I have also found that when you set the stop collar on the drill bit using the Kreg gauge, the drill barely (if ever) starts a hole in the second piece of wood. This causes the second piece to be initially pushed away from the first piece until the screw seats and pulls it back. Pulls it back but not always as precisely aligned as you would like. I like to set the stop collar a little higher on the drill bit so I get a little pilot action in the second piece. By all means, experiment on scrap first.



On Tuesday, March 14, 2017 at 10:44:29 AM UTC-4, Ivan Vegvary wrote:
Daughter using 1x2'some to make simple cabinet doors frames. After finishing all 4 doors, husband suggested that she might have used nicer quality Lumber. She switched from clear pine to birch.
Using birch (HD) every single stile splits when the screw gets tightened, even just slightly by hand.
Again, pockets are in rail, parallel to grain. Screen enters stile perpendicular to grain.
Screws are 1-1/4 inch.
What gives? Pockets don't work on hard woods?