In woodworking jargon the process of joining two or more pieces together is called "wood joinery". To anyone who has never stood on a sawdust covered floor or suffered the pangs of slinging various types of glue between boards, this term seems simple enough. However wood joinery can include such diverse methods as tongue and grove joints, dovetail joints, mortise and tenon joints, biscuit joints, dowel joints and a few other methods that wood craftsmen have spent years perfecting and in many instances cursing.
Certainly the beauty of a dovetailed drawer in a dining room showcase or a bedroom dresser is something that is always admired. However these types of wood joinery can only be produced through techniques that even when using expensive jigs and fixtures will require skill and patience. In todays fast paced world where quality furniture must be produced with concerns for the cost of labor and the lack of sufficient experienced woodworkers, any technique that will produce a strong, quality joint is much sought after.
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Glue has long been a product of strong joints. Even with mortise and tenon, dovetail, biscuit joinery and many other methods, glue has always been a necessary addition to the strength of the joints. Glues are expensive and messy to use which increases the labor and thus the cost of finished joints.
Making strong wood joints has long been a problem for many home woodworkers whose goal is a beautiful finished product without needing too much skill or expensive tools. Certainly the skills of some part time woodworkers equals that of professionals. But this skill takes tremendous amounts of time and experience to obtain. What is needed is a method to join wood without expensive tools or years of experience that will still produce quality, beautiful finished projects.
In 1986 such a system was given birth by a toolmaker who was also a part time woodworker. When presented with a challenge in a project in his home, Craig Sommerfeld combined his tool making skills and love of wood work to produce what would become an evolution in woodworking. The system was so simple and produced such strong joints without the necessity of glue that when wood workers finally realized what it was, only after a tremendous effort by it's designer, they quickly added the system to their workshops and toolboxes.
The system uses a clamping jig the guides a specialized drill at 15 a degree angle into adjoining wood parts producing a clearance hole in one piece and a hole in the second that hold sa special screw. All that is necessary is to drive in the screws and a perfectly aligned, concealed joint is produced. While glue is not necessary it can be used if desired.
Though the years of development a number of models and kits of the Kreg pocket hole jig have been developed. Some basic kits are designed to use for repair work and the occasional project. More complete complex kits are available for those who do a lot of woodwork at home and for professional shops.
To be expected anytime a new popular tool is designed there are sure to be copycat models produced by other companies. Kreg has long been called the best pocket hole jig system on the market. Is this claim held by owners? A quick search of owners comments on sites such as Amazon quickly show that Kreg owners love their kits. It is not unusual to find that 70 or more customers have taken the time to return to Amazon after purchasing a Kreg system to give positive reviews. Most of the reviews are in the 5 star range which is the highest review rating possible.
Amazon carries several other models of the pocket hole screw jig. It is readily apparent that while owners of one or more of the other models seem to be satisfied with their choice of tool they also admit that if they were going to be doing lots of woodwork involving screw joinery they would spend the necessary money to purchase a Kreg system.
One model produced by a manufacturer that is known for a large line of inexpensive tools has not received much respect for their screw jig. This only enforces the fact that if you are going to buy a screw jig you need to spend a little time researching the various models and owners comment to be sure you get the tool designed for your needs and budget. As with any quality woodworking tool it seems that price does matter and in most cases spending more results in a better tool.
Even with the finest tools, every new models is not guaranteed to please all users. Kreg discovered this in one of their latest kits. Owners of earlier models complained that while the new model did indeed offer valuable upgrades in some cases it did not seem to clamp certain sized boards as firmly as the previous model. Reading through the owners reviews however it was easy to find suggestions to overcome this issue and as before owners seem hard pressed to find fault with their Kreg pocket hole jigs.
A well known credit card company always admonishes us to never leave home without their product. I would like to similarly suggest that you should never purchase any tool without first doing a little research by reading through the available owner's comments. This could mean the difference between years of pleasant work or hours of cursing a tool that did not live up to your expectations.