Why Every Woodworker Should Have A Pocket Hole Jig In Their Toolkit

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There are a lot of methods for making a strong joint between two pieces of wood. Dowels or biscuits can strengthen a joint by adding an extra piece of wood that serves as a sort of pin. Then you have more advanced forms of traditional woodworking joinery, like dovetail or tongue-and-groove joints. These involve shaping the wood so that boards can fit together like puzzle pieces, ensuring that they will be difficult to break apart. 

Finally, you have pocket joints. These involve getting a jig that clamps onto the board and serves as a guide for a special drill bit. When used in tandem, these make a slightly angled pocket hole in the side or end of the board. Special self-piloting screws are then fed through the pocket and used to join this board to another piece of wood.

Some woodworkers may turn their nose up at the pocket hold jig, as they find the drilled-out pockets less appealing than some more seamless styles of joinery. That said, there are a few compelling reasons why every woodworker should consider adding one to their tool kit, especially if you're looking for affordable woodworking tools to add to your collection.

One of the more compelling reasons new and casual woodworkers might want to add a pocket hole jig to their kit is that they're easy to use. Other forms of joinery can have a high margin for error, and it's all too easy to misalign drilled-out holes for pegs and biscuits. Other forms of joinery can be even more challenging. Dovetail joints, for instance, are notoriously difficult to master, and even a slightly out-of-place cut can leave unsightly gaps in the joint or pieces that don't fit together at all.

Pocket holes are much simpler. All you need to know is how to work a clamp and operate a drill. Some jigs have a clamping mechanism built in, while others require you to provide your own clamp. In either case, you simply clamp the jig to the edge of a piece of wood you'd like to join to another, and use the special bit to drill out a couple of pocket holes. Then remove the jig, line up the board to where you want it attached, and then install the pocket screws in the pocket holes. This is a great way to reinforce a joint that involves end grain, as that can be a bit resistant to even the strongest wood glue.

There are only a couple of things you need to be careful of. The first is you want to make sure you set the correct depth on the pocket hole bit so you don't accidentally drill the hole too deep and the second is making sure the boards are secure when attaching the screws so they don't move out of alignment.

Pocket hole joints aren't just simple, they're also very effective. Some traditional joinery methods might be a bit stronger, but pocket hole joints are no slouches. "The steel self-tapping screws the Kreg system uses are much stronger than the wood fasteners they replace – dowels, tenons, biscuits, etc," says Rockler. "The superior strength of a pocket hole joint has actually been proven. Independent testing found that a pocket screw joint failed at 707 pounds when subjected to a shear load while a comparable mortise and tenon joint failed at 453 pounds – meaning that the pocket screw joint was approximately 35% stronger." 

This is very important when you're building something that you want to be load-bearing, like furniture or work equipment. The YouTuber Kings Fine Woodworking further tested the strength of this joint by building a small ramp to show that it could support the weight of his 8,800 lb. Ford Excursion.

Like all joints, these are made even stronger by the addition of wood glue, but one thing that separates pocket holes from other forms of joinery is that the screws provide their own clamping pressure. PVA carpenter's glue generally requires at least an hour of clamping pressure to set and a full 24 hours to cure. By using pocket hole screws, you ensure that the glue is immovably fixed in place for the entirety of the curing process and further strengthens the glues hold by distributing the stress across the joint.

Pocket holes can also be better for working with end grain because they're set at an angle, which allows the screws to bite across grain rather than directly into it. This lets the threads grip more of the wood's fibers for a firmer hold.

The biggest drawback to pocket hole joinery is the pockets themselves. Many people consider them unsightly and dismiss the entire technique as a result. Fortunately, there are a lot of easy ways that you can disguise them.

The first and easiest method is to simply hide them out of sight. You can use pocket holes on the back side of a picture frame, on the bottom of a table, or on the inside of a deck box. This will keep them hidden from the casual observer. Many might consider this to be sufficient, but there are a few other tricks you can use, too.

Wood filler, or a combination of wood glue and sawdust from the same species of wood, can be used to fill the gaps relatively easily. You can also glue wooden plugs into the gap and then trim them with a flush cut saw if needed. These are available in a variety of different species; Kreg sells maple and oak options, and pine is regularly sold by 3rd party brands. Gluing the plugs into place offers the most seamless method of camouflaging the pocket holes, especially after you go over them a few times with a sander. It's worth noting, though, that you will still be able to see the differences in the grain pattern, and there might be slight differences in the coloring, so it isn't exactly perfect. Getting a quality drill will also help keep the holes clean from tear-out, and staining or painting can go a long way toward hiding the plugs.

Another reason to add a pocket hole jig to your woodworking kit is that they are relatively inexpensive. Kreg is easily the most popular name brand in the business. The company makes a wide variety of different jigs at a range of prices. The company's MKJKIT Mini Jig Kit is probably the most affordable option, coming in at just $18.00 on Amazon. It's a simple, single-slot jig that comes with a drill bit — enough to get you started, but a bit lightweight for heavy use. The KPHJ320 Pocket-Hole Jig 320 is the better option for most users. This is a versatile midrange double-slot jig that comes with both the drill bit and the square-headed drover bit needed for Kreg-brand pocket screws. It's also fairly affordable at just $39.97. Kreg has pricer models for those who want them, though. The K4 Pocket Hole Jig, for instance, has three slots and a built-in clamp, making it easy to drill out multiple boards quickly.

That said, you don't need to buy a Kreg brand jig at all. There are plenty of more affordable options on the market if you want a specific design and you're trying to spend as little as possible. You can find third-party jigs from brands like Massaca, General Tools, and Kolvoii at even lower price points than the Kreg models. You might not be able to expect the same level of quality, but jigs are relatively simple pieces of equipment, so there isn't too much to worry about.

I've been woodworking and building furniture for the better part of a decade, and I've used pocket hole jigs in the construction of everything from picture frames to desks and tables. I've made dozens of pieces using this method and am confident in my knowledge of the technique as well as its strengths and weaknesses. I drew heavily upon this experience in making this recommendation.

I started by listing many of the attractive features of pocket hole joinery. I looked into specifications for the strength of the joints that it creates and compared them to other kinds of joinery, suggesting specific instances when pocket holes might be preferable to other methods. I then attempted to address its weaknesses (namely the pockets themselves) and listed several methods for mitigating them. Finally, I searched Amazon and the Kreg website in order to provide readers with an idea of the types of jigs that are currently on the market and the kinds of prices that they can expect to pay for them.