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Wasted $340 on a pocket hole jig setup that sits in a drawer now
So about 8 months back I got talked into buying one of those fancy pocket hole jigs with the case and the fancy drill bit and the plugs and all that stuff. Dropped $340 at the woodworking store in Grand Rapids because the guy behind the counter swore up and down it was the best thing for face frames. I used it on two cabinet jobs and hated every second of it. The holes blew out on the maple, the plugs never sat flush no matter how careful I was, and I had to mix sawdust and glue to fill the gaps anyway which looked worse than just doing it right. Went back to my old method of dowels and glue with a simple jig I built myself out of scrap, and those frames came out tighter and faster. That $340 could have bought me a decent used router or a pile of good clamps instead. Now the whole kit sits in the bottom drawer of my bench because I feel dumb selling it to some other guy who will fall for the same pitch. Curious if anyone here actually gets good results with pocket screws on face frames or if I just did it wrong?
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anthony12917d ago
That part about the holes blowing out on maple is the real story here. Pocket screws need softwood or ply to bite right, and maple is hard enough that the screw wants to wander and the bit wants to climb. Everyone blames their technique but a lot of it is just the wood fighting back. Thing nobody talks about is that pocket screws pull the joint out of alignment while dowels hold it in place, so you were never going to get flush plugs on a hard wood no matter how slow you went. I built a dowel jig from scrap too and it beat the store bought stuff on every cabinet I've done since. You didn't do it wrong, you just got sold a tool that only works right in pine.
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