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Hi all. I am new to woodworking and built my first workbench and a couple of things, but need a little assistance from folks more seasoned than I. I'm making a DVD wall rack out of 1x3s and joining them at a right angle like a bookcase. The screw length says "joking two 3/4" (actual) pieces is 1 1/4" screws so I set the depth on the jig to 3/4" and the collar on the bit to coorespond to 3/4" material drill pocket holes and the screws went through the top piece like a 1/4". Is it the screw is too long? Is the drill torque set to high? Any guidance would be great! Thanks in advance and I can post pictures if needed.

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Sorry I'm doing this from IPhone. Joining* not joking*

David , A picture would help , when you set your collar did you set it with the flat on bit or the point , should be the flat right behind the point !!!  Are you putting the pocket holes on the inside or out side of the joints ?  What kind of jig are you using , K 5 - K 4 , or the R 3 , post this information and I will try to help you , JIM !!!

Jim, thanks! You are the MAN! I'll get pics of each step I took and go from there I'll post tomorrow. Thanks again.

David , you are very  welcome , glad I could be of help, just one wood worker trying to help another wood worker, will watch for your pics. tomorrow , have a great night , JIM !! , 

Here are some pics - the pocket holes are on the inside - drill bit is set at the step on 3/4" mark and the k3 depth is set at 3/4" - pics include the material width just in case that helps.
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Another pic
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Pic 3 of the hole placement
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Jim, first TY so much you really went above and beyond to help! I'm actually using a corded drill (my ryobi cordless set Lithium Ion batteries went out) and this particular drill has ALOT of power. So I'll recut some pieces and back the torque off and see what happens! Thanks again for going above and beyond!

David , you are very welcome , like to help where and when I can, let me know how you make out with the new pieces, JIM !!

Hi David, I have an old rule of thumb about pocket holes and screws that exit your work piece.  If the wood is actually 3/4" thick and the jig is set correctly to the correct thickness and the screw exits the material then the bit is either set to drill too deep and or the screw it too long and not a 1&1/4 inch long .   If the wood is 3/4 inches thick and or a fraction over and the screw is actually 1 &1/4 " long , double check the jig setting.  If it is correct then lower the drill bit collar as your are drilling too deep. 

The other reason of a screw going past its proper depth and exiting the back of the material is the over driving of a screw where the head of the screw acts like a drill bit and compacts the wood grain down causing the hole to be actually deeper that the drill bit drilled it.  This is normally not the cause as the hole being drilled too deep as most often before the screw head acts like a drill and goes past the bottom of the drilled hole it will strip out and or break off.

When the Kreg jig first was introduced to the market it came with the ability to drill only the 3/4" material and did not even have a method of setting the bit collar.  I began using a method where I used the thickness of a nickel to set the bit collar and this was a very accurate and simple way of doing it.  It  drilled the proper depth of pocket hole and prevented the drilling of the holes in the jigs base. 

When Kreg changed the ability of the jig to bore multi thickness material the problem began to increase as now you had to be sure that you set up the jig properly for the wood thickness as well as the drill bit stop collar.  The other problem it presented was the screw lengths.  Kreg tools has provided  very detailed instructions as to how to handle these problems .  However nothing has changed the same old theory of why screws drive through the material and that is wrong screw length, pocket hole drilled too deep and over driving of the screws.

I have see all the comments on the clutch setting of a drill and actually it is not the best way to set a pocket hole screw.  Depending on a clutch setting gives you wrong setting of a screw.  The reason being is that different wood hardness and different screw pitch will react differently from one piece of wood to the next.  Because of this it give the clutch a indication to release applying torque.  This causes the screw to in some cases actually loose in it seat and in the next to be beyond it seat causing strip out.   The best setting of a screw is the sound of the drill and is feel and sight of the joint seating against the receiving piece.  When it seats there is this millisecond when you will hear the sound of the driver change as well as the slight feel of a resistance in your hand. 

Look at it this way, you have the cylinder heads off of an engine block and are going install them.  To do this you are required to use a specific torque setting in foot pounds.  To do this you used a special device called a torque wrench.   In order for the wrench to actually set the bolt tension is to do so with clean treads on both the head bolt and the thread in the block.  Dirty threads prevent the proper tension of the bolt and tell the torque wrench that it has tightened the bolt to it proper tension.  True the bolt has reached the tension but the dirty threads have actually prevented the bolts from tightening the heads to the block resulting in a loose connection.  The torque setting in a drill is the same thing.  Soft wood reaches a specific torque setting differently than hardwood.  The problem is that not two pieced of the same species of wood will reach the specific torque with the same tightness of the joint.  This is why driver torque settings are not the best gauge of tightness when driving screws into different species of wood when wood grains and different hardness of wood prevent this.

Something to consider it to start getting acquainted with how a screw feels when it sets and how it sounds as it tightens and the look of the joint as it tightens.   You will find your self to setting aside all of this supposed scientific setting of a driver and relying on your own senses that you were born with.   It will make a better woodworker out of you as you cant then know when you tighten something you will know that it is tight.

In my 27 years as a professional woodworker I have driven better than 800 thousand screws and never have I used or relied on a torque setting on a driver.  I have used both corded drivers as well as battery powered drivers of different makes and voltage batteries and even air powered drivers.  I have had very little of the problems of over driving screws, screws that protrude the work piece, splitting of lumber and or pocket holes split outs , stripped out screws or similar problems. 

I firmly believe that we too often depend on technology to do our work and forget the time proven methods of which have been around much longer and forget to use out own thinking process and senses.  Just something to think about gained from trial and error.

hi david, i encountered this problem once also. i had set the stop on my drill  bit using the tip of the bit, not the shoulder (that taught me to get my reading glasses lol). after i reset the stop correctly, i don't think i've ever had another screw go completely through. all my wood is 1 by, and i buy 1.25" pocket screws by the thousands ;-)

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