Pocket hole screws & joint creep

[Skymaster]

Regards Castle vs Kreg; Castle hands down BUT BIG BUT Castle is probably 3 0r 4 times the cost. Castle is a floor model ( at least the one I used ). The angle of the pocket is shallower which actually allows you to use 1 1/2" screws on 3/4 frames. Kreg can only use 1 1/4 or it will break thru.
If I could find a deal on a Castle I wood grab it I wood be grabbin it for my shop

:gar-Bi:gar-Bi:gar-Bi:gar-Bi

 

[Bas]

The problem is when I drive in the screw. It pulls the board in the direction of the screw, leaving a ridge 1/16" - 1/8" wide.

Resurrecting an old thread here, but I'm sure I'm not the last person to make this mistake: I originally used my impact driver for the pocket hole screws. It seemed only logical, since I use an impact driver for all my screws (either the 18V Makita or 10.8V Bosch). Turns out, that's the wrong thing to do! The force of the impact driver prevents the screw from self-drilling properly. After switching to a regular drill (with clutch), all the misalignment problems went away. Yes, it's still good to clamp the snot out of it and/ or use a backer board, but putting the drill in low gear and slowly "drilling" the screws in did the trick.

I'm sure this was obvious to most people, but for those dumb few like me... :eusa_doh:

 

[Mike Camp]

Resurrecting an old thread here, but I'm sure I'm not the last person to make this mistake: I originally used my impact driver for the pocket hole screws. It seemed only logical, since I use an impact driver for all my screws (either the 18V Makita or 10.8V Bosch). Turns out, that's the wrong thing to do! The force of the impact driver prevents the screw from self-drilling properly. After switching to a regular drill (with clutch), all the misalignment problems went away. Yes, it's still good to clamp the snot out of it and/ or use a backer board, but putting the drill in low gear and slowly "drilling" the screws in did the trick.

I'm sure this was obvious to most people, but for those dumb few like me... :eusa_doh:

I've made the same mistake Bas, then my impact driver's battery stopped holding a charge and I was forced to use a normal drill. To my surprise no more creep.

 

[hockey1]

I know I'm way late to the party here.

Disclaimer, this is my brainstorming session and it is not meant in any way to talk down to anyone here on this site. :icon_thum

It seems to me that the impact driver only accentuates the problem. As someone said before it is probably the angle of attack of the screw. Both the screw and the bottom of the pocket hole are "true flat" so to speak. The screw hole and the screw have a bit of play between them which can lead the screw to be driven at an awkward angle albeit slight, it can still be there. Keeping in mind that the screw has now bored its way into the second piece of material and is now fixed in lateral position. If that awkward angle causes one edge of the flat screw to contact the first board before the other side of the screw has a chance to it has now created a wedge of sorts. Then comes the impact tool which only shakes things up a bit and bam! slippage. This leads me to think that even if we clamp the snot out of it as time goes on with expansion and contraction, if our screw is at a bad angle the piece is going to misalign at some point.

Just my thoughts.:icon_scra

 

[Fred85]

I've always used a piece of scrap wood and a simple c-clamp when doing pocket joints and I've never had a problem with the creep

 

[Tim Sherwood]

Great timing guys! I'm just jumping in to a new set of kitchen cabinets. This will sure help me with my Kreg joints. Thanks