Nate1778

I have wanted one of these for a while and never had the project or motive to buy one in the past. Well I got the kit for Christmas from my parents and was pleasantly surprised.

Kit is from Hartville tools, I think it retailed $130 and included a DVD, screws, quick change bits, and a clamp on jig for those "too big" jobs, ohh and a clamp.

I had the chance to use it last weekend for the first time. Opening the box everything fell together and the unit is easy to adjust for the size wood your using. Once together I cut my parts and started drilling. The bits do a nice job of cutting the pocket hole. There is quite a bit of debris produced and although my kit came with a DC shroud I did not do enough pockets to require it.

Once the parts are drilled you simply mark on the "rail" where you want the part and add glue to the end of the stile. place the two together and use the C clamp to hold the parts together and keep them flush. At that point grab your screw gun, and some of the pocket screws and screw the two together.

This pulls the joint together acting like a clamp and producing a super TIGHT joint. No gap is the result. I was very impressed with the joint, it is very clean with no gaps at all. There is one downfall to this joint, if your wood is not cut perfect, the screws will pull the wood joint together so tight that the stile or rail may be off by a few degrees. I was really surprised how much this shows how far off your cut my be, even at a 1/3 of a degree. I was pleased with the lite amount of sanding required to get the joint even if at all necessary. Another other nice part is how quickly the part can be used, it is ready to roll right after screwing. the last luxury of this joint is that you can work at one joint at a time, no gluing up 6 joints then adding clamps. It really removes the rush from assembly

I was very impressed with the unit, it is tough and very accurate. will this joint work for everything, no, but most applications will work. It is by far the easiest joint I have ever created and they look fantastic. I highly recommend this setup for easy joints on face frame assembly and I am sure many other applications. If you haven't tried it don't be intimidated, it was super easy and I am sure this kit will get much use in my shop.

cabinetdesigner

I bought one to build my kitchen cabinets I love it. I first uised it build the boxes and then the face frames then I bisciuted the face frames to the box it all worked seamlessly.

firehawkmph

Nate,
nice review. I have has a kreg jig since they first came out. I also bought the redesigned master jig setup. Both came from Hartville Hardware. Fun place to buy tools in person. I like my kreg jigs so much I kept my first one even after buying the second. I put a lot of things together with them and always enjoy using it.
Mike Hawkins

johnep

AS someone who first heard about Kreg on this site, I have also had great experiences with it. Even used to join boards to make a shelf end to end. Today hope to construct a kitchen cupd and really looking forward to the action as have not been able to work at all for over month while recovering from hip replacement.

I wish I had found Kreg years ago.
johnep

Nate1778

Man, I am stoked about this jig. I mean I have heard how easy it was to use, but till you actually put screws to wood, its hard to believe. I haven't been this happy with a product since Bulls Eye Spray Shellac for small projects.

Gene Howe

And Kreg is a great company to deal with, also.
When they first offered their miter gauge, I called to order one but,
the bar had to be milled to fit my Shopsmith. They called Shopsmith and got the specs and milled it for me for free. Later, they began offering one for the different models of Shopsmith tables.

Then, more recently, my Kreg step drills seemed to get dull really fast. I called and they told me to send them in and they would sharpen them for free. They did, too. Normally, it's a $4.00 charge per drill, I think.

RLHERRON

A little information please: I currently have the Kreg R3 which is a small 2 hole plastic piece that will do pocket holes. Every hole has to be re-clamped to drill. It's time consuming and slow, esp. when you have a number of holes to drill.

My question: Does the K3 make it a lot easier to do this? Would the price justify the improved ease?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

RLH

Nate1778

Yes. The K3 bolts to the workbench or any other sturdy sub strait. So the stile length can be limited as far as your ceiling height, coarse you could mount the thing to a board and put it on the floor. The nice part about the jig is you stick the wood in, pull the lever and drill the holes. If you need more than the holes you just put in, you push the lever, move the part over and pull it again and off you go. Anything to large will still need the independent clamp on jig. Mind you that would have to be a pretty large piece of wood. The other nice part about the jig is the stop gauge, if your doing a lot of stiles in the same length it makes uniformity very easy.


Here is a K3 infomercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCnE-h62DuM

RLHERRON

Thanks Nate,

That info-mercial sold me

Appreciate the info.

RLH

Garibaldi

But don't throw away your mini - it can come in very handy to make quick fixes without having to take a piece back to the shop.