The most popular furniture joint - the tenon - just got a whole lot easier. The BeadLock System is a dream to work with and delivers perfect mortise and tenon joints every time.

Aside from their (patented) jig, the only tool required is a drill. You can now dispense with those chisels, mortising machines, table saw jigs and other endless supply or possible jigs and ideast. All that is needed is clamp the jig in place and drill a few holes, then insert a length of the specially designed , pre-milled tenon stock . It  is that easy !!

Why a loose tenon you ask? Well ... they are easy make, at least as strong as traditional mortiss and tenon joints just a whole lot easier to make. The only real drawback to them is that, depending on the situation, they don't look as good, or at least they don't "look traditional". Most woodworkers are concerned about their strength, but that can be answered best this way, the strenght of the wood, whether it be a traditional tenon or a loose tenon is the strength of the wood it is made from - nothing more, nothing less. the actual joint binding, i.e. the joints a glued into place - these parts of the joints will be as strong as the glue you use and if you have ever tried to break away woods that have been glued togother with any of the mordern glues, you will know these are VERY STRONG GLUES.

 

All loose tenons floats in the space formed by two opposing mortises, but bead lock version has a number of advantages over a standard squared tenon. The multiple flutes are, in effect, the equivalent of joining either three 1/2" dowels or five 3/8" dowels together. The innovative shape offers a large amount of side-grain gluing surface makes for an extremely strong joint because of all the glue surface.

The design also helps to  prevents the joint from wiggling from side to side and therefore working loose over time. The Beadlock System is quick, easy and strong .... a great new invention.

Copyright Colin Knecht
woodworkweb