Kreg has launched the first of a new line of portable woodworking joinery machines.
Shown here is the new Kreg REBEL cordless pocket hole machine, powered by their new 20V Ionic Drive motors and Blue Ion batteries. A 120V AC-powered version will also be available.
The Kreg Rebel pocket hole machine features clamp-free operation. Kreg says you can just align and drill with confidence for faster, hassle-free joinery.
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The Kreg Rebel also has a vacuum attachment port for dust collection, to help reduce cleanup time.
There are support feet, for working on narrower workpieces on a workbench.
Additional features include a GripMaxx non-slip base plate and tool-free settings, including a micro-adjust. The drill speed is 2800 RPM.
Here’s a closer look at the drilling depth control settings.
It also features metal construction and “pro grade toughness.”
The Rebel seems easy to operate. Dial in your settings, hold it down in position, squeeze the switch, and then pull the drill handle forward.
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Kreg is launching the new machine in tool-only format. A complete 20V Ionic Drive kit and AC corded machine option will be available later.
It looks like the entire motor assembly can be removed for bit changes. I wonder if this means you can buy just the corded AC-powered motor as a drop-in module.
Kreg hasn’t shown off any custom storage options, and so you’ll likely need to add your own tool box or travel case.
Price: $300 (20V tool-only, KPTRB100A)
Do you think this will take on the Festool Domino?
Chris
That’s pretty nifty. I wish companies creating their own tool lines would at least use Dewalt or Milwaukee batteries.
Stuart
That seems to have been an option, but there must be reasons they couldn’t or didn’t want to do that. Bosch has AmpShare, and Dewalt has made their battery system available to other brands. It might no longer be true, but Milwaukee was also open to OEM relationships.
Bob H
It’s definitely a very “Cool Tool”,
but the big game is all about creating an on-going revenue stream
Riko
To me that’s kind of inconvenient especially when they know someone is just going to come out with an adapter for it
Bonnie
I expect whatever company is making this for Kreg prefers to make money on their own batteries rather than losing licensing fees to someone else. AmpShare also seems to have next to no penetration in the American market aside from Fein.
They could have maybe done some sort of co-branding deal, like SureBonder has with Ryobi, where one company makes the tool and the other the battery and they both sell their own versions.
CMF
“Kreg prefers to make money on their own batteries”…maybe. But I think Kreg first and foremost wants to make money and get market share on this tool selling. If it had a Dewalt battery compatibility, they would for sure sell more units.
Just wanted to add,like you said, making money on their own batteries, this gives them a reason to also introduce other cordless tools. If it takes off, they will probably have other tools in the future.
To have introduced this without other tools would not have been a great move, my belief. I always found Lincoln grease guns strange, as for years their battery system was only for their grease guns.
It all comes down to marketing decisions and they decided to go with their own system.
*** Not “great move”, but rather a bad move.
Jeremiah C Knight
Bull. They sell enough. If you’re grear at something, you don’t need to rely on other companies and their products and their name recognition…. they make what they make great. That’s what they sell. No more no less. That’s enough.
Matt_T
For specialty stuff what Reed does with the Pump Stick is nice. Interchangeable battery plates for Bosch, Dewalt, Makita and Milwaukee.
https://www.reedmfgco.com/en/products/general-pipe-working-tools/pump-stick-cordless-power-water-pump/pump-stick-battery-adapter-plates-and-batteries/
Jim
You can buy adapters for nearly any battery made to work as another. I suspect the same will be true here
Ryan
It won’t be long and probably already able to buy adapters though. No? I know it’s not the same but it’s still worth the investment for your platform.
PW
Well, it’s good that there’s some kind of genuine innovation in this new Kreg power tool lineup.
But I still think this should have been on a different, common battery platform. Heck, this is the point of something like AmpShare – different tool companies can contribute their strengths to an overall ecosystem, make it better, and get a piece of the pie.
As it is, they’ve now got to support an entire power tool lineup that is all but doomed to fail. I’m certainly not buying into yet another battery system with limited appeal, reach, and questionable lifespan just for one tool.
Honestly this would be more appealing to me as a corded tool rather than a part of the trillionth 18V white label power tool lineup.
Jared
This definitely colors the whole Kreg cordless tool line. I still wouldn’t buy into it – but it’s a reason someone might.
TomD
It changes things entirely – because once you have one tool, the next is easier.
And enough people already buy into other brands for way less than this, so it might see some moderate success especially at woodworking stores.
Tom
The original pocket hole system they made is a good too and a good idea. I’m thinking about adding this as a stand alone tool does not appeal to me. The original system and my existing battery powered drill will do the job just fine. Why add more items to my toolbox/shop drawers without adding anything that works better than what I already have. How much time is saved by adding this to my list of tools to use, store, find and take care of?
Rog
That’s pretty nifty.
A little pricey but no real competition other than the much more expensive Domino.
fred
Pocket holes are not exactly a replacement for dowels o loose-tenon joinery. They are a good solution for joints where the pocket can be concealed. I’ve used them quite a bit but mostly for face frames and cabinetry where you don’t see them. Were I saw fit to cut or buy specialty plugs to conceal the screw holes – the plugs also work best when they do not need to be seen. Also while pocket holes are strong enough for many applications – there are places where I would not want to stress them. The reason I bought my Domino 700 machine was to use it for building large doors. My old approach would have to assembled the panels by cutting grooves in mating surfaces and splines to fit into them – with glue to hold everything together. 14mm dominos and glue was what i used and the doors have seen may years of hard use with exposure to sun and weather without any issue. Pocket hole joinery would have left many noticeable plugs on one side of the doors and I’m not sure they would have stood up to all the flexing that comes with constant open/close cycles. Then and now – I think dominos were a speedy option that worked well – and they have become my first choice for many projects.
Dowels are an alternative that I sometimes choose – but using a jig (mine is a Dowelmax) is more time consuming – and good alternative approaches (e.g. Mafell Duo-Doweler) are expensive. I tried a cheaper Freud dowel machine years ago – but for me it was so imprecise as to be useless.
If this new machine works as advertised and can work on both narrow and wide face frames, I think it will sell well for in-field cabinet construction – despite the need for a separate battery platform. As others have noted – It would probably sell better if it used M18 or Dewalt batteries.
MM
I like the Dowelmax a lot. It is very well made, extremely precise and produces very strong joints. However it is certainly not fast. And it is also a a bit of a hassle to use for angled joints. It only does 90 degree and 180 degree joints out of the box. You have to purchase separate accessory brackets to do 45 degree or to make 90 degree T-type joints. I have done other angles with it by making custom tapered shims and double-stick taping them to the tool but that requires fiddly extra work. A nice thing about power tools like the Domino, biscuit jointers, etc, is that they have a built-in adjustment to do angles without needing to buy or fabricate any extra things. Just set the knob and go.
Michael Hammer
I was thinking of it for the thousands of feet of interior and exterior trim we install every year. It’s faster and cleaner than biscuits and glue. We use biscuits for custom and stock moldings, but we do a lot of flat stock. Pocket screws also work well with 5/4 Boral TrueExterior trim. (It does not work for 3/4.) Setting up the jig for such high volume is super tedious. Paying $400 ish for the cordless kit seems like a good investment.
Chris Gleason
I totally agree. I’ve used plenty of pocket holes in my 25 yrs as a pro woodworker, but they’re hardly a direct comparison to Dominos. Personally, I would never spend $300 on this. Or $100, even, given that my 20 year old jig is just fine.
Josh
This isn’t even in the same planet as a domino. Not even a biscuit joiner.
This is just pocket hole screws done different. It’s a smaller mobile cordless foreman.
You still face the same issues with pocket holes and needing to clamp parts to screw together to avoid shifting material or use biscuits, dominos, or dowels.
I sold all my pocket hole stuff years ago and have never missed them at all, if I ever need to a job where I have to do pocket holes I’ll buy a castle machine with the much cleaner hole.
fred
This tool is probably not meant to compete with a stationary shop machine. If it proves precise and reliable – it may appeal to folks who want to fabricate cabinetry on the jobsite. Not for me as I already have too many other joinery options (Domino machine, Dowelmax and other doweling jigs, benchtop mortiser/tablesaw tenon jig, Lamello Zeta P2, plus older Kreg jigs), But its not a stationary machine either – and probably would not appeal to a big cabinet shop. Last year I got to see a Castle machine that both cuts the pocket holes and inserts the screws – noy that was nifty.
KokoTheTalkingApe
I wonder about the value added by a built-in drill motor. Your ordinary drill seems to work pretty well. I think the issue, if any, is with the jig and bushings doohicky, not the drill. I just got an Armor Tools pocket screw rig and I like how it automatically adjusts to the board thickness, and also ANY board thickness, not just the standards. Sadly, Armor Tools seems to have gone under.
But even in the Armor Tools, you have to set the stop to the color of the screws that AT sells. I’m sure other screws will work, but the color coding is just a bit more convenient. But along that line, I wonder if you could also add automatic depth stops. You drop a screw into a slot, and it functions as a drill stop so the hole is always the right depth.
Whoever builds this thing officially owes me a million bucks. 😉 Or maybe it exists already?
Bonnie
The difference I expect is in speed and repeatability. Setting up and drilling a bunch of holes with a clamp-on jig and drill gets really slow. The bench-top pocket hole tools work alright (do they even sell the powered one anymore?) but I could definitely see this having some value in mid-sized cabinet or finishing shops that want something they can take to the piece and they aren’t going to be changing the depth often (or at all). Or just the home shop if you’re doing a whole kitchen custom and looking at how many pocket holes you’re going to be making.
CMF
The difference is kind of like a corded tool versus a cordless.
To plug into an outlet, and add an extension if necessary, works pretty good.
But everyone likes the idea of cordless. I think this will have that appeal. Just grab the tool, set it on the piece and make you holes (the video on the Kreg website shows this.)
Derek
I think this is a pretty cool tool.
$300 bare tool only for a pocket hole jig just seems like too much. If you’re using pocket holes that frequently the Kreg Foreman or Castle 110 jig might be better. Or you could buy a cheaper Kreg jig and a biscuit jointer and/or doweling jig and unlock more options.
TomD
$300 list price means it’ll probably regularly be $250, or $300 with “free battery and charger”.
Stuart
Not necessarily.
Dino Davis
I agree that the price is too high. I truly was interested until I saw that. Especially since we all already have drills and such. Buying another drill with another battery system can be difficult sell as it is. Getting new people interested in the trade can be a bit tough already.
CMF
One of the more complete Kreg kits is easily over $100. Depending on how flexible this tool is, the price might not be that bad. (Of course how well it works is the big make or break for this tool)
Scott K
Is this comparable (albeit, newer and cordless) to the Kreg Foreman?
Kevin
I didn’t think so. You bring this to the work. You bring the work to the Foreman.
Kevin F
I agree, and while this absolutely is not competition for either loose-tenon nor dowel joinery, I do see a better comparison… The Castle 110 Pocket Cutter. For that comparison, I say… Let the games begin
Nathan
I was going to say my current kreg jig is cordless I don’t see the appeal. And it’s another motor to break and more batteries and charge. I don’t know it’s neat and I like they are trying.
John
Wait, they’re releasing “tool only” but both the battery and a/c cord will be released at a later date? So how do you power it now?
Also, I do wonder about the durability of all the plastic in a tool that will likely sustain heavy use. Though, if course, metal would up the price a lot.
Bonnie
Eh, this seems like a shop-only (or at most inside a clients house) tool so being heavy on the plastic seems to be less of a concern than something that’s going to be tossed around a dirty job site and needs to take a beating.
Joseph McCann
Pocket screws, are not Joinery!
MFC
What are they then? They certainly seem to join wood together.
fred
To my way of thinking – pocket holes are just a more modern way of using screws to help pull joints together. We all know that wood end-grain does not glue up well – nor do screws driven directly into end grain have great strength. The tadeonal ways to deal with this issue was to create extra surfaces for gluing, pegging or other connectors. Joiners over the years devised all sorts of joint designs to do this – some all-wood requiring no glue – while others use glue and still others using mechanical fasteners. The innovation of the pocket hole is that end-grain can be butted against long grain and an inclined hole will allow an appropriately threaded screw to pull the joint together into a tight fitting joint. The appeal is that compared to cutting and fitting many other types of joints – there is less measuring, less tooling and perhaps less skill needed to make an acceptable joint. For things like cabinet face frames – it has become almost the technique of choice. For me – building reproduction furniture – I prefer more traditional joinery – for much the same reason I will not use Phillips head screws on the brasswork.
S
I suspect the idea is to get people to buy into the platform with the core-tools like the drill or impact. And then this tool serves as an expansion of that core offering.
Syd Payton
Seems somewhat intriguing. I would have to see up close though. The no battery part us a disappointment. I would consider it if I could buy it as a one off. I do own a K4 and never bought into the newer jigs. I like that my K4 is bench mounted. This tool is trying to be Festool Domino like, pocket holes are useful, but are no comparison. I do own the Domino 500, I think there is room for both.
Joe
I like the concept of the Kreg Rebel. I would get the corded version if I decided to pull the trigger.
The execution is another story. I have a Domino 500 and Lamelo top 21 that are build like a tank. Is the Rebel a professional grade tool ?
I am far from a joinery snob. I use different joinery methods depending on the job and client budget.
I have an old Kreg and Masca jig now. I would pick up a Rebel for speed and easy of use if it is not a flimsy toy.
Skylar
We use pocket holes to pre-assemble window & door casings- both interior and exterior. When we do, we use a Foreman but it’s a little less than ideal for longer legs.
1. Shame they didn’t go with an existing battery platform (say DeWalt like Grabo & Graco did, for example). It would 100% sell better when paired with an existing system. Why re-invent the wheel?
2. If it works in the same way that one can compare a table saw to a track saw then I’m 100% in for the corded version. Would make trim work much easier.
Charles Dorman
#1 in the year of our lord 2025 proprietary batteries are complete BS . . . especially if you are starting from scratch. #2 while corded in the year of our lord 2025 equally sucks hairy sweaty ones, the case absolutely can be made for it over one off batteries (that are more than likely going to go away in short order anyway
). #3 pocket holes are always a love / hate situation . . . and in any given instance / moment I don’t know where exactly I stand in that argument
Charles Dorman
#1 in the year of our lord 2025 proprietary batteries are complete BS . . . especially if you are starting from scratch. #2 while corded in the year of our lord 2025 equally sucks hairy sweaty ones, the case absolutely can be made for it over one off batteries (that are more than likely going to go away in short order anyway). #3 pocket holes are always a love / hate situation . . . and in any given instance / moment I don’t know where exactly I stand in that argument
eee
Any one know if these are low angle pocket holes like those really pricey Castle ones or are these the standard kreg angles.
Nathan
Standard kreg angles from what I see. Im not that surprised of the pricing. I guess I’d have to play with the rebel thing to see how I like it but if it’s going to have a vac hose on it then it might as well have a cord
But I’m not compelled right now to swap from my k4 kit.