Last fall I picked up Rockler’s Beadlock kit as a bit of a poor man’s Domino. The jig helps you create loose tenon joinery similar to the Festool Domino. It takes a bit more time, and there’s definitely clean-up from all the drilling, but I’m impressed with the initial results after testing it out on some construction grade 2x4’s I passed over the jointer to get a good edge. This isn’t something we’d use on guitars per se, but I think it will be helpful with shop furniture and general woodworking. (I’m planning to use it to help me align a new benchtop when I glue it up.)
This is what the jig looks like.
You’re going to clamp it to your workpiece before drilling out your mortis.
My initial concerns with tools like thisare always about lining things up—this is an area where the Beadlock’s really nice. Just line up the focus window over your mark and you’re good to go.
Then you’re going to drill through the guides, slide the guide block over, and drill again (without moving the jig).
The result was a set of pretty clean mortises. It was helpful to have my vacuum out to suck out the shavings.
Drop the “Beadlock” tenon in and good press together. You can either buy premade beadlocks or get a bit for your router table to make your own.
Overall I really like it. They’re not fast, and there’s definitely mess to clean up, but for a fraction of the cost of the Domino, I’m not complaining. It’s really easy to use and use comfortably. I wish it were self-clamping, but at least here you’re not limited to the thickness of stock you can use it on. You can also add spacers to the jig to center the mortises on your material if you’d like to.
Hope this was helpful!
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