Kreg Pocket Hole Jigs

One of the really great perks of my job is that when new products come out, new tools come out, I get to see them and then I get to tell you about them. And that's what we're going to do here. Talking about Craig's 500 and 700 series pocket-hole jigs. There's some really innovative stuff going on here. And there's also a modular nature to these that I really, really liked. So in the 500 series, that's this guy, and I'm going to put different thicknesses of wood in here. And the way that we adjust for that is by squeezing. Release. The other thing we can do is change the way that we're using this. So, you know, you can imagine, especially a unit like this if you're doing anything outside of your shop the convenience of being able to do this, or this, or this. There's lots going on here that gives you adaptability to whatever pocket-hole environment you're in. Now on this guy as we work with different thicknesses of material, what we would do is change the settings on the drill guide in order to allow for what thickness of material we are working. Modular nature, we can take this drill guide off altogether and don't go to a different drill guide. And there are parts of this tool that also kind of talk to parts of this tool. So what I mean by that is this tool, here we're in the 700 series. And I'll tell you right away one of the things that's really cool about this is I can put inch and a half material in there, lock it in place. Notice I haven't changed anything. Three quarter inch material, lock it in place. Notice I haven't changed anything. There's a theme here. Half inch material. So it's auto adjusting to the material thickness as I go. And then if you paid attention to that drill guide it's getting into a different position as I tighten the clamp. So it's auto adjusting for thickness and it's auto adjusting for the location of the holes. So you don't have to do anything. There is a knob on it thus allows you to control how much tension you're putting on your material. And also dust collection. And I'll tell you what, you're drilling a lot of pocket holes, there's payday right there. Cause it grabs the stuff right when it's coming off the drill bit, great way to keep things clean. Now, again, modular nature. So on this unit, these toolboxes are on either side and of course there's storage there. In addition to storage, they provide support. So if I'm working with longer stock, I get that support. There's also a stop system and that rides that rail. So I can lock that in place. If I'm doing lots of pieces where the pocket hole is going to be in exactly the same spot, that stop is going to take care of that for me. Now we don't have to be locked into those, we can come off of them. And then like I was showing you in that 500 series, I can do this. I can also do this. So what's more convenient for you? And you know what? I like this. I like kind of the body mechanics of being able to come into the tool this way and drill pocket holes in that direction as well. Now on board with the tool, there are also wings. Come on, here we go. And there's one of those on each side. So if we don't have the toolboxes onboard we can use these which are built right into the jig to help support material. And then this guy that's been laying here that lets us lock the jig to a workbench and we can also use this on the 500 series jig to lock that in place if you want. Now we've talked about changing the drill guide on the 500 series. So similarly here, pop that out. We could pop in a guide that's set for smaller holes and or pop in a guide that lets us drill your own plugs. So what I'm talking about there is we can put a chunk of wood in there that matches or contrast the wood you're working with so that after we drill the pocket holes, we end up with plugs to put in the pocket holes to cover them up. Now, one of the things we talked about here was automatically changing for thickness. And if you're going to do that here, we also need to do that here. It's very clever in the way that the system works is Allen wrench has got markings on it. Those markings let you measure the thickness of material working with so you know what you've got. And then on the drill bit, there are a series of markings and those relate to the thickness of material that you'll be drilling a hole in. So based on the reading off of that Allen wrench we put the window on the collar, over the dimension that you're working with, and then of course use the Allen wrench to lock that in place. So it really simplifies getting that collar in just the right spot, depending on what thickness material you've got going. So, like I said, it's a, it's fun in general for me to see new products come across my desk. It's really fun when they're innovative like the 500 and 700 series pocket-hole jigs from Kreg.