Rail and Stile constructions with Kreg Jig and pocket screws

[Matt B]

I have a quick question.  When any of you use the kreg pocket screws to join rail and stile how do you cut the grove for the panel?  Or do you do a rabbet after its joined and glue and pin the panel in after?  Thanks

[Matt B]

How did you make a stop groove on a table saw?  You would have to push the piece down onto the blade, that doesn't seem safe?

[David Dean]

Ya it is but look at the saw the fence goes on the right side the blade come's out about a 1/4" out of the table and you make a mark where the blade frist come's out the table and a mark in back where the blade ends these are the stop and start points.must of my work is 2 1/2 " x 3/4" so you finger's dont get that close. You can try a plumge router but I never had much lock with them. But they have router bits that do it on a router table but my way is a poor mans way.

[Brian K]

IMO the easiest way is to just cut the grooves and use a 45 degree miter. The groove is hidden by the joint and solves a lot of problems. Of course the stock must be about 2 1/4- 2 1/2" wide for the standard jig. If memory serves, the Micro can go down to 2" with a miter joint. Yes, I know the manual says 3" for the standard jig.

 

Make sure your saw is adjusted perfectly to pull this off. A lousy miter joint looks just that. Done right it works great.

[John Schaben]

You're right, plunge cutting on a table saw isn't safe. As long as you are using a table saw anyway, why not just cut the stub tenons on the saw too?

Matt B said:

How did you make a stop groove on a table saw?  You would have to push the piece down onto the blade, that doesn't seem safe?

[ray vile]

All of these doors and drawer fronts were made on the table saw, without a dado blade. I set the fence so the saw blade was slightly off of the center of the board and set the blade to a height of 3/8'' then I ran the boards thru the blade flipping each board over and cutting a second groove right beside the first one, this I did on both the rails and stiles

for the rails I set the blade height to 1/4'' and the fence was set to 3/8'' away from the far side of the saw blade and I cut the stub teneons first at the 3/8's setting and nibbled away the rest of the rail