Zipbolt 11.560 Angled Railbolt — Angled Staircase Handrail to Newel Post Connector for Lower Connection, Residential and Commercial Installation, New Construction and Remodels

This rail kit was awesome to use. It is sturdy, tight fitting, and relativity easy to install (with some YouTube help of course). The pic above is after install, before I stained the plug to match. There are a few things that should be mentioned:1. In lieu of using wax to screw the main thread into the newel, I picked up a 23 cent lag bolt and ran that in and out of the newel a few times. I would agree with some other reviewers that the hinge is not beefy enough to take the torque needed to screw it in with just the 3/4" pre-drill. That being said, I still clamped the hinge with pliers for the last few turns because I thought it might break on my bottom newel. Definitely don't go at this without wax or using a lag bolt first! I can easily see why others had it break on them.2. I had to slice the wood plug in half with a dremmel because it was too deep to go in all the way with the fancy allen nut thing. It could have been my measuring, but I double checked my 1" hole afterwards and it was to spec. But adjusting on the fly is a normal occurance in my projects. It was probably my measuring.Anyway, if you're handy enough to be installing your own railing you are handy enough to use this kit, and it looks better and is way sturdier than just nailing it in from the top!

Just used the angled rail bolt, and am very pleased with the product. I found the hinge to be sturdy and allowed the bolt to be screwed into the post effectively without issue. I did drill a 9/32” hole and greased the threads with petroleum jelly. Would not recommend skipping the lubricant.Following the instructions on the back (though they are small) allowed me to properly drill all required holes, and there is enough play in the system that you don’t need perfect holes for it to work!The gears in the tightening mechanism are tight to start, but if you work them a bit (spin back and forth 10+ times without the bolt) they will spin more smoothly and make it much easier to install with the rail.Would use again!

this is a good product but takes some steps not clearly outlined in instructions. You really need to use a 9/32 bit as opposed to a 1/4 bit for the wood screw portion. As another reviewer noted helps a great deal to run a similar size lag bolt in the hole prior to installing the screw in side . The design cannot handle any torque on the joint as I learned when it snapped off. Required drilling all around the stub to be able to get it out. then had to drill out with a forstner bit and glue a dowel in the hole to salvage the newel post. after learning this was able to get installation done. The tightening nut isn't smooth operating and feels as though it might strip out but didn't. Nice concept overall but could use some more robust components

Was fairly easy to install and works great. But wasn’t able to tighten all the way in because the hinge was coming apart when screwing it into the newel post. Quality could have been a little better on the ball bearing hinge since you have to use that to twist the bolt in. If it broke off there wouldn’t be an easy way to get it out.

This is my first Amazon review. That should tell you how strongly I feel that this product is not fit for purpose. First of all you need to buy both this product and a comparable one to install a handrail to a post and then to another post /wall ($30 total for both which includes 4 fasteners and 4 patent pending nuts). That is a lot of money for something that doesn’t work very well (see below).First technical complaint:The joint that makes up the mechanism between the part that goes in the newel post and the handrail will fail when screwing in the fastener into the newel post. I had to use pliers to deform it back into position. Luckily it didn’t totally come apart otherwise I would have been out of luck.Second technical complaint:The nut has a hex key opening on the bottom so you can spin the fastener without any access (part of the patent pending design I guess). Anyways, one of my two nuts was seized and did not spin. In fact one nut was also seized from the other product I purchased (remember you have to buy both).Third technical complaint:I view this product as aimed at the DIY homeowner (which I am). The fastener only seems to engage if you get the holes drilled exactly on center (packaging has dimensions to the 1/16 of an inch). My holes were pretty close to on center and I had difficulty getting good engagement with the nuts that were working. My recommendation would be to practice drilling a 3” deep 3/8” hole on center before attempting this installation.Fourth technical complaint:Since I couldn’t get the nuts to engage I figured I would use half moon washers and nuts. It turns out these bolts are threaded with non standard threads. Good luck finding nuts that will work at your local hardware store. I found some online but that’s another $10 and two weeks for shipping.Bottom line:Save your money. There’s a reason your local Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Menard’s don’t sell these.

Flawless installation and works perfectly.

Good idea but the quality needs to be improved. The bolt snapped while I was screwing it in and the section inside the newel post was difficult to remove. Hopefully, a company with higher quality standards will take over this company and use a high quality steel instead what is used now. They can also provide instructions that can be read without a magnifying glass and a template. They used to supply a template to help in drilling the holes. I guess they decided to try to force customers to buy the drill guide by omitting the template. How much more would a paper template cost? 2 cents a page? How much more would a small vial of wax to make it easier to insert the bolt costs? 10 cents?