The Kreg site says 1/2". Has anyone here tried material as thin as that?
Isn't the drill bit 3/8"?

I ask because I dressed up some black melamine shelves with oak trim a
few years ago and the glue I used failed. (no surprise to anyone here, I
suppose)Kreg screws sound like a convenient way to fix it, but I think
the shelves are not very thick, maybe 5/8".

I'm guessing someone will ask what the substrate is. I don't know, but
it's likely whatever combination of sawdust, glue and sweatshop tears is
current in HD's premade shelves.

On 4/17/2012 1:20 PM, Greg Guarino wrote:
The Kreg site says 1/2". Has anyone here tried material as thin as that?
Isn't the drill bit 3/8"?

Yes...you can do 1/2" with no problem using the correct bit
setting and the correct screws.

Yes....that's the bit size but the jig is set to the correct angle
and depth of the bit for the material.

On 4/17/2012 4:20 PM, Greg Guarino wrote:
The Kreg site says 1/2". Has anyone here tried material as thin as that?
Isn't the drill bit 3/8"?

I ask because I dressed up some black melamine shelves with oak trim a few
years ago and the glue I used failed. (no surprise to anyone here, I
suppose)Kreg screws sound like a convenient way to fix it, but I think the
shelves are not very thick, maybe 5/8".

I'm guessing someone will ask what the substrate is. I don't know, but it's
likely whatever combination of sawdust, glue and sweatshop tears is current
in HD's premade shelves.

I had to dive into the scrap bin to find something as thin as 1/2" to do
the test but I can verify that the Kreig worked fine with it. This was with
oak so I guess that if the material you are working with is fragile enough
it might not work so well. Odd that it took me so long to figure out how to
set the Krieg for the thin stock. I have two drill bits with the collars
pre-set and seem to never actually change the setup and it took me several
minutes to figure out what I was doing.

On 4/17/2012 3:20 PM, Greg Guarino wrote:
The Kreg site says 1/2". Has anyone here tried material as thin as that?
Isn't the drill bit 3/8"?

I ask because I dressed up some black melamine shelves with oak trim a
few years ago and the glue I used failed. (no surprise to anyone here, I
suppose)Kreg screws sound like a convenient way to fix it, but I think
the shelves are not very thick, maybe 5/8".

I'm guessing someone will ask what the substrate is. I don't know, but
it's likely whatever combination of sawdust, glue and sweatshop tears is
current in HD's premade shelves.

I have done it on several occasional making jigs out of 1/2" Baltic
Bbirch ply.

Keep in mind that Kreg also makes s smaller jig and drill diameter also.
I did no use that however, the 3/8" bit worked for me Test however.

On Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:20:06 -0400, Greg Guarino
wrote:

The Kreg site says 1/2". Has anyone here tried material as thin as that?
Isn't the drill bit 3/8"?
[...snip...]
The bit is 3/8" but it steps down for about 1/2".

I doubt you will get a lot of strength from Melamine, however, since
it is particle board. Might work, though. But as the shelves might sag
over time, the screws might break through the Melamine down the road.

Another option is to have some mechanical joining, such as a spline
between the melamine and aak. Biscuits might work, but I'd test that
first since the biscuits swell once the glue is applied and might blow
out the particle board.

I think I made a desk some years ago with Melamine shelves and used
oak trim front and back to add stiffness so that they wouldn't sag. I
used a spline and it worked well.