Jonathan Salisbury looks at this complete pocket-hole jig kit from Milescraft, supplied in its own sturdy storage box, which isn’t only easy to use, but doesn’t miss a detail,
Pocket-holes need a confident approach, and it’s no good if the jig moves because you’re worried that clamping it any further would break it. The PocketJig200 feels reassuringly solid and up to the job, so I didn’t hesitate to give the adjustment screw an extra turn; the fact that the clamp stayed attached to the jig for easier repositioning was a bonus. There’s a tiny amount of slack in the sled, but the locking pin means that it’s not going to move from where it’s set; only having four preset positions does mean there’s no option of tweaking it a little for different thicknesses, of course, but it isn’t often that this is really necessary. The 27mm conversion of 1in is a bit of an oversight, but I could live with that.
Pocket-holes are a really easy way of creating a sturdy joint. Even when plugged, they’re never going to be pretty; they’re also not the strongest method. But for simplicity, they’re hard to beat. These flat, clamp-on versions of pocket-hole jigs are pretty much a standard design; they all work in the same way, and all produce the same 9.5mm holes at the same angle; drills, screws, plugs are all of an identical size, with small variations of driver type. The difference is in the detail; and having used a few, I think that the Milescraft model from Wood Workers Workshop is one of the best available.
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