DIYbanter - View Single Post - Kreg Pocket Jig question

BillB

wrote:
I'm getting ready to re-face my kitchen cabinets in oak. The cabinets
are in great shape, but they are 1970's colonial, dark,dark, brown.
I'm an amateur woodworker but am very particular in the quality of the
finished job.

I've tried a few methods of fastening together the rails and stiles of
the cabinet doors and until I saw your pocket drill at Lowe's
yesterday, I was going to go with a method of making a a 'stubby'
mortise and tennon joint. I have limited woodworking equipment but I
do have a nice table saw and a pretty good power miter saw. Anyway, I
made a sample M&T joint and it looks pretty good, but took me quite a
while to get the table saw perfectly set up. You know what I mean,
I'm sure. If the tennon was too long, the rail and stile didn't mate
up tight and if it's too short, then there's a gap in the middle slot
that's cut out for the middle door panel to slide into.

I've also been scratching my head to figure out how to fasten together
the new face frames before attaching them to the cabinet boxes. It
seems to me like the pocket drill should be the perfect application
for both the cabinet doors and the face frame construction.

Here's my questions:
Which kit do you recommend if I am going to use the pocket drill
exclusively for 3/4" oak doors and face frames?
I don't understand why the two pieces of wood stay flat (parallel) if
the screw is going in at an angle? Wouldn't that angle stress 'bend'
the wood joint out of flat?
Would you use this drill kit for both the door rails and stiles and
the face frames or just the face frames?
Here's a question a little off topic but I'm sure you know the
answer...What's the best way to remove the existing face frames from
the cabinets? They look to be oak or pine solid wood frames but I
can't see any way that they're attached to the cabinet boxes. I
suspect they may just be glued on.

Thanks for your help!

Pocket holes are great for face frames. I won't use them on doors, I
don't like seeing the pockets. You can stick a dowel in the pocket and
sand flat, a contrasting wood provides an interesting effect. But, I
would suck it up and use a conventional m/t type joint. After you do a
few the set up is easy.

When you screw it together you have to clamp it flat, else it does move.
It won't necessarily angle, think of toe-nailing, but it will lift,
slide, etc.

Any of the pocket hole jigs work fine. More dollars, less fiddling to
use it. The Pocket Rocket works as well as the $150 jig, but you have
to manually align it and clamp it down, the more $$ jig is a set the
board in and drill type rig.

The existing face frames are probably glued on, possibly with biscuits
or dowels. One trick I've used is a router with a fence and a 1/4
spiral bit to cut them off. Set it so it's mostly cutting face frame,
unless you want to loose some cabinet depth. Does usually require
removing the cabinets. Otherwise some careful work with a chisel will
do it. The vintage of your cabinets leads me to believe there are
probably some nails too, hard on bits. Ain't easy.

The easiest way is to go to your local lumber yard, not the Borg, and
order a reface kit. They will provide preglued laminate to redo the
face frames and boxes. Careful work and it will look as good as
replacing the face frames. Buy or make new doors.

Bill B