Hello,
I am hoping a more experienced Kreg user can help
My son and I purchased the Kreg master system to build the puzzle bookcase for his room (with hopes of using the Kreg in future projects as well of course). We are using 1x12 pine. Since the actual thickness of the wood is 3/4" we set everything at 3/4. We vacuumed out the sawdust from all the pocket holes. So far we have attached the shelves to one side of the book case using 2(1 1/4") screws per shelf. The shelves really wobble a lot. I thought that using the Kreg even attached to only one side the joint should be pretty tight. Is this normal? I expect it will firm up once we attach the sides but wanted to check about this wobbliness before going on. Thanks for any help! We thought we would have it done by the end of the day but this has got us really stumped!
Keri
Forums
emmarosemc
Sat, 05/28/2011 - 20:20
did you use glue before you
did you use glue before you put the screws in? itll help, you could remove the ones you did and put some woodglue in and screw them in again. took me a while to realize that glue is really necessary sometimes
KeriG
Sun, 05/29/2011 - 04:43
Hi! No I didn't use any glue.
Hi!
No I didn't use any glue. Would that actually make the joint tighter? From watching all the Kreg videos it seems like it should be so simple to get a nice tight joint w/o glue.
Do you put glue along the edge of the shelf or in the pockethole?
Thanks!
Keri
claydowling
Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:26
Glue and joint stability
The joint should be pretty secure without needing to glue. You'd be gluing on end grain, which doesn't have a lot of glue holding strength anyway.
You can make the joints a good deal stronger by cutting dadoes or rabbets for them. That changes the dimensions slightly and will require some refiguring, but that's a very traditional method for making a securely attached shelf. Using dowels in the joints (instead of the kreg jig and screws) adds a massive amount of strength.