Kreg R2 Pocket Hole System review
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About a year ago I purchased the Kreg Pocket Hole R2 product. It comes with the pocket hole jig, drill bit, jig clamp, driver bit and 25 screws basically everything you need to drill and join using the pocket hole system.
Over all I am very well pleased with the fit and finish of the components. The instruction manual is complete and provides a good explanation of how to set up the tool and how to use it on various thickness of material. The jig has settings for centering screws in 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch, and 1 1/2 inch thick material. There is nothing preventing you from joining a two inch thick stock with a 3/4 inch thick stock using this jig. The screws will not be centered in the stock, but is that a big deal? No, not really.
The jig is made out of blue plastic / resin like material. It is plenty strong enough and does not distort during use. The opening of the jig has a metal sleeve to both guide the drill bit and protect the jig’s opening from being wobbled out over time. Once the drill bit is inside the jig there is no lateral movement of the drill. The drill wants to go straight down into the jig.
Kreg must be enforcing a minimum advertised price with their products everywhere I looked both online and at local home improvement stores the price was the same $49.99. I opted to buy mine from Amazon because at the time they were offering free shipping. It took a little longer than buying it locally; however, I did save 8 1/4 percent sales tax.
Kreg also offers a drill bit resharpening service. It is a decent price. If you don’t feel comfortable resharpening the drill bit yourself, take advantage of their service. Kreg recommends that the drill bit be after 2,500 holes drilled. I have a long way to go before mine needs to be resharpened.
The manual warns that the first few times the jig is used that the drill bit will cut out a little bit of the plastic from the jig. This is normal and should not be a problem. They say it is due to the tight tolerances that the jig is manufactured to. It is a little unnerving at first to see little blue shavings coming out of the hole along with the wood shavings. For my jig it was after the fifth hole that it stopped.
The first hole I drilled I started the drill and then attempted to insert it into the jig. That was a bad idea. I found that inserting the drill bit into the jig and then starting the drill reduces damaging the drill bit.
Over all I am quite pleased with the tool and its performance. There is a clamp that I wish they would have included in the set. That is the topic for the next post.
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