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I blew $400 on a cheap pocket hole jig and it ruined my whole kitchen job
Bought a no-name jig off Amazon for 40 bucks and after 50 holes the alignment was off by a solid 1/8 inch. Had to scrap three cabinet doors because the screws came through crooked. Anyone else had a cheap tool cost them way more than they saved?
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emery_hall5mo ago
My uncle bought a 30 dollar jig from Harbor Freight back in 2012 and built an entire set of kitchen cabinets with it without a single blowout. He checked the alignment with a square every 10 holes and replaced the bushing inserts after about 200 holes for 8 bucks. The real trick is knowing the tool's limits and working within them instead of treating a cheap jig like a production-grade tool. Three cabinet doors wasted sounds more like user error or clamping technique than a jig that suddenly shifted out of spec.
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fionaf195mo ago
Three years ago I bought a $40 Kreg knockoff and spent a whole weekend drilling practice holes into scrap plywood before I trusted it on real boards. @emery_hall your uncle's method sounds way more disciplined than my approach of just hoping for the best. I figure if you can't afford to mess up three doors, you probably shouldn't buy a jig that costs less than a pizza.
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elliot_allen655mo ago
That 1/8 inch drift is exactly the kind of thing that makes you question every cut after it happens... I wonder though, when you clamped the jig down, were you actually cranking it tight enough to flex the plastic body? I've seen guys get that 1/8 inch error just from overtightening a clamp on a thin piece of particle board, warping the whole setup before they even drill. And then a couple wobbly holes later the bushing starts walking around in the oversize pocket and you're doomed from the start. Did you happen to check the face of the jig for any visible bowing or flex when you had it clamped down tight, or was it on a scrap piece that might have been a little curved?
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