Pocket hole jig

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vv2806

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Not a fan of pocket hole joinery, but it has its place at times. I've had the Trend and now have a Kreg K5, but can't say about the UJK. The Kreg is a more expensive product, but IMHO is a better made product and seems more accurate and more durable. Not unexpected, really, as they were the original patentee of these jigs. Kreg certainly support their products and offer a wide range of extras such as specialist clamps which are well worth the money.

One piece of advice I would offer is to use a corded or air drill rather than a cordless tool with these jigs. Battery drills seem far more prone to "catching" when drilling - and that tends to snap the small point off those expensive drill bits all too easily
 
JobAndKnock said:
One piece of advice I would offer is to use a corded or air drill rather than a cordless tool with these jigs. Battery drills seem far more prone to "catching" when drilling - and that tends to snap the small point off those expensive drill bits all too easily
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Interesting. I've been watching an American youtube "woodworker" who uses Kreg pocket jigs for pocket holes and he has always used a cordless drill with them. Why are cordless drills susceptible to this problem?
 
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I don't know why but found the same information on other web sites. Several people mentioned that their cordless drills were not up to the challenge, they had to have more goes with the cordless than with the corded drill.
 
I have the Kreg K4 and K3, the K4 is really good. I have used it for making lots of stuff, I know it's not proper cabinet making but I get a good product at the end
I have made these 2 items as well as lots of other stuff..
 

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Great, I am about to do similar cabinets, that's why I am going to buy a jig.
 
The only thing is that I find the screws can be quite expensive, I brought a mixed box to start with but find I use more of the longer screws so I have brought individual boxes of them.
I have also made the wooden plugs from normal 9mm dowel. There was a video on You tube, cutting them was a bit of a faff but I made loads for a few quid!!!
 
stealthwolf said:
I've been watching an American youtube "woodworker" who uses Kreg pocket jigs for pocket holes and he has always used a cordless drill with them. Why are cordless drills susceptible to this problem?
Click to expand...
I'd say two reasons: first off cordless drills generally spin at lower speeds than corded ones, secondly when cordless drill batteries start to get near the point of discharge they can and do slow down and I've even experienced juddering on a few drills. The small point on the pocket hole bits are thin and any major deflection such as can be caused by the drill suddenly slowing can just snap the end off

As a tradesman I'm wary of pocket holes because in some materials, most notably MDF and MFC/chipboard the joints have little mechanical shear strength. This becomes all too obvious when there is a need, say, to manhandle something like a pre-assembled full-height kitchen larder unit off the tailgate of a van and up a couple of flughts of stairs. If care is not taken it is all too easy to experience the joints literally pulling themselves to bit because the materials themselves are so weak.
 
JobAndKnock said:
As a tradesman I'm wary of pocket holes because in some materials, most notably MDF and MFC/chipboard the joints have little mechanical shear strength. This becomes all too obvious when there is a need, say, to manhandle something like a pre-assembled full-height kitchen larder unit off the tailgate of a van and up a couple of flughts of stairs. If care is not taken it is all too easy to experience the joints literally pulling themselves to bit because the materials themselves are so weak.
Click to expand...

I thought one of the pros of pocket holes is that you can take the furniture apart if needed.
 
vv2806 said:
I thought one of the pros of pocket holes is that you can take the furniture apart if needed.
Click to expand...
If your furniture is made from MDF or MFC then just like bought-in flat pack stuff it may or may not survive doing that. As to taking stuff apart, if stuff is delivered ready assembled it isn't normal to dismantle it in order to install it - in the real world it takes too long and costs too much. For a DIYer thing are simpler because messing about tht way isn't costing you money!
 
It makes sense, I haven't consider this scenario. But I am a DIYer and most of the furniture I am planning to make would be built-in, so no taking apart or moving around. Still enthusiastic about using a pocket hole jig :) Thank you JobAndKnock (and the others) for the useful information. Might lift the thread when my first piece of furniture is ready to show off :)
 
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