Dados and Pocket Screws

[William M Johnson]

I have been making a lot of cabinets at my house and have been cutting 1/4" deep dados in the horizontal plywood to hold the vertical dividers, then pocket holes and glue.

Do I really need the dados? Kreg shows just the screws and glue.

Any thoughts.

[William M Johnson]

I forgot to mention these are all face frame cabinets (mahogony)

[Rick Dennington]

Hello William:

I would for sure use dados in the vertical dividers. I would trust them more than pocket screws for this application. Can't go wrong with them. I think you get a stronger joint with a little glue and dados, especially if you're gonna have shelves. More holding power. Pocket screws are great for faceframes and other uses, but for my .002, I"ll always go with daos and rabbits.

[Tommy Curtiss]

I don't know why you would need to go to that extra work

[Tony Bilello]

Hello William:

I would for sure use dados in the vertical dividers. I would trust them more than pocket screws for this application. Can't go wrong with them. I think you get a stronger joint with a little glue and dados, especially if you're gonna have shelves. More holding power. Pocket screws are great for faceframes and other uses, but for my .002, I"ll always go with daos and rabbits.


+1 for Rick.
Not only do I think dados are stronger but when working alone, everything lines up quicker and easier for gluing and assembly with dados.

[Jamie Buxton]

One issue with pocket screws is that they sometimes push the board sideways when the screw tightens up. If I use pocket screws, I often use a dado or biscuit or the like to forestall that sideways movement.

[Joe Scharle]

One issue with pocket screws is that they sometimes push the board sideways when the screw tightens up. If I use pocket screws, I often use a dado or biscuit or the like to forestall that sideways movement.

If I can't clamp the two pieces, I'll setup (clamp) a backstop to prevent the screw from pulling the work. And personally, I don't bother with dados anymore, but I use spacers (scrap) all the time.

[William M Johnson]

While at OshKosh Airshow the Woodpecker guys had a booth set up. Among other things I bought were these really cool brackets to hold the dividers and bases etc 90 degrees to each other. These keep the pocket screws from pulling - Theoretically that is. I have not tried them.

Cutting the dados is somewhat difficult to do accurately when the bases are almost 8' long. I do have an Excalibur slider attachment, but 90deg dados takes some trial and error. Oh yea I work by myself.