I keep hearing about how great pocket screws are for face frames, but I'm not sold

I built a set of kitchen cabinets for a client in Springfield last year, using my usual mortise and tenon joints for the face frames. This spring, I went back to install a pantry unit and saw the doors on my old cabinets were still perfectly square, while the new ones the homeowner had added using pocket screws were already starting to rack. The difference was clear after just eight months. I think the pocket hole method is fast, but it just doesn't lock the frame together the same way under real weight and use. Has anyone else had a face frame fail on them when it was built with pocket screws?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_charlie1mo ago

Wow, that's a solid real world test. I was all about pocket screws for speed on my own shop cabinets, but seeing a direct comparison like that would make me rethink it for client work. The racking after less than a year says a lot about the long term hold.

xena_brown501mo agoMost Upvoted

You're right about that racking, @the_charlie. I learned the hard way on my own kitchen island. Used pocket screws for the face frame and it looked great for about eight months. Then one day I noticed a drawer was sticking. The whole box had shifted just enough to be annoying. Had to take it apart and rebuild it with proper joinery. Sometimes the fast way ends up being the long way back.

lisa522d ago

Actually pocket hole screws are structural. The joints fail because of poor glue technique, not the screws.