Did it take a lot of practice to figure out your Kreg Jig? I bought one over the weekend and I'm working on my first project with it (simple stools). I'm struggling with figuring out where to place my pocket holes, and splitting wood.
I very rarely have splitting problems with a kreg jig. Make sure you're using the flat bottomed screws that you're supposed to use with these jigs. Any kind of angled base to the head will cause a split.
The important thing is that the base of your screw head is the same shape as the bottom of the step on your drill. If there's a shape difference the screw either won't hold, or it will split out the wood.
You don't have to buy the kreg screws specifically. Any screw where the bottom of the head is flat will work, and I usually buy something other than the kreg screws because the price is better. Rockler is the best place I've found.
We had problems with splitting while using the kreg jig when we were trying to screw into 1x2's. They were the premium pine at HD and they were pretty hard pieces of wood. We just put the end of a small drill bit through the kreg hole and into the piece of wood we were trying to attach, didn't split at all.
I should also mention that we don't use Kreg brand screws very often.. We use an off brand that we found at Home depot called General and they work just fine. They are pocket hole screws, just not kreg brand.
I would also double check that you are using the correct depth setting for the wood you are using. If it's not right, it could split the wood. For example, you're using a 1/2" piece of wood but it's set for 3/4", that could place the bottom of the pocket hole (where the screw head will set) to close to the edge of wood and would split it when you try to tighten up the screws. I hope that makes sense. :-)
I'm using Kreg brand screws, but only because I got a box free when I bought the Kreg Jig. Thanks for the heads up on the other screws I can use. I went back to my project and seemed to do better. I was using 1 x 2's and I think I was just seriously over-tightening, causing the wood to split.
Does your drill have adjustable torque settings? Lower the setting and when the screw is tight the gears will slip. Makes a horrendous noise but the driver bit is not turning anymore or over tightening (crushing wood. A high torque setting can cause the drill to tighten the screw down to much crush the fibers in a soft wood like pine and causing the screw to dig in a little deeper.
claydowling
Mon, 04/11/2011 - 14:10
Wood splitting
I very rarely have splitting problems with a kreg jig. Make sure you're using the flat bottomed screws that you're supposed to use with these jigs. Any kind of angled base to the head will cause a split.
You want to use this kind of screw: http://www.leevalley.com/US/hardware/page.aspx?p=67289&cat=3,41306
The important thing is that the base of your screw head is the same shape as the bottom of the step on your drill. If there's a shape difference the screw either won't hold, or it will split out the wood.
You don't have to buy the kreg screws specifically. Any screw where the bottom of the head is flat will work, and I usually buy something other than the kreg screws because the price is better. Rockler is the best place I've found.
tracysmith
Mon, 04/11/2011 - 17:05
We had problems with that as well...
We had problems with splitting while using the kreg jig when we were trying to screw into 1x2's. They were the premium pine at HD and they were pretty hard pieces of wood. We just put the end of a small drill bit through the kreg hole and into the piece of wood we were trying to attach, didn't split at all.
Nicholez
Mon, 04/11/2011 - 17:28
Getting Better at it...
I'm using Kreg brand screws, but only because I got a box free when I bought the Kreg Jig. Thanks for the heads up on the other screws I can use. I went back to my project and seemed to do better. I was using 1 x 2's and I think I was just seriously over-tightening, causing the wood to split.
ArmySGT.
Sat, 05/28/2011 - 05:15
Does your drill have
Does your drill have adjustable torque settings? Lower the setting and when the screw is tight the gears will slip. Makes a horrendous noise but the driver bit is not turning anymore or over tightening (crushing wood. A high torque setting can cause the drill to tighten the screw down to much crush the fibers in a soft wood like pine and causing the screw to dig in a little deeper.
emmarosemc
Sun, 06/12/2011 - 19:17
sears online has kreg screws
sears online has kreg screws for really cheap prices, almost 50% off, check it out.