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Tried pocket hole joinery on my last big shelving job and I'm not going back
I was building about 12 wall shelves for a library in Austin last month, and I did half with dowel joints and half with pocket holes from my Kreg jig. Pocket holes took me maybe 15 minutes a shelf compared to 45 minutes for dowels when you factor in measuring and gluing. The shelf strength was about the same from what I could tell, but the speed difference is huge when you got a deadline. Has anyone else switched methods for production work and seen a big time savings?
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wade_perez20d ago
The dowel shelves might actually hold up better long term in a library setting where they're loaded heavy with books for years. Pocket hole screws can wiggle loose over time with that constant weight and vibration from people pulling books off, especially on a 12 shelf grid where each one is bearing down on the others. I'd be curious to check back on those shelves in a year and see if the dowel ones sag less or stay tighter.
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harper_owens20d ago
Wait you had a grid of 12 shelves to mount and you only did half with pocket holes? Why not just commit to the faster method from the start? That sounds like an extra 6 hours of work for no reason. Were you running some kind of A/B test on your own time or something? Pocket hole joinery is the whole reason I can do a full wall of library shelving in a single day without losing my mind.
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