If you're not familiar with pocket hole joinery, it's an extremely fast, strong and simple method of joining wood. Its primary use is in building face frames for cabinets, but there are a myriad other uses. (Click HERE for an illustrated list of all the ways this simple system can enhance your woodworking.)

In the cutaway view (above right), you can see exactly how the system works. Two pieces of wood are butted up against each other, and a two-stage hole is drilled. The hole is in the back face of the frame that's being built, so it's invisible after the project is assembled. The stepped drill bit makes a small pilot hole for the screw tip, and a larger, counterbored hole for the screw head. The magic of the jig (photo at the top of the page) is that it holds everything in position so that the holes are exactly where they should be.

The screws are self-tapping, and in all the years that we've been using this technology in the Woodezine shop, we've never had a piece of stock split. We have one of the original Kreg jigs, a small piece of steel that is clamped in place with a C-clamp. The newest generation of manual jigs, the K2000, is vastly superior to our antiquated system. It has a built-in toggle clamp and it's adjustable to fit several thicknesses of stock. You can use it to build cabinets, entertainment centers, tables, chairs, decks, stairs, angles, curves, window and door extensions, drawer boxes, the list goes on...

The patented three-holel spacing of the K2000 makes it extremely easy to place two pocket holes in a workpiece without having to unclamp and move the workpiece to drill the second hole. That's a real timesaver when working with a variety of wood widths.

The jig body is rugged, glass reinforced nylon, and the guide bushings are case-hardened steel that carries a lifetime warranty. The integrated heavy-duty toggle clamp holds your material securely in position and adjusts to accomodate up to 2" thick material. Wood chip relief holes are designed into the upright to reduce the amount of heat and stress placed on the drill bit.

Pocket hole joinery was actually invented by the Egyptians as they clamped two workpieces together and then bored a hole at an angle from the outside work piece into the second workpiece. They then inserted a dowel with some glue and cut it off flush with the surface. This technique continued to evolve over the years into two main joinery methods - doweling, and more recently pocket hole joinery. The modern pocket hole joint grew in popularity with the creation of the self-tapping screw in the 1980s, which eliminated the need to drill into the second workpiece altogether.

Pocket hole joints are remarkably strong for a couple of simple reasons. First, a mechanical screw has obvious physical properties that make it much stronger than a biscuit, dowel or tenon. Secondly, the amount of constant clamping force placed on the joint line by driving the screw combined with today's glue technology makes for a sensationally strong wood to wood bond. An independent lab determined that a pocket hole joint was approximately 35% stronger than a conventional mortise and tenon joint in shear strength.

For more info, visit the Kreg Tool Company online (www.kregtool.com), or call 800-447-8638.