My version of the Kreg beaded face frame jig

[Alan Bienlein]

Well I finally started our kitchen cabinets and I'm building them with beaded face frames and inset doors. I debated if I was going to build the frames and then attach the bead or do it in one piece. I've done it both ways and this time I decided to build them with the bead attached.

As I was going thru my e-mail one of my woodworking magazines had emailed me about a review of the Kreg beaded face frame jig for the router table. I thought cool how much was it. Well my jaw hit the floor when I saw they wanted $500 for it . I was like they got to be kidding. Immediately my brain started working.

I went out to the shop and grabbed a pair of 12" full extention slides I had laying around along with some scrap plywood and a piece of aluminum angle.

These are the slides.

Here is the jig assembled. Sorry but forgot to take pictures as I was building it .

Here is a piece clamped in the jig.

The 2 pieces after I cut the notch using the jig. I will get a sharp bit as this one was lucky it could cut melted butter.

And here are the 2 pieces just pushed together as they came off the jig. No touchup. Not bad for about 45 minutes work and as of right now $0 money invested.

[Tom Niemi]

Sweet Alan, that will do the trick, and the price is right too boot

[Rennie Heuer]

Sweet Alan, that will do the trick, and the price is right too boot

DITTO!

[larry merlau]

good thinkun and a couple of pocket screws and yur done huh!!! now you had to make two cuts to get the width for the frame to fit into right? and also two cuts for the rail to fit the stile notch..

[Alan Bienlein]

good thinkun and a couple of pocket screws and yur done huh!!! now you had to make two cuts to get the width for the frame to fit into right? and also two cuts for the rail to fit the stile notch..

Even with there jig you need to make two cuts on the rail to fit the notch in the stile. I didn't have there ffancy bit to do the notch in the stile in one pass. All I had at the time was a bevel bit that was duller than a butter knife. I ground off the shoulder for the bearing and am deciding if I'll atleast splurge on the bit from kreg.

[Darren Wright]

Me likes this Alan. I've got a couple of 10" drawer glides I've been debating what to do with.

[Sean Wright]

Alan,

I've seen the Kreg version in action, and I think you nailed this one!

[Alan Bienlein]

Well here's an update on the jig. I had to add these blocks to eliminate any vertical slop from the slides. I cut them to just touch the surface of the upper piece of the jig. This made a big difference in the repeatability of the jig.

I drilled and countersunk 2 holes in my router top so I could locate the jig in the same spot each time.

Here is a back view of the jig extended since I didn't include it in the original post.

I also made a number of fence extentions since some of my frames required notches up to 36" from the ends. I made 3 different lenghts depending on the lenght of the piece I'm working on. I also added a piece of leftover peel and stick tape measure I had left over from my tablesaw. The 45 degree chamfer bit I bought at Lowes and ground off the mount for the bearing.

Well here are some of the frames I did with the jig.




I believe this is the method I'm using for now on!

[Larry Heimendinger]

Kreg supplies a 1/2" dowel that you use to align their fence at 0" along with the flip stop. That way, to make a cut, you simply align the stop at the tape distance along the top based on the center line distance to the rail or stile.

How did you secure the platform with the slides to the router table? Can you also provide something like a step by step on how you cut the rails then the stiles?

Thanks.

[Alan Bienlein]

Kreg supplies a 1/2" dowel that you use to align their fence at 0" along with the flip stop. That way, to make a cut, you simply align the stop at the tape distance along the top based on the center line distance to the rail or stile.

How did you secure the platform with the slides to the router table? Can you also provide something like a step by step on how you cut the rails then the stiles?

Thanks.

Hi Larry and welcome to Familywoodworking!

If you look closely in a couple of the last pictures I posted you will see a grey screw about 1-1/2" long sticking out of the base. These 2 screws go into the holes that I drilled and countersunk in my router top.

You just gave me a good idea as far as using the 1/2" metal rod that came with my hitachi router thats used to center the base plate on the router base.

I wish I could remeber how I went about cutting them but I did use test pieces just to double check myself. I know I set the height of the bit first. After that I set about cutting the 45 on the ends of the rails. I am planing on buying their bit the next time I do this so I don't have to make multiple cuts on the stiles to notch them out.