Kreg Deck Jig

[Gary Schubert]

If you are buying the Kreg Deck Jig to use on Cedar deck boards you might want to reconsider.  Due to the softness of the wood you will experience tearout when you drill the pilot hole for the screw.  Having just completed installing a 14x23 deck, at least 85% of the pilot holes (that's about 1000 holes!) are a disappointment.  I wish Kreg would not have advertised that the jig works "works great with native softwoods such as Redwood and Cedar."  I would have looked at other fastening systems.  If anyone knows of a solution, please post.

[KregRep]

Gary,

Thank you for your review of the Deck Jig!  Just for future reference, if you have a question for us and expect a response please post it in the forums or contact customer service. If you post in the Product Reviews section we may not know you want a response, in fact some who post in this section might prefer not to have one as the entire point of a review is to post your personal thoughts on the tool without necessarily receiving a rebuttal from the manufacturer. ;)

 

That being said, I wanted to respond to your issue since you specified that you wanted one and because it was requested of us through our customer service channels  by another community member.  

 

1) Due to a wide degree of variablity in wood species, types, quality, moisture levels, etc. we can not guarantee perfect results in every scenario. 

2) In our internal tests we worked with a wide variety of softer decking materials like redwood and cedar and found that the Deck Jig performed exceptionally well. These tests are limited though to the particular material we had access to and may not represent results you experienced in the field.  Generally, we're very confident about the statement on our packaging regarding redwood, cedar, etc.

3) Here are a few potential ideas to reduce your chance of tear out in the future:

• make sure you have a new/sharp bit
• make sure the drill bit has reached full speed before plunging into the workpiece
• make sure not to move the jig during the drilling/driving process

 

I'm sorry your experience with the Deck Jig was not 100% positive. Thank you sincerely for posting your review and for contributing to the community.  Your input is truly appreciated!

[Gary Schubert]

The cedar I used was mostly dry - a few damp pieces.  Not sure how the deck jig would work with 1/2.

Kregs only response was to let me know my comment posted.

[West R. Davis]

Gary, only one response regarding trouble with the Kreg Deck Jig? I was just about to order one but have decided to hold of after reading your review. I would hope, as I'm sure you would , that you might receive some more definitive responses from others who have use this jig. What does Kreg say about this apparent problem? I look forward to hearing from you and others sharing their successes and failures with this Kreg product. West

[robert smith]

I had no problems on dry 5/4 cedar but big issues on 1/2