Kreg 720 Pro (REJIGGERED By Auto-Jig) 2021

hey the good folks over at armor they've got an interesting thing going on with their auto jig and we're going to learn more about this in the video but they've got these pocket hole screws right here that are color coded and the jig will show you which screw you should be using for the material that you're putting pocket holes in it's a great system i'm excited to try it out hey i think this right here is going to be outstanding for especially for beginner woodworkers when you get a little confused about all your different screw sizes what you should use the different thicknesses of your material it can get confusing when you're brand new i understand that and this i think is going to solve a lot of those problems for those experienced woodworkers for those seasoned woodworkers you may or may not care about the color-coded system that's up for you to decide but as we get older we get forgetful we might need this too so we have screws here for uh coarse thread and fine thread so for soft wood and for hardwood armor tool auto jig makes joining wood fast accurate and easy auto adjust to wood thickness auto adjust drill bit depth adjustable clamping force opposable dust collection port color-coded screw selection are just some of the features of this great tool right here well we don't know if it's great yet we're going to try it out all right let's open it up and see get our very first impressions here and then later in the video we'll find out if it's worth a hill of beans or not yeah i grew up in the south okay first thoughts right off the bat very similar in size and design of the craig k4 and i guess the k5 i don't have one but the k5 that we all have come to enjoy and love so i like that we're not talking about an aerospace design like the 720. so right off the bat i like that because hey i'm going to use one of their new clamps here we'll monkey with this a little bit later and figure it out but um i can clamp this thing down where i couldn't clamp the 720. all right so quick review um i'm liking what i'm seeing but that's not saying much until we test it out and go around and look at all the features so i'm going to get familiar with it and come right back to you okay before we go any further i want you to know armored tool does not sponsor this video i don't sign sponsorship agreements and i'm under no obligation to say only the nice things about their products i normally use my own money to purchase tools that i review on this channel however armor did offer to send me their auto jig for review here on this channel i told them they would be at their own risk because i would say what i felt need to be said about their product i'm going to let you know what i like and what i don't like and they told me they're confident in their product when they shipped it to me so the question everybody wants to know is the auto jig as good as the craig jigs it's better in my opinion it's much better and here's what i like and a few things i don't like there's a lot of things i like about this jig and a couple of things i don't i do like the looks of the jig and that it's not an aerospace design it does have points on the end and one in the front that allows us to clamp it to our bench easily there's also screw holes pre-drilled for those of you that want to mount it to a board i really like the self-adjusting auto clamp the clamp you can manipulate the clamp and it's very smooth and it works like this you take your piece of stock you drop it in you pull the clamp closed then you lock it down it's in there it's in place release the clamp open it up remove your stock grab a bigger piece of stock drop it in close it up clamp it down and it's in there you're ready to drill your holes i really like this feature another auto feature that it has is being able to set the depth on your drill bit that works great but it's probably a feature that i'm not going to use very often here's how it works when you drop your stock in and you close the clamp and you lock it down if you notice right here the collar slides along the drill bit so when the clamp reaches the correct width for your stock the collar is already set on your bit you just need to tighten it down there's a wrench right here pop out the wrench tighten down that little hex screw pop out the drill bit it's automatically set and you're ready to go if you put it back in take your wrench loosen up your collar now it's ready to go for next time open up your clamp maybe you got a thicker piece of stock you drop that thicker piece of stock in there now a thicker piece of stock fits in there fairly snug already so there's not much manipulation here of the clamp it's already right there you got maybe a 16 of an inch play there you can just clamp it down your collar is already set for the thicker stock grab your wrench tighten it up pull it out and you're ready to go what i don't care for about this feature is that if the drill bit is inserted into the holder and maybe the last time you use it you forgot to loosen up this collar you can try to manipulate and open up the clamp but the clamp is tight because it's being held right here by this collar that's holding onto the bit so you have to loosen up the collar so that it'll slide freely and now it moves for me in my shop it's a little cumbersome to adjust the collar on the bit every single time i want to use the jig have it sitting in here where it's all locked in and remembering that i have to loosen it each time i don't care for that so much but let me explain to you what i did with my kreg jig when using my kreg jig of course it had the uh the adjustment on the side where you just drop your bit in and you line your bit up with whatever depth here that you were working with and then you could tighten your collar down i didn't like that feature either so i purchased two bits i have one set for three quarter and one set for an inch and a half and that's how i'll be using this jig here i'll always have more than one drill bit in fact i have two and i may add a third one for a half inch because i use that often i'll simply have the collar set all the time so i will not be storing the drill bit inside the holder now i reached out to armor about this little problem and suggested to them that a lot of viewers are going to think that's a little cumbersome every time to have to adjust the the collar on their bit and here's what they told me you're right and we're going to look into it i suggested that they simply add a storage compartment on the other side for us to store the bits that are already set and it gives us extra storage and they said they jump right on it now one thing i noticed on the armor website they have a page out there that says if you have ideas and innovations contact them because they're more than happy to try to make the type of stuff the type of tools that we need to use and since i had already seen that information i was impressed when i suggested this little upgrade that they said hey good idea we're going to look right into that so i don't think we're gonna have to wait for years down the road for another evolution of the jig to come out for us to see a change like that happen i think that's something that we'll see in the near future we talked about the color-coded screws right here on the side of the drill guide they have this little graph and depending on what size stock you slip into your into the jig it's going to tell you what size it is when i grab a piece of stock and slip it in there this little graph right here tells me it's an inch and a half thick piece of piece of wood the graph right below it if you look down and you see an inch and a half piece of wood it's color coded and it's going to tell you what color screw you need for this size wood now i've identified a flaw and i've already contacted armor and they've agreed and they're going to make this adjustment here real soon too and that is on this chart right here the colors don't exactly match up with the color codes that they have here and when you get to an inch and a half and i'll try to zoom in so you can see it this color here is actually red whereas down here for an inch and a half it's orange confusion lies if you think that oh it's red and you grab a red screw it's only an inch and a quarter screw when in reality you do need the orange screw which is a two and a half inch screw for those of us who are seasoned the more experienced woodworkers we're probably not even going to look at this graph i know i need a two and a half inch screw if i'm going to be working with one and a half inch stock or an inch and a quarter screw if i'm working with a three quarter inch stock most of us probably won't even refer to this graph so it's not a big deal it's not a show stopper by any means on the back of the jig we have our dust collection the dust collect the dust collection port pops right off i like that it's clear so you can see if it's starting to get jammed up or if there's something going on in there it's easy to slide in and out it's got these little tabs here on the side allows you to slide right behind it it's nice and secure it's a durable plastic when you get ready to hook up dust collection to it i did find out that it does not fit with the universal adapter that i picked up from rockler this is just an old one that i have i wanted to try it it's too big but what does work so at the home center you can pick up these little adapters you can find these over near the shop vacs and they come nested there's actually three pieces that come together so it's going to look kind of small like this i use these a lot for various tools that i have in the shop and this fits nicely right there so that i can hook up my two and a half inch hose for dust collection on the bottom of the jig you do have a bit holder for your drill driver [Applause] it tucks in right there and there is more space here possibly maybe we'll find some additional storage there in the future i like that it's really hard plastic this is very durable unlike the new 720 that just came out which has a much thinner plastic this is much like the k4 and k5 it's really thick plastic really heavy duty no concern about durability if you're wondering yes your your craig drill bits are the same size they'll fit just fine and of course if you have kreg screws you're going to continue to be able to use them too because it drills the same pocket hole a few minutes ago i told you i had a little intel on the armor clamps so a little back story about armor armor started out developing technology that they patented and then they would license it to other companies you'll find their technology in tools like craftsman stanley and some others even though you've never heard of armor tool company themselves it wasn't until just a couple of years ago that they started pulling back some of those patents and decided to start making tools themselves well guess who had the license to their technology for clamps craig tool company so up until a couple years ago craig clamps used the armor self-adjusting technology in their clamps today craig uses a different technology and if you've been using their clamps the last couple of years one thing you may have noticed is that they jam up a lot when you're trying to use them and clamp them down that auto feature doesn't always work sometimes it's jammed up and you have to manipulate the tension and loosen it or tighten it and try again and you know to to get the clamp to work the short time i've been using these clamps by armor they haven't jammed up at all because they use a cam lock system and it's very smooth and i like it a lot armor put out a video comparing the kreg clamp and their clamp and i'm going to put a link to it right up here you need to go check out that video because they do a very good job of explaining the technology that's in the two and why that the armor clamp is so much better than craig so what do i think overall about the armor auto jig it's a great jig it's going to be in my shop this is the one i'm going to be using for years to come it's at a similar price point to the craig jigs for those of you still watching this video i'm going to tell you how you can upgrade to this auto jig and possibly save seventy dollars armored tool for a limited time is offering an upgrade from the k4 the k5 the harbor freight version of the pocket hole jig if you own one of these jigs you can send your jig into armor they will give you a 70 credit on their jig here's how it works there'll be a link in the description below to their website read the information about the upgrade program fill out the form and let them know what jig you would like to upgrade now it takes a few days but once you're approved you can mail your jig to them and within about a week you're going to get an email with a credit for 70 dollars that you can use online now your old jig doesn't have to be in working order it can be broke as long as it contains all the major components they'll accept it they're also making it easier for you because you can buy a shipping label right off their website that'll cost you about six dollars that's going to be cheaper than if you take your box to fedex ups or the post office yourself and try to ship it if you don't have anything to upgrade and you're ready to make a purchase on this on this jig there will be links in the description below where you can find it on amazon they've got multiple kits available with different screw packs with or without clamps so they've got a price point for everyone hey if you like this product review and you found it helpful please give me that thumbs up for every for every person that gives me a thumbs up youtube shares this video with someone else and that's how this channel grows and i could use your support i'm gonna pop up a couple more videos right over here that you may enjoy so stick around

Channel: WoodWorking Garage

Views: 179,821

Keywords: Woodworking, Woodworking for beginners, Woodworking projects to sell, woodworking projects that sell, Kreg pocket hole jig, Kreg 720 Pro, Kreg 520 Pro, kreg 720 pro, kreg 720 pocket hole jig, kreg 720 pro review, kreg pocket hole jig, armor tool, armor tools pocket hole jig, armor tool auto-jig pocket hole system, pocket hole tool, pocket hole jig, pocket hole joinery, Kreg, kreg tool, kreg 720 pro pocket-hole jig, woodworking tools, pocket jig, kreg k5, kreg k4

Id: qO13jYaGhEc

Length: 15min 55sec (955 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 28 2021