Kreg pocket holes not drilling cleanly

I'm a Kreg novice. I've now used the system for 2 projects and a couple of small utility shelves. It's very convenient. But the holes, especially in solid wood, don't drill cleanly. Specifically, the left-hand edge of each hole (that's the side that the drill bit cutting edge would be "emerging" from, as opposed to the side that the bit edge would enter the wood) comes out raggedy-looking. Here's a photo, which is not terribly detailed:

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cleaned them up a bit with a utility knife before I took the photo. They end up with thin "fingers" of wood over the hole at the left edge. If I ever use pocket hole s even inside a cabinet, I'd like them to be a little neater.

These holes aren't going to show; this is a "frame" to hide the ugly plaster hole left by the guys who put a through-the-wall air conditioner in my Mom's house. In this case, the wood is maple. But it did the same sort of thing in pine. I think I used a cordless drill this time, but used a corded one (higher rpm, I think) with similar results on the last project.

I will add the tally on this bit is only maybe 100 holes. Any ideas?

Reply to
Greg Guarino
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That happens to me occasionally too. The jig is supposed to fit tightly to the wood and provide a backer to minimize this. However, when I get careless and leave a bit of sawdust between the jig & the wood I get what you describe. If you don't clamp the jig tightly enough or if the jig is worn you would likely get it too. Art

Reply to
Artemus

The grain of the wood is most likely what is causing the problem ...

Reply to
Swingman

Sawdust, huh? That could be. I use their "vise-grip" style clamp, and I clamp it pretty hard, but I may not blow out the dust completely, especially between adjacent holes. I'll give that a try. Thanks.

Reply to
Greg Guarino

Are you drilling the complete hole in one pass? Are you going part way in and then pulling the bit back out to clear the debris and then continuing the drilling? If you are drilling the complete hole in one pass without clearing the debris that could be part of the problem... especially in hard wood.

Are you sure your fixture is securely clamped to the work? If not that could be contributing to the problem too.

If it isn't either one of those situations it's gotta be gremlins.

Reply to
Gordon Shumway

Greg Guarino wrote in news:k0u2su$212$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

I'm a novice to the Kreg jig as well, and just figured it was the "nature of the beast." The dozen and a half I drilled for my last project cleaned up really nicely with some 220 grit paper in a palm sander.

Maybe a few of the tricks that work for other things would help here. Tape, perhaps? Or maybe a thin piece of wood placed over the place where you're drilling so the ragged edge occurs on the piece rather than the work piece?

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

If I ever use pocket hole s even inside a cabinet, I'd like them to be a little neater.

Good form would dictate that pocket holes are only on the back side of face frames and other non-visible locations of cabinets. They do sell the plugs but that is kind of cheesy and you should just use a better joint.

I did use them on to connect the upper bookshelf sides, down to the counter top of lower cabs on some built-ins. I considered plugs but just ended up covering them with some thin trim that looks like some perfectly natural interior base molding.

Reply to
SonomaProducts.com

I agree... even with plugs, these are something not to be seen. I used them on the outer surface of the cabinet in my bathroom(s) remodel but they are invisible, because that surface is painted. Point being, it's not really something to worry about since they are either on unseen surfaces or the fuzz will be sanded off during paint prep.

Reply to
-MIKE-

I cannot recall ever using them where I was worried about the looks of the hole edges... either it was rough work where I didn't care period, or it was concealed by later work. If appearance matters I use mortise and tenon or handcut dovetails... To some degree I have lately used corrugated fasteners where I formerly would have used Kreg screws... keep things together to assist in assembly and/or hold hidden pieces together while the glue holding plywood skins dried. But that's me...

John

Reply to
John Grossbohlin

That's how I do it. It doesn't really seem possible to do it in one pass.

If you are drilling the complete hole in one

Seems secure. My tendency is to err on the side of overtightening things.

Reply to
Greg Guarino

That's my experience. You do need to retract and clear.

Reply to
Dave Balderstone

If you set up a shop-vac on this thing, it'll take care of that. If anyone is looking to get into pocket hole joinery, spend the extra bucks on the dust collection attachments or rig something up at home. It makes all the difference in the world.

Reply to
-MIKE-

I have the attachment, but in my experience it's ineffective, the hose attachment is badly positioned, and honestly, I don't need the additional noise. A quick swoosh with a bench brush works faster, cleaner, and quieter.

Reply to
Dave Balderstone

It must be a bad design, because when I simply hold my vac against the ports of the jig, it clears out most of the muck from the bit/hole.... at least enough to keep me from having to re-plunge the bit several times to make a clean hole.

I'm curious how a bench brush clear debris from the hole while drilling, allowing you to drill a clean hole in one pass? :-)

Reply to
-MIKE-

Any rotating cutter will tend to tear/lift/fuzz the grain on the exit side especially when cutting cross grain. The only way to avoid it is to completely back up the edge...think router and edge grain where you use a sacrificial block.

You can mitigate it to a greater or lesser extent by toughening the wood surface where it is going to tear or fuzz. On a saw, masking tape helps a bit, not likely to help in your case. You can also score it. For you, the easiest/best(?) way would to spray on a coat of lacquer and let it dry well before drilling. Hardly worth the bother given the ease of knocking off the fuzz with sandpaper if it bothers you.

Reply to
dadiOH

I've drilled literally thousands of pocket holes in cabinet face frames the past ten plus years, and since I started using my Festool CT22E dust extractor attached to the Kreg Jig Master system dust port a few of years back, I have not seen a speck of drill sawdust when drilling pocket screw holes ... I mean 99.99 non-existent.

BTW, although I have a spare drill bit, it remains unused. IOW, I've drilled all those holes with the same drill bit I got with my initial Kreg jig about 2000, and it still cuts as cleanly as it did on day one.

As far as the original post, and once again for the record, the grain of the wood is IME biggest part of the OP's issue with tear out on the exit side of the cutting edge of the bit ...usually most prominent when drilling into any flat sawn faces at an angle.

Reply to
Swingman
  1. Use a good 3/8 "corded" drill, battery drills just don't spin up fast enough for a clean hole.
  2. Have a good sharp bit.
  3. Cross grain will cause a little fuzzy edges at times.
  4. Use the dust collector if your model supports it.

Your picture appears to be white pine which is tough to get a good sharp edge on.

Reply to
Pat Barber

I have to say that with my Kreg PH jig hooked up to the Festool vac hardly a spec of dust gets free. You must be doing something wrong.

Reply to
Leon

Normally I would agree but the T-15 Festool drill works well, as good as my stand by DeWalt with a tail with no noticeable speed deterioration under load.

Reply to
Leon

Good advice except it depends on the cordless drill. I have 4 cordless drills. 2 aren't fast enough, 2 are plenty fast enough.

Reply to
-MIKE-

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