I have a portion of a job coming up in the next handful of weeks where I’m planning to preassemble about 30 windows (+ dozens of doors) worth of casing trim and am considering pocket screws on the back side of the casing where the leg and head / bottom casing joint comes together. This trim will not be mitered but instead the head piece will cap the end of the leg piece (ie: butt and pass.) The material is a rougher grade of stain grade prefinished White Pine (not my selection)...I’m trying I mitigate small gaps in the joinery should the material shrink after install and the heat in the building is turned on. I know that you can’t eliminate wood movement, but my thought is that if I mechanically fasten the joint between horizontal and vertical, when it moves the outside edges of the wood will be more free to move than the inside edge where the joint is and therefore be more likely to move along that edge and not open up my joints.

I have done entire houses of preassembled mitered casing with either biscuits and glue or dominos and glue in the miters and this worked well, however we all know how weak an end grain to edge grain glue joint is and this doesn’t seem like a worthy approach for this style of trim.

I have no practical or hands on experience with pocket hole jigs and am looking for some guidance and direction on what to consider for my application.

I don’t need a Cadillac or anything motorized or automated, but I would prefer it to be stout and well made. I’m sure I would end up using it for the occasional cabinet face frames that come up from time to time so keep that in mind with the recommendations.

I will be assembling the casing / doing all the cutting and trim “joinery” on site likely on top of a flat 4x8 assembly table.

Thoughts?