table i don't have a plunge router. This can take some trial and error. However, once setup, it is incredibly consistent. I had hoped to speed things up with this jig. I used the Beadlock jig to make mortises for floating Beadlock tenons in the two halves of an extension table and the leaves. I also used it as a guide to drill out 3" wide! 1 9/16" deep mortises in the table legs to accept the table apron tenons these mortises were squared using a chisel. All in all, it was good, but leaves something to be desired in terms of precision. I guess it was the tradeoff to "ease" of setup. I'm not unhappy with it but, if I had the option and I do, I would look around for something else. I would hope the pro model is more precise, but as another reviewer stated, I'm not about to find out, Here are some specifics:1. In contradiction to other reviewers, I'd say the included bit ain't worth squat. I'm guessing it quickly dulled b/c it repeatedly bogged down on slow passes even on 1-1/16" deep mortises in ash. Yes I clear the sawdust repeatedly as I drill deeper, but it didn't help my drill is an 18V hitachi. I substituted a dewalt carbide bit 3/8" in the jig and it cuts through ash like butter. The bit may be a hair under 3/8" as the tenons are looser, but a 11/32" was too small. 2. depth collar would be nice. Duct tape does the trick though.3. Instead of a somewhat blind center line for alignment, I'd rather be able to line up at least 1 end of the mortise. Just makes more sense to me. Razor line works, if you want a razor line cut in your work as the line needs to be ~1" down the side. I like very sharp pencils for fine lines. I like the idea of another reviewer of cutting a notch so you can tell if you're in the center or outside of the line.4. Needed to retap holes in the jig as screws were very poorly accepted5. Has a tendency to try and skew the mortise ever so slightly. Could be operator fault i.e. I said it has a tendency. I noticed this while using it as a guide for 3" wide mortises where I had to slide the jig down to 3 separate spots to get the full size. It or me was consistent though. I just had to shape the tenon in a similar way.6. Unlike my experience using a router table where any error is similarly present in all mortises, jigs of this style can introduce different errors in each piece. Although this is not a fault of this particular system, it's a trade-off between speed of setup and precision of cut. If I was going to cut 72 identical mortises, I'd rout 'em. If I had to cut 72 different mortises, I'd grab this guy and hope for the best.

I've used the product on a project and it performed as advertized. It takes a little practice to get the adjustments correct. On my first try I had to join two pieces of 8/4 hickory. The surfaces didn't line up and I had to even things off with my surface planer. I think the error was mine. In a second part of the project I substituted a bead lock for a mortise and tenon joint. The alignment was good and the joints were snug and strong. I plan to continue to the product. I tried using it with a drill press when my drill motor battery ran down. It was hard to use with a drill press because the drill bit has to be perfectly aligned. A hand held drill motor produces the best results. I had to use the spacers provided to center the bead lock joint in 1-1/2 hickory and then then I used the jig without spacers for the 3/4" stock on the other side of the joint. The resulting joint was centered and the alignment was correct. I plan to continue to use the product. It does need better direction.

Constructing a 66" X 84" Welsh Dresser which has 46 tenons. This tool made it simple, fast and accurate to complete...in about one eight of the time to hand cut mortises and tenons. Very happy to have found it in your online catalog right before I began construction.

Purchased Beadlock and put it work immediately, worked like it was advertized then I purchased additional kits for it to round out my options to varying wood project. Thank you very good tool.

Worked exactly as advertised the first time out of the box. I am planning on using it in an upcoming project that will have about 16 joints to use it on. A real time saver over mortise joints.

Easy to use and set up. The jig can easily handle much thicker shims to handle thicker stock. I got some extra knobbed bolts the same size but 3 inches long and can now place the jig in anywhere in anything up to 3" thick. The only issue I had was that the 1/2" bit with the assessory kit needs a 1/2" drill. Oh well, now I guess I get a bigger drill for Christmas.

This is a great tool the first time I've used it it was easy and worked great.

works great!

Excellent for a novice

I absolutely love this tool. It has been great. I don't own a thickness planner or biscuit joiner yet. So I picked this up to help with panel glue ups, and it has worked superbly. Three of these down the length of my panel and the smallest amount of sanding and I have a perfect joint. The learning curve was almost nonexistent it felt so natural to use. The design was perfect and efficient.

I would be out of my mind if an add on was available that being a face drilling jig. As in maybe a large square with a mount for the drill guide block that would allow me to use this for shelves. Instead of rabbit and dado joints.

Saves a hole lot of time& it is just as strong as the real thing,for the price can't beat it. yes i would recommend to a friend

A very simple method to make floating tenon joints. Assembling the jig caused a few minutes of headscratching before the aha moment occurred. After that I could appreciate the economy of means that went into the design. Some illustrations show everything being held in a parallel clamp. This seems a bit iffy, but any sort of bench vice should produce a stable setup and consistent results. The tenon stock is of good quality.

Very precise tool, excellent quality.

Very easy to use, works as advertised.

If I had a way to do mortise and tenon, these would grade lower. Once I got the hang of marking with an Exacto knife, then lining up the template using my Optivisor, things got good. Two of eight joints on table aprons were 1/16+ high, but hand planed right out. A VERY excellent drill bit is included!The two issues I had: 1) You cannot really get a smooth bottom in the mortise, so you need to go "long." The template will not allow the use of a stop collar; I just used a Sharpie to mark around the bit. 2) Some fit extremely tight; some a little loose. Looser than I wanted to trust wood glue so I used gun bedding epoxy (10-hour setup). Strong as a rock now.Would be really nice if they sold accessory lock knobs with studs an inch longer than stock. I couldn't get the 3/4" apron very deeply set on a 4x4 leg.

I'm rebuilding the bottom section of four section 30 yr old garage doors. I have my holes drilled but haven't glued the joints yet. The only problem was the center line wasn't exact with holes. When the joints were butted the center lines didn't match. When drilling you want to constantly pull the bit back to clean the hole. It works best to drill horizonal. I used air to clean the holes when drilling vertical.

Straight forward to use, solidly constructed. I found the tenon stock a hair oversized in the beginning, but by following the directions to feed the drill slowly in the "B" (second) position, and do a second pass in the "A" position, this problem was minimized. When creating multiple tenons (for example, when edge joining a wider board) accurate layout is essential. Due to the scalloped sidewalls of the mortise and the tenon stock, the alignment must be perfect. If the mortise on one of the boards is even the slightest bit off laterally, trimming the edge of one of the tenons won't help since the tenon must match exactly to the mortise.Also, when mortising 3/4" plywood, take extra care to reference off the same face. This jig is designed to center the mortise in 3/4" stock, but plywood is slightly undersized. Don't ask how I know this.Overall I was happy with this product. I can't imagine cutting 32 mortises in a single afternoon, which is what I did this past weekend, without this jig. I will definitely use this product again, but I suspect it will prove most useful for face frames. I also bought the router bit to make additional tenon stock but I haven't had a chance to use it yet (I had a bag of precut tenons that I used first).

Easy to use right out of the box. I built a ship's wheel using the 3/8" starter kit. I reduced the width of the tenon stock on my bandsaw by two beads to fit the angles of my curve and then drilled only one hole in "A" and two in "B" to create the mortises. The jig worked well clamped into my bench vise and made the task go quickly.

Works as advertised, quick and easy.

Tool works very good as intended. Two complaints I've had both have to do with the ear on the top. Not sure that this serves much of a purpose if you already know how long your mortise needs to be, it got in my way when I needed to make longer mortises. Also, it doesn't allow you to use a depth collar. Overall very helpful tool though and I will continue to use it.

Works as advertised, cut two quick tests on some scrap in my shop is less than 15 minutes. Quite pleased.

Great tool for a beginner. Easy to use works well.

Beadlock is my tool of choice when I need a strong wood joint that shows no visible hardware. I use the 1/2 inch beadlock to attach the aprons to the legs on large 6 foot or 7 foot dining tables. My only request then would be for beaded 1/2 inch beadlock stock so I can make even stronger mortise and tenon joints. Cutting off the shoulder that bends over the block would allow one to drill a mortise for beaded 1/2 inch stock.

holes have a lot more cleanup needed than I expected. Am wondering if a brad point bit would work better.

I am building a couple of bedside tables out of Pecan/HIckory and with 40 joints to go I decided to give Beadlock a try. The 40 joints are finished and here is my assessment:
Pros:
Setback depth accuracy was dead on for all 40 joints.
Ease of use is excellent
The jig is well constructed with metal parts and should last a long time.
I won't use it on every project, but for the price it is a keeper.
Con's
The small locking knobs are hard on the hands!
The lateral adjustment system is not the greatest. There is enough play in the jig that to get the alignment window perpendicular to the drill collars I had to visually line things up and then lock one of the knobs. Doable but a bit of a pain.
The joints are a little inconsistent; one will be very tight and the next one loose - not unusable but looser than I like. Couldn't figure out why the variance.
The mortises were difficult to cut clean - even following their suggestions about double drilling the A position. It is possible that is a result of the Pecan/Hickory which is very fibrous. Perhaps they would be cleaner with different wood?
While the concept is ingenious, the drill bit leaves a scalloped mortise - which is great if everything is perfectly lined up but provides VERY little leeway if you need to shift the workpiece from side to side at all.
The tenon stock is not cheap. My 40 joints will rack up $30 in tenon stock. I asked the sales manager if it was feasible to make my own (with the beadlock router bit) and his response was "I wouldn't even try it".
Conclusion: The salesman at Rockler had no idea how to use the jig so I told him I would give it a try but that I would return it if I didn't like it. Frankly, it exceeded my expectations and, while not perfect, will find a permanent home on my workbench.

The drilling jig is easy to use, just clamp it all tightly. The tenon material is of good quality, but if you will do a lot of work, you might want to buy the router bit and make your own.

First, this is not a precision instrument. And you're not paying for precision. So don't expect lots of bells and whistles. This is a basic jig. The guide edge to line up your register is not perfectly plumb. And for some odd reason, like another reviewer pointed out, it works better drilling from a horizontal plane rather than a vertical plane. I don't understand why, but vertical drilling does not produce evenly spaced holes that line up with the loose tenon. Horizontal drilling produces the hole spacing necessary for the loose tenon. I also found it very annoying I couldn't use my bit stops on this jig, but again...it's not precision and a piece of duct tape worked fine as the stop marker. I'm an experiened woodworker and I needed a learning curve to get the best result. Once I had my "schooling" on scrap, and got the hang of how to place the off plumb register marking, I was fine with the product. If you want precision mortise and tenons, do them the old fashioned way. If you can tolerate a tiny bit of slop, this is the jig for you. I made a bench for the end of our bed, and this was a fast and easy way to create the joints. Once assembled, you'd never know I didn't chisel the joints out by hand.

If what you want to do is put together pieces of 3/4" wood, no wider than about 4 inches, this is a great tool. I started out with the 3/8" kit and was really impressed. But when I tried the 1/4" set (on 5" wide pieces of 1/2" thick oak) it was one disaster after another. First, the block is the same width for all the sets (1/4, 3/8 and 1/2), so you need to use a shim to adjust for wood any width other than 3/8. If you don't, and you're using thinner stock, you just drill out the side of your piece (discovered the hard way, there are no specific directions for the 1/4" kit). For the 1/2", you put the shims between the two pieces of the jig, so they're secure, and they come with the kit. For the 1/4" you have to make your own shim that's exactly 1/8" wide (I called customer support and they eventually conceded this), and you have to put it between the piece of wood you're drilling and the jig, so every time you take the piece out of the vice the shim can slip out. Finally, with the 1/4" jig, I couldn't get the drill holes to stagger evenly despite repeated efforts, the holes always tended to drill a little closer to one side than the other and so the tenon was very tight. The tenon being so tight is a particular problem with the 1/4" set because the amount of wood between the drill holes and the side of the wood is already pretty thin, and leaning on it can easily blow it out. Also, tighteners on the jig are not especially finger friendly, and if you have a piece of wood wide enough that your vise doesn't reach up to secure the jig on the edge of it you need to clamp the jig onto the vise (which interferes with using the tighteners).One basic flaw for both systems is that you can't put a drill stop on the drill to make sure the bottom of your mortise is even, because it runs into the block on one of the holes you need to drill. They recommend you just put a piece of tape on the drill (!). Overall, a pretty clever (and cheap) little doo-hickey, just not quite ready for prime time, especially the 1/4" version.

I used the jig for the first time to make two doors from poplar. Generally speaking it is a good tool, but it would be better if a adjustable reference fence were added to the jig. The reference fence would set on first cut and the rest of the boards could be set for drilling using the fence. I didn't want to score the wood with an awl since it will be painted and the mark could be seen. Using a very sharp pencil still means mistakes can occur and pieces will not line up. I'm going to take it to a machinist to see if he will add the reference fence.

I found the alignment edge was not straight but was curved and nicked before the tool was finished. I used a fine file to take out the nick and straighten out the alignment edge. This may cause some error in the two pieces coming together properly, but the tool was useless as it was. Also, if the tool was redesigned to staddle the stock and self center like a doweling jig, it would be more useful.

I bought this kit because my smallest biscuit is too large for 2" stock and I wasn't familiar with the Kreg product. Even with practice it was difficult to keep the guide in the correct position. As a result each connection had to be "cleaned up" quite a bit. I would only use this if you have to. Very disappointed.

I recently purchased the 1/4" beadlock Block part no. 38088 and found it very diffcult to use when drilling the second set of holes to remove the wood between the first set of holes. I have the 1/2" and 3/8" Guide Blocks and they work great.

The tool is not calibrated for the 1/4 inch accessory, making the 1/4 inch accessory more useful for multiple, parallel, evenly spaced dowels than for the beadlock stock.