Lie-Lielsen Beader experience?

[Brian Kent]

Anybody have any experience of review of the Lie-Nielsen No.66 Bronze Beading Tool?

I am looking at various starting places for Neander router replacements. It is either this or the Veritas Router Plane. I'll be doing straight grooves but would also like to try beading. If I was only cleaning out grooves, the router plane looks more solid, but since I'm cleaning and not creating grooves, the Beading tool (with 1/8" and 1/4" straight blades included) looks good.

They cost about the same and both have fences for straight work and or curves.

[Ralph Dobbertin]

Its a different class of tool, but I have used it and it works well. Try the Lee Valley beader

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...79&cat=1,41182

[Steve Wargo]

excellent tool. I use mine fairly regularly... but I also use my homeade scratchstock an aweful lot too. I can use the homemade scratch stock to do everything the beading tool... but there are times when the beading tool feels better to use. It has good control.

[Doug Shepard]

I just got mine last fall right before the shop went into hibernation. But I did manage to put the beading cutter to work on some short stuff. It worked really well and was WAY faster than hauling out the router table and doing the setup.

[Brian Kent]

Steve, I'll bet a scratch stock is pretty easy to make, but I have never used one myself. Any instructions that I could follow to try that out? While I like "pretty tools", I really like the ones that are "pretty cheap".

[Jerry Palmer]

This site has some good info on making a scratch stock, though there is really not a whole lot to it.

http://www.geocities.com/plybench/scratch.html


Folks have used old marking/morticing gauges to make decent scratch stocks, but they don't need to be even than complicated.

For small beads and the like, a scratch stock works quite well, for larger profiles and the like, they don't work near as well except to maybe clean up the work of a molding plane in cross grain or uphill grain situations that lead the molder to some tear-out.

As far as tht goes, making a router plane is not that difficult a task. Most craftsman made their own till the metal versions started coming out. Here's an online book with a section on making a router plane.

http://www.toolemera.com/bkpdf/haywardhowtoBK.pdf

[Derek Cohen]

I do have a Stanley #66 with LN blades. However I prefer making my own scratch beaders and blades. Look for articles by Garrett Hack.

Here is an old marking gauge that I converted into a beading tool.









That was fun.

For blades, I generally make these out of an old 3/4" wide bandsaw blade. Cut off a piece, hone it flat, then file the profile you want. Make sure that the edges are all square. I use (round) chainsaw files, W&D sandpaper wrapped around dowels, and diamond stones.



Regards from Perth

Derek

[James Mittlefehldt]

This site has some good info on making a scratch stock, though there is really not a whole lot to it.

http://www.geocities.com/plybench/scratch.html


Folks have used old marking/morticing gauges to make decent scratch stocks, but they don't need to be even than complicated.

For small beads and the like, a scratch stock works quite well, for larger profiles and the like, they don't work near as well except to maybe clean up the work of a molding plane in cross grain or uphill grain situations that lead the molder to some tear-out.

As far as tht goes, making a router plane is not that difficult a task. Most craftsman made their own till the metal versions started coming out. Here's an online book with a section on making a router plane.

http://www.toolemera.com/bkpdf/haywardhowtoBK.pdf

That second link is really interesting, Bob Smalser would love it. I bookmarked it for future reference, though I note it assumes a fair bit of basic knowledge on the part of the reader, I may refer back to it often, I really liked the little chamfer guide for cutting stopped chamfers, Lambs Toungues I believe they are called. Thanks for the link Jerry

[David Barbee]

How about one of these?


http://www.kcwtw.com/beadhtm/no7index.html

Something about that tool at captivates me. Never known anyone who actually has one but it looks like it would get the job done!

[Don Bullock]

David, that's a great find. Thanks.

[Jerry Palmer]

I recently got the KCWTW beader and love it. It does take a little getting used to as the fence has two fixed positions on either side, then the blade holding mechanism slides laterally to fine tune the cutter/fence relationship. The cutters rotate which gives you more design latitude, but also can become an issue in replicating a cut if you've had to adjust anything in the interum.

And it is quite beautiful, to boot!

[Wendell Wilkerson]

Look for articles by Garrett Hack.

Derek

Garret Hack also has a video called "Beading with Scratch Stock, Moulding Plane & Router" put out by Fine Woodworking. Short and sweet but goes through the whole process of making a scratch stock. By coincidence, Garret uses the scratch stock to put a bead on the apron of a demilume table also.

Wendell

[James Owen]

Anybody have any experience of review of the Lie-Nielsen No.66 Bronze Beading Tool?

I am looking at various starting places for Neander router replacements. It is either this or the Veritas Router Plane. I'll be doing straight grooves but would also like to try beading. If I was only cleaning out grooves, the router plane looks more solid, but since I'm cleaning and not creating grooves, the Beading tool (with 1/8" and 1/4" straight blades included) looks good.

They cost about the same and both have fences for straight work and or curves.

I have a LN #66 beading tool, and use it all the time for decorative beading/fluting. Fun tool, and it works very well, with only a short learning curve. The cutters seem to work best in medium density, straight-grained woods (stuff like walnut, mahogony, cherry, maple, etc.), and not so well in softer woods like poplar and pine (the beads, etc., are not as clean looking). Haven't tried it in tropical exotics, so I don't know how well it works with them.

The straight cutters work ok for cleaning already-cut grooves, but I find that a router plane does a better job. You may want to consider a router plane some time in the future, if you regularly need to clean out grooves and/or insure that they are of a uniform depth (dados, sliding dovetails, etc).

[Dean Lapinel]

Brian,

The reality is that you will find a need for all three types (router,LN bronze, scratch). There is some overlap but they all have a "best" working condition.

I use an old stanley (bronze style 66), an old stanley router, and a lee valley beader. A home made beader is fine too and even if you have the LV beader I would recommend making your own blades.

[Brian Kent]

I took the advise of another thread and bought a half-dozen used books from Amazon on Hand Tools and Hand Planes. After skimming the books that came yesterday and reading your posts, I am at about the same place I started - only more so.

1) I really look forward to making / buying / trying some of these scraper / beader / router / plowing hand-tools.

2) It sounds very rewarding to make the tools myself.

3) The bought tools are really pretty (expecially that rotary / beady / slidy thingy).

4) I really appreciate the way that you all have advanced my confusion to a higher and wiser plane.