First day with Kreg Rocket Jig Pocket Hole System

[Mac Cool]

Until today I've only built tables and smaller projects, but SWMBO wanted two new cabinets and a pantry for the kitchen.

I've been neandering mortis and tenons on my tables but I wasn't about to do that with cabinets so decided to either get a biscuit joiner or a Kreg pocket hole jig. The Kreg is $64 and will work on all parts of the cabinet, a biscuit joiner is $150+ and would be useless on the narrow face frames I'll be building.

I'm impressed. I was able to build in an hour what would have taken two days of neandering. The joints seem very stout without trying to break them and I'm confident they will be more than adequate for kitchen cabinets.

The phenolic resin jig seems a little light and at first I wasn't sure it would be worth the money, but my doubts disappeared, one pocket hole at a time and overall I'm happy with the choice.

Maybe some future project will provide the excuse to buy a biscuit joiner.

[jack]

I use it all the time with and without glue on MDF with the MDF screws works great. For jigs I dont use glue so I can take them apart. For racks and weight bearing stuff I use yellow glue. I find I use it where I would have put a screw thru a panel into the edge of the joining panel, I use the Kreg from the other side. Jack

[Mac Cool]

One thing I forgot to mention is the tendency for the screw to push the joint. Sometimes it seemed the harder I tried to clamp the pieces, the worse the creep. I had the best luck just holding the pieces in place with my hands. Having read warnings in this group, I was somewhat prepared for it. I suppose with a little more practice I'll be able to nullify the creep all the time.

[Pat Barber]

Not without a clamp....

You can get lucky on occasion but clamps are the correct and recommended method.

By the way... putting the screws in by hand is a tad easier in some cases. This also cuts down on "spin-out" of screws.

Mac Cool wrote:

[Stephen M]

Kreg reccomends the use of a drill with a clutch. My old Hitachi cordless drill does not have a clutch but it is relatively low-powered (torque) and has a nice tactile/responsive trigger; that setup works pretty well.. With my Panasonic cordless drill, I *have to* use the clutch and that works well too. My Bosch corded drill w/o clutch would not work well at all.

Yes I would imagine that screwing by hand could be preferable to the wrong drill for the job, particularly in softwoods.

-Steve

[MaxEN]

Yes it is useless here, but it is very handy for some places that nothing else can work like a BJ, of cource you can cut the pockets yourself without a joiner, it just take time and not as clean as a BJ.

I hope you used some Glue as well.

Surely it worth the Money, I built more than 50 cabinets using this Jig and it works perfect, clean and fast.

Get a BJ, you will like it, if you can. Good luck. Max

[Mac Cool]

I did, but if you've ever tried gluing a butt joint, the glue adds very little.

[Stephen M]

With cabinets, it's not really a butt joint. 1/2 the plys in the carcase are edge grain to edge grain with the face frame.

-Steve

[vmtw]

I dont have a clutch on my corded Dewalt either. I just take short trigger pulls at the end and let it coast the last ½ turn or so. Seems to work for me.

Scott