Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 16 to 22 of 22

Thread: Best way to assemble face frames made with pocket holes?

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    22,494
    Blog Entries
    1
    The OP was asking how to get a good pocket hole joint, not for an alternate method

    I just use this. If your stock mates square and true there is often no follow up work. Clamping the show face true is your main goal. To up your speed in production the various fixed clamps and tables can certainly help.
    Last edited by glenn bradley; 09-22-2017 at 9:00 AM.
    "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".


    – Samuel Butler

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    mid-coast Maine and deep space
    Posts
    2,656
    My technique is to clamp hard to a table. A clamp on both pieces that will be connected. I also at times need to use a version of the quick claims as Glenn shows above in the link but I find that the pocket screw - regardless of the accuracy of my joinery - invariably wants to pull the two pieces very slightly out of alignment. I don't want to do extra sanding either so I use glue and clamp so that my two pieces simply can't move by the force of the angled screw.

    To the philosophical question raised about M&T or pocket screws, I can't justify the added time to use M&T joints on plywood cabinets. I will for solid wood pieces but not your basic vanity or kitchen cab. Just my 2¢.
    "... for when we become in heart completely poor, we at once are the treasurers & disbursers of enormous riches."
    WQJudge

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,688
    Quote Originally Posted by Lee Schierer View Post
    I use the vise grip style face frame clamps that came with my drilling jig. I place the large pad on the face that shows and have never had an alignment problem. I set them to clamp up really hard.
    Same for me. It's the only way I build face frames at this point and any sanding is for finish, rather than alignment.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  4. #19
    My Rockwell sander was made in USA its still going strong, same with the old Senco. You guys made great tools. One of them went to china and they all jumped on the band wagon. The same sander now is probably half what I paid for it almost 40 years ago. If they didnt jump on the band wagon and were all in the US still the price would be higher and people would still buy the stuff. Maybe even joe home owner would be discouraged to get into weekend warrior build stuff and more work for people making a living doing it. I get the price thing and the throw away society. I worked with Musicians for years before a pro would ever even consider lip syncing. im an equal opportunity dinasour view guy.

    My fault for bringing it up and taking things sideways apologies on that. Hey Larry maybe ill bump into you one day out feeding in the field and we can talk about the old days, that is if the field isnt a new subdivision of little box garage out front homes so close together you cant fit your lawn between them okay got to go see the therapist.

  5. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by peter gagliardi View Post
    I don't use pocket screws very often anymore, I have moved higher end, and do mortise and tenon mostly now.

    Prepare for sarcasm.... I work mostly the low end of things. You know, the poor people who can't afford a $150,000 Porsche SUV and the extra $4000 in labor on their cabinets going in their dumpy little million to two million dollar homes....




    If it were a chair, it'd be dumb, bordering on negligent to use pocket screws. But a face frame is pretty low stress and has all the structure of the carcass holding it in place. I've busted up plenty of incorrectly sized and pocket screwed face frames out of anger. They don't come apart nicey nice. A rail glued into a stile will pull a good part of the stile with it, even with the screws removed. I don't know how you could ask much more from a joint.

    At the end of the day, you have to make ends meet. I can't charge an extra 10% for something a customer isn't going to ever know about. The next guy will do it for less, and I'm already on the upper end of the spectrum. There's no reason not to set up for production, if you're trying to produce. If you can do mortise and tenon and make it pay, awesome. I'd price myself out of my market, which is already way to finite, and I wouldn't be able to keep up with the pace of houses being built.

    There's certainly applications for hide glue. Like instrument building. But I haven't found Titebond Original to be lacking for anything involving interior trim or cabinetry work in the normal applications. You can't tell me hide glue was as consistent in quality when it was time to slaughter bessie for more glue than it is today either. Don't use the odd examples as the mean.

  6. #21
    Hey Martin

    dont let me phase you. If you saw some of my reno work you would think I need to be committed like cutting my rafter tails all straight and in line for 60 feet before I put the new facia on that i made out of 16 foot material lamelled end to end epoxied and painted

    Ive seen the car thing endless times 200k on cars then it stops. Hey, people see me out in my car. My friend had 7 porsches in his shop recently and not one commoners car. Ive asked before can they drive that well and the answer is always no.

    I also see people getting sales cause they have this image and are spoken of as gods all the warm and fuzzy and they sell cause of that. I hear shop owners say they, (people dont care) but dont think its that simple if you dont tell them they wont know, once you do then wont care My statement still does hold true though if the next guy did it as it was done you would all be on the same field. its not a judgement ive told you I like your work and I respect your never ending quest for faster and the detail you can quote how much that rail took to make or cost you have it to a science. that was how the old guy ran. 1000 dressers then 150 extra ones, funny how that is but at that level its to a science. In the last years at the main home show ive watched two companies from China to four follwing year to six to eight to ten. now they are over a third of all that is shown there and increasing. I feel for the several that are there that did very nice work, their playing field is getting polluted as well. What was the best they can do is the best they can do if they can get that, more so its becoming what they can do to compete, that was never there before. I feel for them and the 100 plus shops that have gone down in the last years.

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,688
    It's great that we all have options for how we individually might do something. But the OP asked a specific "how" relative to pocket hole joinery with face frames and the discussion has gone in a different and, um...rather passionate...direction. Whatever method you personally use for this operation is great. But the answer to the actual question comes down to how the workpieces are clamped.

    Jim
    Forum Moderator

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •