EasAlign Rail Bolt System ?

karma_carpentry

Anyone used the EasAlign bolts for rail joining?

I've used the standard rail bolts in the past. I saw this advert in the Crown Heritage catalog I got from my local yard. Apparently it uses a magnet to activate the connector - no hole to plug. But I am skeptical.

Info & video:
http://www.crownheritage.com/main.cfm?pagename=easalign

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Toothpick

Watched Tommy on This Old House use it once too, seems pretty slick but If I remember right thier ridiculesly (sp?) expensive. If you are familiar with or like L. J. Smith products thier split cap system on thier fittings I think are pretty slick and easy to use also.

In_Mexifornia

Interesting. I was just looking at the Crown website eariler today. I was thinking about maybe trying them on the next set of stairs I do. I've been using L.J. Smith only because they have a huge warehouse about 10 minutes from my house.
The system seems cool, but I have to say i'm a little skeptical too. If it works, great, but then you have to purchase the tools as well. If you're doing stairs all the time it might be worth it to give it a try.
As far as the picture they show with the plug not matching the rest of the handrail I have to say that any good stainer could match them better. It's almost like those infomercials they show on TV where everything is impossible or ridiculously hard unless you have their new and improved product. Oh, did I mention..."It makes a great holiday gift."

StairBuilder

I haven't used it but the trim carpenter on the house I'm working on has one. He's sorry he bought it. He said he had a problem with the joints coming loose and you can't re-tighten them. I don't know exactly what happened, only what he told me. Maybe it was pilot error, but I do stairs every day and I'm skeptical-especially for over 500 bucks! How much torque can a magnet possibly put on a nut?
I think I would never buy one. Crown has the best railbolts anyway with the threadless tips- they're great. I do a lot of really crazy rail systems and I just don't think it would be flexible enough. I could be wrong. I'll ask him to let me take another look at it monday. Maybe I'll try it out on a balcony rail. Makes me nervous though...
I'll let you know how it works-if I use it!

In_Mexifornia

Personally I don't do enough stairs to invest in it. I maybe only do about 3 a year so i'd stick with the rail bolt anyways.

karma_carpentry

Thanks for the report, StairBuilder. I'll steer clear of it too. I didn't even ask the price, but $500! Not worth the try for the few railings I do per year, especially with a bad report from another trim carpenter.

In_Mexifornia - I thought the same thing about those bad staining examples. They obviously rigged those up to look really bad, and that lost some credibility for me too.

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magnum

I just watched the video and noticed that they missed a critical step in any jointing process [B]GLUE[B]. That joint wouldn't come loose with a little glue unless the glue would keep it from pulling it tight enough.

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EagleEye

I use the Senco sc1 ... Its a corrigated nail . Just goto Sencos website


a little glue and the joint will not seperate and I can put a joint together in seconds. A must have for rail installers

StairBuilder

Yeah EagleEye- I do want one of those! I don't know why I didn't get one already... I was thinking about it the other day. I'm making more and more of my own fitting combinations so that would be a welcome tool.

Back OT- I did not try out the ease-align. The guy didn't come around before I finished.

StairBuilder

I thought the same thing. A pretty lame selling point too. Seems like they would stress speed.
Something else I remember the guy said was that it was fast but you had to be very careful when you drill or the alignment will be off and you can't adjust it.

So I guess the bottom line is that it can work great but it's pretty unforgiving.

Trimcat

I know this thread was from a year ago, but I thought I'd weigh in on the easalign system seeing I actually bought one. My kit was around $250. I got it from a Crown Heritage rep who was traveling around Nashville doing demos. $250 was supposedly his cost. He wanted to get it out there he said. Anyway, the biggest downfall about the system in my opinion is the cost of the fasteners. At $8 a piece, it's not even close to being worth it. At the time, the builder that I do most of my stairs for was changing suppliers, and this guy was supposedly going to include the easalign fasteners with the stair parts. That never happened, so when I ran out of the thirty connectors that came with the original kit, I went back to the freebie rail bolts that come with each fitting.
As far as the system though it does work. It snugs the rail parts up tightly and with some glue, they should never come apart. I was disappointed with the alignment of the rail and fittings though. I would think that with the jig that you use they would align perfectly. They don't. You can do a much better job aligning them by hand with a rail bolt system.

It's funny you mention the 1" plug because I had the same feeling sitting there watching this guys demo. He was fumbling with a rail bolt trying to show us how hard it was. All I could think was... come on buddy, we've all done this a thousand times. Who are you trying to kid.... That part of the pitch turned me off. The one thing that he did show though that made me like the system is that many times a spindle will end up hitting a rail bolt, or the 1" plug and with the easalign, you never have that problem.

Anyway.... would I recommend it? No. Too much money up front and the fasteners are ridiculously expensive. It makes for a good magic show though.