Kreg Foreman

[Birdhunter]

There is no possible rationale for me to buy the Foreman but I do see the need if you are doing a ton of pocket holes.

I recently built a large dresser and, without pocket holes, it would have been far more difficult. I did use some heavy duty clamping to avoid that ugly shift movement. With the drawers, I used a combination of Dominos and pocket holes. The Dominos (unglued) keep the pieces from shifting.

 

[Packard]

Unlike Dominoes, dowels and Confirmats, the screw itself in a pocket hole offers very little structure.  The joining of the two component parts may offer substantial structure.

A Domino, dowel or Confirmat will add substantial structure basically like a down-sized mortise and tenon.  That strength will be substantially increased with the addition of glue. 

I don’t understand why you would not use glue with dominoes if you are using it for positioning.  In the addition to the added strength, the moisture absorption in the mortise and on the domino will tighten up alignment. 

So why leave off the glue?  I don’t understand.

 

[Sparktrician]

I recently built a large dresser and, without pocket holes, it would have been far more difficult. I did use some heavy duty clamping to avoid that ugly shift movement. With the drawers, I used a combination of Dominos and pocket holes. The Dominos (unglued) keep the pieces from shifting.

I wouldn't even consider using dominoes without glue unless the piece was intended to be a knock-down design for portability.  Just sayin'...  [huh]

 

[pettyconstruction]

The timing of this post is great,I got the Foreman 2 weeks ago.

I had lusted over the Castle machine but in the end, I couldn’t justify to cost over the Kreg Foreman.
When I started looking at them,Castle wanted $1200 something ,now they are north of $1700.

I paid $365 out the door for the Foreman , so at that price, I can deal with the “creap” that happens.
Btw, I use screws from Castle, it uses a torx bit instead of a square drive.
Cheers,Charlie

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Birdhunter]

I wouldn't even consider using dominoes without glue unless the piece was intended to be a knock-down design for portability.  Just sayin'...  [huh]

Yes, indeed, the dresser had to be taken apart, moved, and reassembled.

Also, I like to build up panels in twos. I was trial fitting the last two sections of the dresser top. I tapped the last two half sections in place with only about 1/2" of the ten or so tenons sunk into the mortises. Everything lined up perfectly so I tried pulling the two halves apart. No dice! They were tight. So, I just applied the clamps and pulled the two halves together.

The dresser was delivered and after maybe 6 years, the dresser top is intact.

 

[jeh]

I paid $365 out the door for the Foreman , so at that price, I can deal with the “creap” that happens.
Btw, I use screws from Castle, it uses a torx bit instead of a square drive.
Cheers,Charlie

Why do you prefer Torx over Square Drive? My experience is I have never had a square drive head strip but have issues with stripped heads with Torx. Is your experience different?

 

[Packard]

I paid $365 out the door for the Foreman , so at that price, I can deal with the “creap” that happens.
Btw, I use screws from Castle, it uses a torx bit instead of a square drive.
Cheers,Charlie

Why do you prefer Torx over Square Drive? My experience is I have never had a square drive head strip but have issues with stripped heads with Torx. Is your experience different?

In some situations I prefer Torx over square drive. 

I can put a torx head screw onto the tip of a driver and it generally will not fall off the tip until I have driven it in.  The square drive is less reliable in that regard.

However, I generally stuff the pocket holes with screws and then use the driver to drive them home.  So that is not an advantage in that situation. 

Other than that, I have no preference.  It might be slightly easier to engage the torx drive with the Torx screw and the square drive and the square headed screw.  But it is not annoying to me at all, so no difference.

But in situations where it is difficult to place the screw, the ability of the Torx screw to stay on the Torx drive is an advantage.

 

[Michael Kellough]

The Kreg drivers are magnetized and hold square drive screws just fine.

 

[Packard]

The Kreg drivers are magnetized and hold square drive screws just fine.

I usually use the long shaft driver that came with my P-C pocket hole jig.  Those are not magnetized.  But as I said, in pocket holes, I don’t think it makes any difference as I generally feed all the holes with screws in advance and then use the drivers.  The screws stay put. 

When I was installing drawer slides on my already-installed kitchen cabinets, driving a screw 22” away was a challenge.  The Torx drive solved that issue. 

 

[pettyconstruction]

I paid $365 out the door for the Foreman , so at that price, I can deal with the “creap” that happens.
Btw, I use screws from Castle, it uses a torx bit instead of a square drive.
Cheers,Charlie

Why do you prefer Torx over Square Drive? My experience is I have never had a square drive head strip but have issues with stripped heads with Torx. Is your experience different?

In some situations I prefer Torx over square drive. 

I can put a torx head screw onto the tip of a driver and it generally will not fall off the tip until I have driven it in.  The square drive is less reliable in that regard.

However, I generally stuff the pocket holes with screws and then use the driver to drive them home.  So that is not an advantage in that situation. 

Other than that, I have no preference.  It might be slightly easier to engage the torx drive with the Torx screw and the square drive and the square headed screw.  But it is not annoying to me at all, so no difference.

But in situations where it is difficult to place the screw, the ability of the Torx screw to stay on the Torx drive is an advantage.

I have moved away from all non Torx head screws,
It really  doesn’t seem to matter with pocket screws, but I got a big bulk of them from Castle.
I have multiple size Torx in all the boxes and if I don’t have the pocket hole one,I have many other options.
Cheers,Charlie

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro