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.
--
Mac Cool

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 wrote in message ...
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.

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.
--
Mac Cool

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:

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.

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.

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

Mac Cool wrote in message ...
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.

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'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.

I hope you used some Glue as well.


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

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

time and overall I'm happy with the choice.

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

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

(MaxEN) said:

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.

I hope you used some Glue as well.

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

--
Mac Cool

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

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

"Stephen M" wrote in message ...

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.

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

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