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How to Join Wood With Pocket Screws
To use a pocket hole jig, just clamp your workpiece in the jig and drill the steeply angled holes. The thickness of the stock you’re drilling into determines the jig’s positioning as well as the setting of the drill bit’s stop collar. The included drill bit bores a flat-bottom hole with a short pilot hole at the center to guide the screw into the adjoining part.
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Add Glue and Screw Together
Apply wood glue, clamp the parts together and drive the screws. Some pocket hole jigs are portable, so you can clamp them onto a workpiece that’s too large to put on your workbench.
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Pros and Cons of Dowels
Pros
- Positive alignment both directions
- Mating dowel holes can be positioned anywhere using dowel centers.
Cons
- Requires clamping
- Slow
A solid, easy-to-use doweling jig won’t cost too much, around $50. You’ll need a supply of dowels and, like the pocket hole method, the only tool you need is a drill. Dowels for joinery are different from standard dowel rods found at the hardware store. Joinery dowels are grooved to keep glue from getting trapped in the bottom of the hole, preventing the parts from pulling together. The greater gluing surface provides a somewhat mechanical grip.
Unlike pocket screws, dowels provide positive alignment of parts. Pocket screws will also result in both sides of the joint look the same, without exposed screws.
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