Hot take: pocket hole jigs are a total waste for most jobs

I dropped $180 on a fancy Kreg jig system two years ago thinking it would speed up my cabinet work. Instead I spent more time clamping and fixing wobbly joints than if I'd just used dowels or dados. Sold it on Craigslist for $60. Anybody else find these things more trouble than they're worth?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor66811d ago

Ha, join the club! I bought a cheap clone off Amazon once and spent more time wrestling with tearout than actually building anything. Ended up using it as a paperweight before I finally trashed it. @danielhenderson nailed it, dados and dowels are just plain stronger. Guess some of us just gotta learn the hard way that fast and easy usually means flimsy.

danielhenderson11d ago

Did you read that test Fine Homebuilding did a few years back comparing pocket screws to dowels and dominoes? They pulled the joints apart with a machine and the pocket holes actually held less weight than the other methods. I get why people like them for quick stuff like building a shop bench where you want something fast and don't care if it falls apart in a year. But for furniture or cabinets you want to last, dados and dowels win every time in my book. You pretty much can't go wrong with a good dado joint and some glue.