| Wood has, for hundreds of years, been the material of | | | | many wood workers. In the early years these were |
| choice for many household, commercial and craft | | | | laboriously hand made with mallet and chisels. Later |
| items. Its popularity to a great extent is due to its | | | | mortising machines replaced the hand work. To the |
| warmth, beauty, ease of working and its adaptability to | | | | present day many well made cabinet products will be |
| so many projects. Its one major drawback has always | | | | found with these very joints. |
| been the difficulty in joining mating pieces. Steel on the | | | | The labor, time and talent necessary to properly make |
| other hand is relatively easy to join with great strength. | | | | the above described joints have long perplexed the |
| Drill a few holes and insert rivets or screws or bolts or | | | | home craftsman who wished only to produce good |
| use electric arc welding to make powerful joints. | | | | quality projects for home or patio. These craftsmen |
| Wood does not yield so easily to such mundane | | | | needed a method to produce strong joints within a |
| joinery practices. | | | | reasonable time that also produced a workman like |
| In order to make satisfactory joints in wood one must | | | | finish. Simply gluing and nailing or screwing pieces |
| consider its ability to expand or contract according to | | | | together offended their creative spirit. |
| its moisture content or the humidity or lack or humidity | | | | Fortunately a product appeared not so long ago called |
| in its surroundings. This expansion and contraction can | | | | the pocket hole jig or the pocket screw jig. These |
| literally pull or split wood apart. To combat these | | | | tools solved the problem of making strong invisible |
| forces many ingenious methods have been used over | | | | joints in many cases without the need for glue. The |
| the years. Some of these methods have even added | | | | pocket hole jigs have gained wide acceptance by |
| to the beauty of the finished product. | | | | home craftsmen and some professional woodworkers |
| Dove tail joints for example when pins machined or | | | | alike. |
| hand carved in one piece and slots produced in the | | | | These tools allow the woodworker to drill angular holes |
| same manner in the adjoining piece make an | | | | through one piece, such as the shelf of a cabinet or |
| extremely strong and long lasting joint that if produced | | | | bookcase, and into the mating piece. Because the |
| properly display a beautiful joint. In addition the pegs | | | | screws pass through one piece and enter the mating |
| and slots allow plenty of exposed surface for the | | | | piece at an angle they avoid the end grain of the |
| application of glue. | | | | wood which allows very weak holding surfaces and in |
| Various types of glues produced over the years while | | | | some cases causes the wood to split. In addition these |
| making a somewhat acceptable joint tend to | | | | tools are relatively inexpensive and can be used |
| deteriorate with age and with the expansion and | | | | immediately by even the novice woodworker. |
| contraction of the wood. In most cases glue alone has | | | | If your goal is to build quality furniture and other |
| never produced a satisfactory joint. Screws, nails or | | | | projects and your budget for power tools is limited you |
| some other fastener are normally used in addition to | | | | would do well to investigate all that these remarkable |
| the glue. | | | | pocket hole jigs have to offer. |
| Mortise and tenon joints have long been a favorite of | | | | |