@IBob

A possible alternative would be to supply a drill bit, a simple clamp on jig which allowed the DIYer to accurately drill perpendicular holes, and a premarked measuring strip to get the spacing right.

I'd be super into this.

Like @nanomonkey said, most of the holes will never be used, and in my [very short] explorations I've only been drilling the holes I knew I'd use (usually eight holes per beam (four on each end (two in each dimension))).

I don’t really understand the appeal of Grid Beams [...] T-slotted extruded aluminum is just as easy to work with, and much more versatile

For me, the appeal is that it's a simple framework for building modular structures from materials that are unbelievably easy to find. I used a tape measure, a backpacking saw, a cordless drill, and some toggle bolts on some 2x2 to make a monitor stand with almost zero woodworking experience.

My intuition is that assuming you already have access to a makerspace it's probably just as easy to find and develop with metals, but as a guy with an apartment and an office space I'd be surprised if I have the tools to make my own aluminum beams.

FWIW, the problems I've encountered so far:

• My local department store doesn't have bolts longer than 3 inches (80 mm) and there aren't any hardware stores within ~1 mile. I'm using toggle bolts I found at my coworking space but there aren't even simple options on Amazon (which, of course, wouldn't be ideal anyway).
• Clamps and a proper saw would probably go a long way. So far I've been holding things down with my hands and knees and just ignoring the shoddy cuts from a backpacking saw.
• I don't have a rasp, which I think would be useful in cleaning up my crappy cuts. Coarse sandpaper would probably work fine, but I'd rather avoid buying disposable "tools" if possible.
• The biggest pain point is that I don't have a drill press. When I get a hole that's straight and centered I'll often use it as a guide to make more holes, but the guide obscures my view of the point I'm drilling and makes it easy to drill off-center. I think a jig would go a long way but I'm not experienced enough to know what I need to build. Ideally a jig would:
  • Keep my holes centered in the wood.
  • Keep my holes evenly spaced.
  • Hopefully be portable and usable without taking the structure apart. This may be unreasonable and I'd be happy with only the above.

Unrelated: (cc: @mikey) what's the intellectual property status of Grid Beam™? I didn't realize it was trademarked until today, which makes me wonder whether I should be evangelizing someone else's trademark. Would it be wise to develop an open standard to describe Grid Beam™ and OpenStructures™ and other modular building systems without invoking a commercial trademark? Or am I being paranoid about intellectual property rights?

Unrelated: (cc: @mikey) what’s the intellectual property status of Grid Beam™?

@Christian Bundy: as far as i can tell, the people who made Grid Beam™ (Richard Jergenson and Phil Jergenson) want the idea to be as open as possible, in videos and writings they mention Grid Beam being open source, they just want their baby Grid Beam to succeed. but yeah, looking at their website, what with ™ everywhere and trying to sell their non-free book, they aren't great at communicating the open vibe, they aren't tech savy in the modern way. for example, when i tried to order Grid Beam from them, they took a while to respond to my email, only to ask if they could call me, and from then on they only talked to me over phone calls. for what it's worth i also tried looking up Grid Beam in the trademark registry, didn't find anything. i've been meaning to actually reach out to them and get explicit permission to open up their content more, but haven't done so yet.