Joynerbolt review

A while ago, the creators of Joynerbolt started following us over on twitter (you can find them on twitter here) and after a nose at their website they offered us a free sample, so I thought I’d talk a little bit about what they sent us and what it does!

If you’ve ever worked as a joiner on a site and had cause to join two timber members together (joisting/roofing etc) then you’re probably familar with using coach bolts to hold the two pieces of timber together.

Well, like the best inventions and products that come onto the market, you think ‘why hasn’t anybody thought of this before?’.

The Joynerbolt is quite a simple idea really; it’s sort of a cross between a coachbolt and a gangnail plate.

The ‘Joynerbolt’ in all its glory!

The main part of the bolt that separates it from a coachbolt is that underneath the head of the bolt (the bit that sits against the timber), there are little metal spurs/teeth protruding (hence the similarities with a gang nail plate that is driven into the joints on trusses, for example) that once the bolt is pushed through the pre-drilled hole and then driven in with a hammer (so the plate of the bolt connects with the timber) it is held securely, meaning you can stick the nut on and tighten it with one hand (the bolt cannot move round as you tighten the nut! Genius idea but so simple – like I said earlier, why has no one else ever thought of this?!).

Also, unlike a coach bolt, you cannot overtighten it and pull the head of the bolt into the timber – the Joynerbolt has a large flat head that I did try and pull into the timber by overtightening, but I couldn’t!

What’s more, you can even secure the nut from coming off; the end of the threaded section of the bolt has a slot cut into it. Once you’ve tightened the nut in place, this slotted section can be driven apart, ensuring that the nut cannot come off.

Like I say, I am impressed with the Joynerbolt after playing around with it in our workshops, so thought I would give them a mention! I did do a bit of my own video for this blog post, but for one reason or another, it did not come out well at all (if any video camera manufacturers are reading this and want to send me a free camera for a review, then please go ahead! lol), so the creators of the bolt have very kindly let me use their own video. For more information on the Joynerbolt, go and have a look at their website.