finishing up the kitchen at home and I have 12 upper cabinet doors that will have knobs, the base has 3 cabinet doors, a lazy Susan, 3 drawers, a pull out trash cabinet front and 3 pull out drawers that will be getting different size pulls.
I saw the FH article on making a jig and while I’d like to do it, I’m going to be dealing with 4 different sizes pulls for the base cabinets and I’m just not that confident about making a jig that will work for all the sizes
having said all that, any one have any thoughts on the commercially made / available jigs?
thanks in advance
Replies
I’ve done a lot of kitchens and always made up my own jigs. Reused several many times with tape over the old holes. I have never tried commercial jigs.
Is it this? https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2013/12/20/build-a-simple-jig-to-drill-cabinet-handle-holes-perfectly
Make as many as you need.
that's the one, I'm just not that confident in my skills at times - seems to me I'd need a drill press to get the guide holes straight and I don't have one
thanks
Square up a block, cut a V notch. Clamp or hold the block to the workpiece. Have the drill touching both sides of the notch when drilling.
The thicker the block is, the easier it will be to keep the bit square to the drawer/door face when you drill it. Just make sure your bit sticks out of the drill chuck enough to equal the thickness of the block plus the drawer/door face so the hole goes all the way through. If you have a choice of drills, use the smallest/lightest one, it will be easier to handle.
Couple things.
Use a brad pt. drill bit with a sacrificial block held inside the door or drawer to resist tear out. Also, with full overlay doors, it means you need to open the door to hold the jig and block to drill. Which keeps you from drilling the hinge side.....
Find what type of thread (mm or standard). Find “breakaway” screws to match as often the lengths packaged with the knob/pull don’t coincide with door/drawer thickness. These screws are knotched at depths so you can use a sidecut to score and break off.
When I don't have or can't get a “breakaway” screw, and don't have a regular screw that is the correct length, I cut one that starts out too long. Before cutting, I thread a nut onto the screw, going closer to the head than where I'll cut it. After cutting, removing the nut will cleanup any damage to the thread made by cutting it.
Yessir, that’s the ticket when you can’t find breakaways.
For production, have the breakaways.
I used a jig from Rockler once. had transparent plexiglass and holes to use for marking location with a center marker.
worked ok
If you are making your own jig, you can make more than one, and make each single purpose.
so, as both my grandmother and mother used to say..., I dug up one of the coffee cans from the back yard and bought a jig - Cabinet Hardware Jig (TP-1934) from True Position Tools - not exactly inexpensive but certainly seems like it will do the job
so stay tuned - I'll try to do some pictures to document how I use the jig
thanks to all for the helpful comments and advice
Heck of a coffee can.
What’s your address?
Looking forward to your pictures.
That jig will look good on your tool shelf.
One can never have too many tools.
The Kreg Cabinet Hardware Jig is a good investment then, along with the proper Kreg clamp. That's what I used on my recent kitchen upgrade.
https://www.kregtool.com/shop/hardware-installation/cabinet-shelf-jigs/cabinet-hardware-jig/KHI-PULL.html
thats a good tool. the plastic likes to burr if you go too fast, but slow n steady will get it done right.
It’s probably overkill but, I use the True Position hardware jig and it’s fantastic. Infinitely adjustable and fast to use. It’s $189 but that’s probably what it would cost you to order a new replacement for a miss-drilled door. It provides a lot of confidence for under $200.
yeah, I kind of accidentally ordered it, I was looking and they had a 10% discount coupon, so when I did the work to figure out the cost, all of a sudden, I had ordered it. I did get the discount and free delivery so that was nice, additionally, I ordered it on Monday and got it on Tuesday. So far I just unpacked it as I've had some other work to do but it's about to go to work. Looking at what I need to do, I've got probably 80 holes to drill in cabinets and drawers in 2 different kitchens and about 4 different size (spread?) pulls. The rails are different dimensions in the cabinets in the different kitchens, so centering the pulls adds another concern to making my own jigs.
attached are some pictures from one kitchen, trying to get some "smaller" pictures of other (our) kitchen
the kitchen that started to jig "quest" - the doors are missing in 2 cabinets and there are another 2 doors above the fridge that I didn't take a picture
as "you" can see, a lot of holes to drill at both locations, so the "pro" jig seemed like a good idea
just an update - did the pulls and the knobs earlier this evening, the jig is well worth the money for the convenience and ease of use - I did 10 pulls of 4 different lengths and 12 knobs in probably about an hour, maybe an hour and a half - quick and no concerns about being off
I did do some test set-up/drilling before doing the real thing, and that helped me to understand using the jig.
Measure twice, cut once.
Thanks for the photos.
as a further update - did the cabinets in the other kitchen - did 4 different sizes on 16 cabinets or draws in under an hour and a half
thought folks might want to see it and also figured I'd 'show off" the results