Wood thickness Pocket hole jig

[BrianD]

Hi,

I have been looking at the UJK Pocket hole jig at Axi.

What the site (applied to Kreg as well) does not explain is: how to handle the thickness of the wood with the clamping part. Considering in both cases the clamp is fixed - does the clamp head screw into the "main shaft" to compensate for thickness? I cannot see that this is accommodated into the design.

Can anyone explain prior to me springing from funds?

Thx

 

[foxhunter]

I have a Trend pocket hole jig and timber thickness is accommodated in two ways -
The pad on the clamp is adjusted by a screw adjustment AND the whole clamp can be sited on the base in two positions. The Trend will cope with thicknesses between 16 & 38mm.

Brian

Just checked the Brimarc web site. Will accept timber thickness of 12 - 36mm.

 

[BrianD]

Thanks for the info,

so it seems that for larger thicknesses one must unscrew and adjust against the baseplate.

 

[Eric The Viking]

That's what the slider is for on the sides of the Axminster jig, I think. There's a similar arrangement on the Kreg - you move the guides up and down vertically to allow for the stock thickness. On the Kreg it works very well - Kreg have optimised the positioning to get the best grip on the screws, I think.

I'd expect the UJK one to be the same.

 

[Avery]

How did you get on with the ujk?
I am making face frame cabinetry at the moment and thought maybe this is the way forward, however I am bewildered by the array of choices (Dakota, trend,ujk,kreg...) and am wondering how good are they really?
I just sent back axminsters mitre trimmer £200 because it doesnt do outside mitres -WHAT? thats why i boought it!
I have thousands of pounds worth of gear, and am annoyed when i spend hard earned cash on another tool that doesnt really do the job.
(when do you have enough tools?)

There are some posts on here from people finding pocket hole joinery not perfect.

Maybe ill just use the domino and clamp and glue........

Confused

 

[No skills]

I'm saving for a kreg set up myself, I'm sure other brands will work fine but the kreg has been about for ever - any kinks will have been worked out long ago. Theres plenty of videos on youtube and the like that show pocket screw 'joinery' in action - maybe some viewing may settle your mind one way or the other (?).

 

[Eric The Viking]

I like the Kreg. The UJK one *seems* to have imitated the Kreg functionality (not it's actual design, obviously).

The cheaper ones will inevitably disappoint because they don't adjust for wood thickness, etc. I'd put in that category any designs that don't have a calibrated up-down adjustment (that's what does thickness).

Significant differences: the Kreg comes with a selection of Robertson (square drive) screws. they're brilliant but harder to get here than in the US/Canada (Canadian design). The UJK one uses Torx-heads (IIRC) - more readily available. Both will almost certainly work with either type of screw.

The Kreg is glass-filled plastic with steel liners for the drill guides. The UJK is aluminium (dunno about the bore liners). Either would do.

The Kreg Kit I have came with a dust extraction port. It's surprisingly handy as it can clog. The UJK one has this as an option (I'd get it!). Goodness knows how people keep their temper with the cheapie ones with no extraction - they must be a right pain for production runs.

The Kreg setup and calibration and instructions are really good (there's a DVD in the kit along with a printed quick-start guide). I've no idea about UJK, but Axminster manuals are usually excellent.

I'm sure there are lots of other differences too.

E.

 

[Eric The Viking]

PS to the above: The Rutlands e-advert arrived this morning, plugging* their own jig.

Out of idle curiosity, if anyone's got one, how do you adjust it for stock thickness? I've stared at the pictures, and I can see the hole spacing adjustment, but for the life of me I can't work out how you change the height of the holes (off the end of the stock). Is it shims or similar, or does it only work with one thickness of stock?

E.

*see what I did there? I get the injection later today, which probably explains it (but doesn't really excuse).

 

[BrianD]

Well, I have not go ahead as yet, the UJK brand seems to be quite solid and should last a lifetime I guess.

Can anyone who has one comment?

 

[nanscombe]

I can't really comment on what they are like to use but I went down to Axminster, just outside Sittingbourne, the other week when they had UJK pocket hole jig day.

I didn't look too closely at it in the end, as the demo was actually by a member of staff trying it out for himself, but it notice that the box was constructed from of aluminium, instead of plastic (Kreg), construction with the usual bushes for the stepped drill.

The box of the jig slid up and down against a scale to define the position of the cut, just like the Kreg.

Whilst I was there, I mentioned to the (Axminster) chap demonstrating that it was a shame this hadn't been available a year or so ago because I imagine that a lot of people, who had wanted a pocket hole jig, had already gone out and bought the Kreg version.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Glass-filled plastic is extremely strong actually.

I couldn't tell which is better, but the Kreg one is quite tough enough for continuous use, and unlike aluminium, it won't mark.

 

[No skills]

The yanks have been using the kreg jigs for a long while, very little bad feed back from what I have read.

 

[JakeS]

very little bad feed back from what I have read.

I've not used mine a huge amount, but the only problem I have with it is that it's all marked up in Imperial so I have to do maths before I can use it. Having one with extra slides and stops, though, I have to share Eric's confusion about how the Rutlands one might work... it says it's fully adjustable, does that just mean that the toggle clamp can accept a wide range of thicknesses?