Kreg Automaxx Right Angle Clamp (KHCRA) Review

Driving a pocket screw applies force along the screw axis, which is at roughly 15 degrees to the face. That force wants to slide the two parts against each other. If nothing is holding them, the joint closes slightly out of flush — the classic pocket-hole failure, where the rail ends up a hair proud of the stile.

A face clamp fixes it by clamping across the joint. The problem is reach: on a face frame the clamp pad has to land past the stile, and a standard face clamp runs out of throat.

The KHCRA is the answer to that specific geometry. The jaw turns through 90 degrees with 5 in (127 mm) of reach, so the pad sits on the rail with the body of the clamp clear of the work. The Automaxx mechanism means you set the clamping pressure once with the thumbwheel and every squeeze after that lands on the same pressure.

Where it stops

This is a one-job clamp. It does not substitute for a face clamp, a bar clamp or a corner clamp, and it only holds material up to around an inch cleanly — beyond that the pad geometry starts to tip.

That is worth being blunt about, because the price sits in the same range as a pair of decent F-clamps. If you build cabinets with face frames most weekends, it repays that quickly by removing a category of rework. If pocket-hole joinery is occasional, a normal face clamp and more care will get you there.

One is usually enough

Unlike parallel clamps, you do not leave these on while glue cures. The screw does the clamping once it is driven. So the working pattern is clamp, drive, release, move on, and a single clamp covers a whole face frame.