My version of the Kreg beaded face frame jig

Alan Bienlein

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My version of the Kreg beaded face frame jig :UPDATE:

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 :eek:. 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.
12-29-09 006.JPG
These are the slides.
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Here is the jig assembled. Sorry but forgot to take pictures as I was building it :doh:.
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Here is a piece clamped in the jig.
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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.
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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.
 
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good thinkun:thumb::thumb: 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..:huh:
 
good thinkun:thumb::thumb: 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..:huh:

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.:dunno:
 
UPDATE

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.
01-03-10 003.JPG
I drilled and countersunk 2 holes in my router top so I could locate the jig in the same spot each time.
01-03-10 002.JPG
Here is a back view of the jig extended since I didn't include it in the original post.
01-03-10 011.JPG
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.
01-03-10 010.JPG
Well here are some of the frames I did with the jig.
01-03-10 005.JPG
01-03-10 006.JPG01-03-10 008.JPG
01-03-10 007.JPG01-03-10 009.JPG
01-03-10 001.JPG
I believe this is the method I'm using for now on!:thumb:
 
What technique did you use to zero out the jig?

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.
 
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!:wave:

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.
 
I've wanted to do a beaded faceframe kitchen for a while. Nobody so far has coughed up the coin for it though.....

I planned on cutting the notches on the table saw. At least the mitred part, then just cut the bead in between out with a chisel by hand. The part cut out with a chisel doesn't have to be that great as the mitre's will hold everything straight and true anyhow, you still want it decent for good glue adhesion, but it doesn't have to win any awards. I made a demo frame this way, and it worked fairly well. Reason being is that once you know the numbers it could be done very quickly with just a mitre gauge on the tablesaw. The learning curve might be a bit steep and take some test runs though.

For the male part of the joint using a router or shaper w/ a sled is probably the way to go to cut the 45's.
 
After numerous complaints of how hard it is to keep beaded cabinets clean on kitchen cabinets I switched to putting the beads on the doors and drawer fronts. It has exactly the same look but is much easier to clean when pancake batter gets spilled down the front of the cabinet. That way there is no groove to collect gunk. The look is indistinguishable. I have had kitchens of my own built both ways, and the beads on the doors are way better from a maintainance standpoint.

The only problem with this system is that the mitered corners want to pull apart with seasonal changes on say a large raised panel drawer front. To get around this all end grain is soaked in West System before the beads go on. I stole one of my wifes baking pans that was long and thin, mix some epoxy and stand the drawer fronts up in the epoxy for about five minutes. On doors I always use West System to assemble, so I brush a little epoxy on the end grain of the styles as I assemble. I let them drain/soak up the epoxy and clean off the excess with alcohol. Then assemble as normal and finish. In my own kitchen here at the house my bottom drawers are 14" deep, and there is no seperation at the miters.

I use this same soaking method on any raised panels that are over 8 inches on everything. I never get callbacks. I don't do production work and always get enough money to be able to do this, so I realize if you are competing with the Borg it is not feasable. But the day I have to compete with the Borg there will be a tool auction.
 
Once again simplicity still works. Jig making is one of the fun parts of woodworking for me. Found two other sources worth mentioning.
www.sommerfeldtools.com/beadedfaceframesystem/productinfo/0120B/
They make a neat cutter for the table saw. If anyone has tried this I'd like to hear how it worked.
Secondly, Woodline USA makes a beaded router bit set WL-1460S that is both bits for about the price of one of the Kreg bits. Cant tell ya whos got a better bit :huh:

Nice site..my first post..Ive been a professional woodworker over thirty years now.
Rick
 
I'm getting tear out

Allen, first of all thanks for sharing. if i can get it to work it will sure be a time saver. However after assembling my jig , when i tried it out, i get tear out on the side where the bit is exiting as one would expect. How are you eliminating that? thanks in advance
Mike Paradise
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.
View attachment 40967
I drilled and countersunk 2 holes in my router top so I could locate the jig in the same spot each time.
View attachment 40968
Here is a back view of the jig extended since I didn't include it in the original post.
View attachment 40969
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.
View attachment 40970
Well here are some of the frames I did with the jig.
View attachment 40971
View attachment 40972View attachment 40973
View attachment 40974View attachment 40975
View attachment 40976
I believe this is the method I'm using for now on!:thumb:
 
Hi Mike,

I had minimal tearout that was removed when I ran the beading bit. I didn't do anything special when I did mine. Do you have a picture of the tearout? How fast are you moving the wood thru the router bit?
 
Well I figured it was time for the second version of this jig. I happened to have a piece of 1/2" phenolic so I decided to redesign it and this is what I came up with. The only money spent on this version was for the router bits. Everything else used in the making of this version of the jig was free!
007.jpg008.jpg

Instead of the drawer slides I did a 14 degree bevel cut sort of like a set of dove tail ways on a jointer. I also reversed the way the lever operates so it moves away from what your trying to cut.
010.jpg009.jpg

I also made the tape measure adjustable by using a 1/2" dovetail bit set about 1/32" deep which is enough to hold the tape along with elongated slots on the fence for some additional adjustibility. The stop is also interchangeable with the ones on my new SCMS mobile base I just built.
011.jpg

I also ended up buying the proper bits from MLCS http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/vgroove_face_frame_bit.html#two_piece_beaded_framing_anchor . They actually cut better than the kreg bit I got on clearance from WoodCraft.
 
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