Bead moulding is a great way to add style to a project.
I don’t own an 1⁄8" beading bit, which posed a particular challenge when I was working on the Oak Nightstand from issue 208. However, I did have an 1⁄8" roundover bit, and with a little ingenuity I that’d be enough to do the job.
I started by cutting a rabbet, sizing it to accept the face molding and leaving a 5⁄16" tongue to accommodate the bead and quirk.
Next, I headed to the router table to form the bead, rounding over the outside edge, as you can see in the photo above.
Then I flipped the piece over once again to finish the other side. It took me a number of passes to form the bead, slowly raising the bit with each pass until I was happy with the shape, which you can see in photo above and the detail below.
This method let me get a bead without a specialized bit, plus the seam between the face molding and the side molding is now buried in the bottom of the quirk rather than exposed on the side of the cabinet.
