I’m Arun. I live in London. I found gridbeam many years ago via Low Tech Magazine. But, I’ve mostly been blocked by the unavailability of easy off-the-shelf gridbeam kits. Recently, I finally got around to doing something about—I made my own gridbeam, and built a table as my first gridbeam project. I made my gridbeam manually with basic wood workshop tools, and it was painful! I am now looking for jigs and automated setups to speed up the process. Hence, I’m here.
I am also fascinated by low-tech hand-powered tools that require no electricity. I feel they are better suited to a post-fossil fuel world and less dependent on delicate global supply chains. Besides, they are super-cool and the feeling of working wood without the ever-present whining of an electric motor is surreal!
Nice! You probably discovered this the hard way, but if you had to pick one power tool, it should probably be a drill press. I’ve experimented a lot with 3d printed jigs, I should write a whole post about it, but my secret weapon has been aluminum ready tube from McMaster-Carr: McMaster-Carr which can be used as a template. Buy one long piece of tube, and one single-hole piece, and a pin that can connect the single piece to the long piece. Use the single piece as the backstop for your beam, drill the hole, and move the single piece to the next hole on the long piece. The two catches are 1) I’m not sure what the McMaster-Carr equivalent in London is, and 2) the holes on the Ready Tube are slightly larger than 5/16" grid beam holes. That’s the kind of thing where it’s useful to 3d-print a pin that is the exact size of the holes so there’s no wiggling.
I’m trying hard to imagine this setup, but I’m not succeeding. Would you be able to provide a drawing (even a rough one)? It would be a big help. Thanks! We could start a separate thread for this discussion.
I in fact used a drill press to make my gridbeam, despite not being a big fan of power tools. What was most tedious was the clamping/unclamping of the gridbeam onto the drill table for every hole. If I didn’t clamp the gridbeam, the drill could lift the beam and spin it around. Quite dangerous.
Yes, please! Even a post on this forum could be a handy reference.
Thank you, that’s very helpful! I understand your setup now.
I see that you are not clamping the beam to be drilled. Do you have to hold down the beam with your hands so that the drill doesn’t pick up and spin the beam?
Yeah, I hold the beam with one hand, and the other hand operates the press and moves the jig/beam to the next hole. I wasn’t able to demo two-handed operation while using one hand to hold the phone. Need another jig for that I guess
