Pocket Hole Jig - Customizable - I did the math

thingiverse

(Note: website not yet online) I needed a pocket hole jig and while there are a couple of good ones on this site, there are some issues. One is a straight-foward one that looks the part but it turns out it is set up for material that is 1/2" thick where I want to work with 3/4". It should be possible to shim it but that's a bit of a hassle. The other one is customizable. That's good but the customization options are for the parameters of the jig. If you want those correct for what you're working with, you'll need to do some math and trigonometry isn't everyone's forte. So I made a customizable one where you can input the values that are relevant to you. These are the thickness of the material, the size of the drill you are using, the thickness of the clamping plate and the amount of wood remaining for the screw to dig into (This depends on the thickness and alignment of the wood. The default is for 3/4 material in either alignment). Note that this last does not affect the configuration of the jig in any way but does affect where you put the collar on the bit which is noted for convenience on the jig. By default, this jig takes 1/4" copper couplings for the metal inserts. If you would like to use different inserts, the dimensions for these are available on the Advanced tab. Also available on the advanced tab are the spacing between the two holes, the total length of the channel, dimensions of the end hole things and, of course, the angle of the bit. Additional Features: Hole for hanging Hole for hex key storage (2.5mm or maybe 0.1inch) Bevel at front edge (The first layer on my printer is often a bit fat so this stops it from interfering) Finger grips Collar setting (set from where the bit is stepped) Define settings in inches or mm Unfortunately, though I originally specified inches as fractions, this was not acceptable to the customizer so I converted to decimal fractions. I have a plan to fix this in a future version. Deviating from the standard settings too much might produce weirdness. If any of these are big problems for you, let me know and I might see if I can fix it. Constructive suggestions for improvement welcome Post-Printing Metal Inserts The defaults on this jig are configured for Nibco 600 1/4" couplings. Two should be inserted before use. Update: I just got to do this. my holes were a little tight (ooer, missus) so I heated the copper fittings and drove them in. Unfortunately, I did not get both of them as aligned as I would like. What I will do for my next print is to make the holes slightly bigger than the fittings and epoxy them into place, using a jig to ensure they are aligned. I'll probably make the holes a smidge deeper too. I will not update the default dimensions so if you wish to do this also, that's up to you. Results This is a small work table I made with the Jig with the Jig on the table. The holes were slightly misaligned but worked fine and that was OK for this project.