Häfele Rafix -- pros and cons; anyone used it?

[henrik_o]

Rafix (tm)

Awaiting the delivery of my PRSAlpha, I'm looking at options for avoiding the problem of horizontal boring.

Currently, all our boring is done on a 25-spindle Bilek line borer. It's a great machine, but a pain to set up. While all vertical boring will be eliminated when the shopbot arrives, as good as the Bilek is it's still very much a target for retirement.

So, basically I'm exploring alternatives for going from dowel construction to other systems. The Rafix has its downsides, but so far I think we could work around most of them.

Anyone tried/use the Rafix or similar connector technology? What's your thoughts?

[beacon14]

I have used thousands of Rafix in my closet projects and they work well. They are fairly tolerant of slight misalignment (the plastic ones more so then the zinc ones) and they are a lot stronger than they seem. As for downsides the biggest one I can think of is they don't like to be re-used as the metal parts are soft and distort some as they are tightened. The studs can be a bit of a pain to insert straight so they take some getting used to. All in all a good system.

[henrik_o]

David,

Interesting. Yes, I've heard from others that the plastic units are actually more tolerant than the zinc alloys.

In your opinion, are they 'self-aligning' as Häfele claims?

Regarding the problem of correct angle insertion of the bolts, have you had a chance to look at the Onefix line? There was a big buzz after that Interzum, then it kinda died out.

Have you had a problem with Rafix excenters snapping under too much load? We've had that problem with some zinc units we tried, though from a different supplier.

[beacon14]

Henrik - thanks for the link, I will have to look into that.

The Rafix are as self-aligning as they say, that's what I meant by "fairly tolerant of slight misalignment" - we used to machine pre-cut parts which meant "slight misalignment" was sometimes an understatement, now I'm machining and cutting most parts out of full sheets so the holes are coming out much more accurately. The softness of the metal is part of the design that allows the cam to grip nicely even when things aren't as perfect as they could be.

As for screwing the studs in my customer does that and I think he's gotten pretty good at it because he's not complaining - I could see it being a problem if the end user was supposed to do it.

I have not had any problems with snapping (that I know of). The cams will slip out under load if the 20mm hole is too big - since I rout the hole with a 1/4" compression bit I have to calibrate my hole size to the current router bit for a proper fit. Once it's calibrated it's fine but if I switch between new and re-sharpened bits it will change slightly and need adjustment.

I am still amazed at how few connectors it takes to hold stuff together. I used to tell my client he needed to add more support rails or the whole thing would end up on the floor but the fact is most closet companies do it the same way and failures are rare even though one of these closet sections can weigh hundreds of pounds (dozens of kilos) when loaded.


21252.jpg

This pic was taken before we switched from the Zinc to the white plastic fittings

[henrik_o]

David,

Thanks for the prompt reply. Yes, the snapping issue was probably due to inferior quality of the hardware in that experiment. I'd expect much better from Häfele.

Also, thanks for posting that pic. Our application will be a bit different, since visible connectors are out, but these are built-ins so they can be concealed behind the end trim. I'm thinking about using Rafix/Onefix for tops and bottoms, the problem being fixed shelves on the larger units. There's no way getting around horizontal boring on those, but by utilizing a system like Lamello's INVIS system it can be done with just two horizontal units per joint, and though it is costly I believe when reducing it to just that part it more than justifies the cost.

Our applicaton is mainly private libraries, and there can be a whole lot of carcases involved: being able to transport them as flatpacks and easily assemble them in situ rather than having to lug around dozens of odd sized carcases halfway around the country would be a godsend.

For some reason, people that truly love books apparently hate elevators.


Anyway, regarding the INVIS system, up here they apparently have had such a problem getting it out to market that I'm halfway thinking of contacting them and asking them to give me a system for free, letting them use me as a reference and possibly for ads. If it delivers as per spec, it's one helluva innovation.

[terryd]

Henrik,

We have a SCM 32 spindle machine for horizontal boring and I undertand your dilemna. One of our customers for commercial cabinetry demands absolute flush faces,one thousandth of an inch or millimeter offset is too much. As much as we tried to use the "bot" and the boring machine we wound up using biscuits because they permit enough lateral play to permit alignment before we brad the parts in place and allow the glue to set. A while back we tried a Häfele cam lock system but breakage and shifting was an issue, and with pricing always an issue with commercial customers due to the volume of work we once again reverted to biscuits. I tried your link to the INVIS system but it is unavailable. If the INVIS system is as good as their biscuit joining machines it should be a winner.

TerryD

[henrik_o]

Terry,

Strange, it works from here. Try http://www.swissinvis.com/ instead.

It won't help in your application, it doesn't align like that and they charge something like 4 bucks per connector, so it's not for high volume.

If you don't mind me asking, why is your customer demanding such precision in volume produced cabinets? I don't see a practical use for that, and the associated cost of machining and assembling to that spec should be significant -- you ARE charging them way more for that kind of product, right?

[terryd]

Henrik,
The term we use here is "jerking my chain". They demand such precision for a single US customer because they can, and we get held to task with them and this requirement. The upside is that the same group of architects give us major contracts with major US hotels, retailers and Universities. John Hopkins, Trump Towers etc... you get the picture... Thank you for the link, this one works and you are correct in concluding that this product is unsuitable for my needs.

a la prochaine,

TerryD

[henrik_o]

Well, I had my Häfele rep come visit and I've ordered samples of the connectors that interest me. I'll see where this takes us.

Terry,

Yeah, hear you on the chain-jerking routine. I usually get four or five inquries a year where I just know they went to a Big Producer and got laughed out the door and then they come to me and want to play it like they're just asking for something completely ordinary. I usually tell them fine, we can do that, but once you reach a certain threshold, the relationship between precision and price is no longer linear, it's exponential, and they should really spend some time making sure they need that precision.

Most melt away at that point, but those that don't are keepers and usually result in repeat business.

Great to hear you've got a good thing going on those terms.