Sears Kreg Experience

[Fins59]

Visited the local Sears store the other night here in Wausau, Wisconsin to see what they had in Kreg accessories.  It's a fairly large store.

Turned out they had nothing.  Talked to 3 employees in the tool department.  None of them ever heard of the Kreg Jig.  In fact one of them said "I've been here 20 years and I've never heard of a Kreg Jig".   One of them said maybe I'd have to go to a special woodworking store to get one.  ( I told him that I already have the jig but was looking for accessories).

All the local home improvement stores here have the Kreg but not too much in accessories.

Mistakenly, I thought Sears would be the place for these.  Maybe a Kreg Sales Rep should start hitting on these guys.

Anyway, that was my "Sears Experience".   

[mike white]

Sears has lost touch with the real world. Worked for them 12 yrs & always thought they had a good selection, but I started shopping around. What a difference at the other stores. The Kreg jig is a fantastic tool. Makes life a lot easier.

 

Mike

[Frank Gardecki]

I was at a woodworking show and saw a Kreg demostration and I knew I had to have it.But I have seen  off brand pocket hole tools  but they don't seem to advertise  I wonder if Kreg has a Patent on there great tool.

[Frank Gardecki]

I don't understand how K marts and Sears filed bankruptcy at one time now they merge I haven't done buisness with either for quite a while .

[Fins59]

Recently I've seen a few ads in magazines touting the Porter Cable pocket hole tool.   It's about $230 and looks "over built" compared to the Kreg K3 or K4.

Frank Gardecki said:

I was at a woodworking show and saw a Kreg demostration and I knew I had to have it.But I have seen  off brand pocket hole tools  but they don't seem to advertise  I wonder if Kreg has a Patent on there great tool.

[Frank Gardecki]

It looks like on the Porter  Cable  the drill is built in. I am going  to there website later  and see if they have a demo.

[Scott]

Nope, no drill included.

 

Lots of engineering though

 

Porter Cable's product info

Amazon's listing

 

[Frank Gardecki]

I seen the other day on YouTube a machine from Germany that drills two dowel holes  puts the dowels in then drills a pocket hole in the middle. Thanks for the huge picture of the PC pockethole maker I got a better understanding how it works the picture I saw was small and could not tell how the thing works. you are right a little overkill on the enginnering.

[Leslee]

Boy, that Porter Cable Model looks like you need the owners manual to use it.  I will stick to Kreg jig least you know a kid could use it. Just looking at it looks too complacanted  to use it. When you are in a hurry you could build something with the Kreg Jig without all the knobs and such.

[Chris McDougall]

The only big box place that I've seen with kreg stuff is Lowes, which is where I got my kreg master system and a pretty full compliment of accessories.  The pricing was pretty good, plus you can generally find little $10 off at lowes coupons in you paper every few weeks.

[Steve M. Reynolds]

I can remember when Sears was the place to shop for tools ans appliances but how things have changed over the last few years.

That Porta Cable looks way to complicated after useing the simple Kreg. Jmo

 

[Frank Gardecki]

And at  $200 who would  want to go through that aggrevation and if you look close by where the drill goes in theres that gap it s like guide open then back in the guide.

 

[Mike Kahle]

Pretty much all Ace stores are independently owned. I know of one out west that even sells guns and ammo.

As far as Sears goes, I worked at a Sears Essentials store. It was a Kmart that was converted over to a KMart/Sears Hybrid. I applied tot eh Loss Prevention department but the head LP guy said he was looking for folks with LP experience but after looking over my application, he put me in with the Manager of the of the appliances and tool and sporting goods departments. I was hired, did 2 weeks of training for the appliance department and was set loose. I did have a much better understanding of appliances and the different features and such. Like most all dishwashers have a built in food disposal built into the unit, but Bosch being the top of the line and most expensive does not have a disposal. My brother went to Sears (not Essentials) to buy a dish washer, and the sales guy specifically told him the Bosch had a disposal built into it. I had to correct him, then took him over to the computer kiosk and brought up the info showing that NO Bosch dishwasher had one.

Anyway... Around here the Lowes is where I found the Kreg, but they have a limited amount of accessories. I did go to Home Depot, and they only had screws, no jigs. They did have a lower priced Pocket Hole competitor right next to the Kreg screw with lower priced drill bits and such.

I went to my local WoodCraft and was really surprised at the amount of Kreg stuff they had. every thing that Kreg sells I think, except for the one thing I was looking for... the Multi Mark. The sales guy I talked to said they didnt carry it because of too many customer complaints.

I did find the Square Cut at Lowes on discontinue for 9.98 and the Right angle clamp on disco for 24.99 and had a $10 off $50 coupon so it only cost me $14.99.

The prices at WoodCraft were pretty much in line with Lowes except for the discontinued prices.