Kreg Jig Jr.

[Gw]

I do love this product, making it easy to build projects for my home. Just started building a book case and hit a snag.

I am using 1/2" material and followed the screw size chart which says the 1" screw and it was too long and came out the other side! I was abruptly disappointed as on my last project I used 3/4" material and it was a breeze.

Anyone had this issue with 1/2" material?

[Ben Chapman]

I have just done a heap with 12mm ply (a bit thinner again) and found I needed to set the collar back a little to avoid the screw going through. Also, I found the angle the screw goes in to be important. It needs to go in straight, any deviation can mess it up a bit. I found the 3/4 screws to not be great, they need to be coarse thread for ply, they dont bite enough and are easy to over tighten.

Before every change I tested with scrap and also be careful if drilling with an impact driver (the quick release, high torque, high speed and lighter weight suited me) as the impacting if the drill bit clogs a bit can move the collar. I have a few holes in my jig :-)

Once the drill depth was right though, it is pretty simple to maintain good joins with 1" screws. I have a few custom marks cut in to the drill gauge now for joining different thicknesses with different screws.

[R. E. Woods]

The only thing I would add is to use some scrap wood and make a test of the joint.

[joseph joel]

Hi Gw,
Yes, definitely had this issue with not just 1/2", but other materials across all thickness measurements. In troubleshooting this issue, consider utilizing the following set of guidelines to help identify what went wrong. (bear with me, as i wrote these guidelines off the top of my head):

1. Measure your material for ACTUAL thickness. This is critical, as the Jig incremental settings that start at 1/2" correlate to ACTUAL material thickness, not the NOMINAL. So in this case, as 1/2" material is typically less than 1/2", utilizing the 1/2" settings for drill bit stop collar and for the drill guide block, you will screw through the workpiece. 

2. Next best bet would be to double check your DRILL BIT STOP COLLAR setting. tighten the collar accordingly ensuring that you are setting it based on ACTUAL MATERIAL THICKNESS. 
TIP: to be safe, I typically will set the bit stop collar an 1/8" or 1/16 " smaller.
 
3. be sure that the DRILL GUIDE BLOCK is set correctly. again, ensure you set this based on the ACTUAL measured thickness. 

4. Finally, use the smaller 3/4" POCKET HOLE SCREWs instead. 

Hope this helps, good luck!

- Joseph