New Kreg Pocket Hole Jig The K3

[David]

Their tech support guy failed on 2 occasions to call me back. How much more am I supposed to "bug" them? I'll just vote with my tool dollars, at this point.

Dave

[KS]

Uh, don't they all ready have your dollars at this point?

[Dave]

Why does one need to buy the new expensive kreg, just for the vacuum addition?? When you do pocket holes on a project are you going to make more excessive dust? That's what a shop vac is for. If I were to do ph's on a production basis, I would buy the PC outfit. Before I invest more money in the jig I'll buy another tool/toy. My 2 cents worth.

[David]

Can't change the past. I can control my FUTURE spending. AAMOF I might get a refund. :)

Dave

[Swingman]

Strange ...

It's been awhile, but I just had the opportunity to use my Kreg drawer slide mounting jig again today to mount two drawers in a cabinet.

The drawer slides were those el cheapo/Euro, low profile, 3/4 extension, white/brown ones ... the ones that have that slight dip downward at the back of the cabinet end to facilitate closing.

I waited until after the drawers were mounted to check the 'squareness' of the jig. As reported in this thread, it is definitely not square at the "T" where the handle joins, at least to a well maintained 6" engineers square..

However, after installation, the top of the drawer slides _are_ square to the cabinet front with that same engineers square, and the overlay drawer fronts are flush with the cabinet all the way round.

IOW, the thing works, as it always has for me, without any apparent problems. (I've only used it rarely with side mount ball bearing slides and don't recall having a problem there either)

Go figure ... and trust me, SNAFU is the operative word in my life here lately.

[Upscale]

Any chance there's allowance somewhere for screws to pull them into place?

[Swingman]

"Upscale" wrote

I don't think that's the case, as the screw holes in the slide are fully accessible when the slide is mounted in the jig ... and one thing us anal retentive's are always on the lookout for is that telltale movement from an off-center mounting screw, be it drawer slide or hinge.

I really don't have a dog in the fight, not going to argue with the OP, or lose any sleep over whether the jig is poorly designed/made by Kreg, but I just happened to remember the thread as I was finishing up that cabinet today and decided to throw in my current experience/observation with the jig in question, FWIW.

[Upscale]

Agree with you there. If there's nothing that burns my butt more, then it's a properly centred screw that pulls everything out of alignment. Happened to me once with some drawer slides I bought. Turns out the slides had too much paint adhering to one side of the screw holes. Had to go over them all lightly with a counter sink. Last time I bought no-name drawer slides.

[LDR]

snip

They did NOT work for me with ball bearing slides, which infuriatingly tipped like a sliding pond. I think the jig is a great idea badly under engineered. You would think Kreg would not play fast and loose with a basically good reputation deservedly earned on its pocket jigs.