In my former life I worked in a cabinet shop, and was exposed to all sorts of fanciful, specialized tools that most homeowners simply can't justify the expense for, like a $20,000 sliding carriage table saw. Or, even more modestly, a couple of hundred dollar pocket hole machine.
Having used and liked the pocket hole machine, I decided to build my own, using a router I found for a song at a yard sale, and with scrap plywood I got at the cabinet shop. The one I made was many moons old, and looks much worse for the wear, so it is modeled and rendered in 3D for your viewing pleasure.
Having used and liked the pocket hole machine, I decided to build my own, using a router I found for a song at a yard sale, and with scrap plywood I got at the cabinet shop. The one I made was many moons old, and looks much worse for the wear, so it is modeled and rendered in 3D for your viewing pleasure.
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Signing UpStep 1: Commercial versions and basic use
There are some machines that are full size floor model machines, but the one that I based this design on was a Porter Cable bench tool that I used in the cabinet shop I worked in.
It is basically a router set up with a handle and a pivot. The picture is the only one I could find, and is of bad quality after zooming in and taking a screen shot.
The basic use of one consists of putting a board (usually) horizontally and the router bit either swings from the top or the bottom and creates an arced pocket so that you can basically toenail a screw into a board and it lets you butt joint two boards together.
Also shown is a picture of what the joint itself looks like- chances are that you have seen this on furniture even if you didn't know what it was.
There are also jigs you clamp on and use a drill with, the most notable being by Kreg. You can make those homemade as well, but I wanted a machine based version with a more dedicated setup. All other options were more expensive than I wanted to invest, so I made my own similar to the bench top model I was familiar with.
It is basically a router set up with a handle and a pivot. The picture is the only one I could find, and is of bad quality after zooming in and taking a screen shot.
The basic use of one consists of putting a board (usually) horizontally and the router bit either swings from the top or the bottom and creates an arced pocket so that you can basically toenail a screw into a board and it lets you butt joint two boards together.
Also shown is a picture of what the joint itself looks like- chances are that you have seen this on furniture even if you didn't know what it was.
There are also jigs you clamp on and use a drill with, the most notable being by Kreg. You can make those homemade as well, but I wanted a machine based version with a more dedicated setup. All other options were more expensive than I wanted to invest, so I made my own similar to the bench top model I was familiar with.
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Ive seen Norm abram on New yankee workshop use a little one that he just clamps on but i cant find one like that anywhere.
Good instructable.
http://www.kregtool.eu/Kreg-Jigreg-Mini-Prodview.html
or there is this one where you get a little more for your money
http://www.kregtool.eu/Kreg-Jigreg-Jr-Prodview.html
Thanks for the preliminaries, I might have missed adding a valuable piece to my shop.
SirPlus
One intent with making this machine is that it is much more production friendly than the jigs. If you have a fence set up or some sort of fixed guide, (safety nazis do not read ahead) you can even cut the holes without clamping down the board every time, which makes for a much faster system. That does create more of a safety concern, but I still have all ten fingers, toes, both eyes, etc. and never worried about losing them with this machine in the shop.
I will try to show some pictures of what a pocket hole is if that would help, and maybe I can find a picture of an industrial-made pocket hole machine as well for comparison and explanation.
L