Kreg shelf pin jig for drawer slides?

AndrewG

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Nov 1, 2012
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Hi all,

I'm wondering if anyone has used the kreg shelf pin jig for drilling holes for drawer slides? I understand this would be time consuming and the LR 32 would be better.

I was thinking of marking a centre line on the jig and aligning it with a spacer block clamped in place and drill the holes. I haven't seen anyone do this before so I was wondering if there is there anything I am missing?

I'm making 8 sysports cabinets and would like the flexibility of being able to move the drawers as needed.

Cheers,
Andrew.
 
It should work as long as you are getting the offsets aligned.

EDIT: I am planning on using my Woodpecker Shelf pin jig for the same purpose. I can't see buying a LR32 rail, kit, and Festool Router.
 
I added some drawer slides to an existing cabinet, so using my LR32 wasn't an option.

I made a a T-Square fixture that I clamped to the side of the cabinet, set the drawer slide on top of it, used a self centering bit to drill the holes.  Required some careful measuring, but worked fine.  Here is a picture.

Bob

[attachimg=1]
 

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I used similar to Bob, plus a group of spacer boards so that the slides were exactly parallel on each side.

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I used the Kreg jig for my first set of drawers.  Once its installed, it seemed there was some 'bounce' in it.  I was worried that it would throw my center line off.  The results ok but I just didn't want to trust it going forward.  It works fine for most people but I changed over to using spacers from the bottom up.  I am still looking to the LR 32 at some point.
 
rmhinden said:
I added some drawer slides to an existing cabinet, so using my LR32 wasn't an option.

I made a a T-Square fixture that I clamped to the side of the cabinet, set the drawer slide on top of it, used a self centering bit to drill the holes.  Required some careful measuring, but worked fine.  Here is a picture.

Bob

Bob, this is a very cool idea, I will be borrowing that one.  Thank you.
 
I used my CNC Router to make a couple holes spaced out according to the SYS-AZ documentation. Now I am going to place it inside my shelf to help line up the rows.
 

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I've used the Kreg Jig for many hundreds of shelf pin holes and slide mounting holes. All of the holes on this Sysport-type structure were done using one (actually two as you will see).

[attachimg=1]

I bought 2 of the jigs, one for 5mm holes and one for 1/4" holes. These are identical except for the included drill bit so now I can do either. They come with a connector piece which allows you to join two jigs together to make a longer one (12 holes). This speeds things up considerably if you are making long rows of holes.

The thing you need to worry about is the spacing between the rows of holes and the edges of your cabinet pieces. First determine how far back from the front edge your first row of holes will be. This is determined from the distance from the slide front to the first set of "euro" holes which is usually 37mm plus the thickness of your drawer fronts if you are doing inset drawers or systainer trays. This likely will not match any of the offsets inherent in the jig itself. To get the correct offset you need to either:
  Use the fence attachment included with the jig and possibly add a shim between the fence and workpiece,
  Don't use the fence but clamp a piece to act as a fence to the edge of the workpiece and use a shim to set the jig holes to the proper distance.

Here is a picture of my dual-jig setup in use. In this case, I was drilling non-standard holes (9/16") for invisible wire shelf supports but the principle is the same. In this example I used a reducing bushing in each hole of the jig and used a spare 9/16 drill bit as the indexing pin. Regular 5mm hole drilling wouldn't require anything more than what comes with the jig.

[attachimg=2]

I realize that my explanation of how to use the fence and shims to position the jig might be a bit confusing. I can try to explain it in more detail (with pictures) if you need it.

One more thing. No matter how you do it, drilling hundreds of shelf pin holes is tedious. Eat a good breakfast before you start.
 

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Did some measuring and my shelf pin jig aligns flush with the front edge to give me holes centered 58mm from the front face.

EDIT: The bottom hole is centered on 32mm up from the bottom.
 

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Thanks for all the excellent replies. I have been thinking about this more and have decided although I can use the kreg jig to drill the drawer slide holes, I will go with spacers instead.

I'll make up some spacers that will match the heights of systainers, plus shims that will account for the gap between the drawers.

Many thanks,
Andrew
 
Andrew that’s exactly how I ended up doing this cabinet:

57047f11f4d9cb3c7609bc8e2321de2d.jpg


I used LR32 on this one:

1e1dca3c5704f482ab513697b67945c8.jpg


The spacers option was much quicker and simpler than LR32 in my opinion.

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