i am installing handles on kitchen drawers what is the best method to make them straight and centered?

Question

any tips would be great thanks

Answer 1

they have a guide ruler at your local home store for that. it will help with handles & knobs. look in the department where you would find handles & knobs.

Answer 2

I've had the advantage of reading all the other answers and looking at the ratings. I don't understand why the answers that recommend drawing lines from the corners across the middle to form an 'X' have gotten poor ratings. Maybe they assume that any marks made on the drawer or door panel will be permanent, but this isn't necessarily so. Use a soap stone or something that comes off easily or snap a chalk line. This is the easiest way to insure that you know where the apparent center of the drawer or door face is. Once you know where that center is then you make a template if you have more than one hole or simply use that point as the location for the pull if you have only one hole.
A template is very easy to make out of paper or cardboard (will last longer). Dip the ends of your pull in paint and 'stamp' the paper that will be your template. Drill or punch your holes, find the center of that pattern and drill or punch a hole there also. Place that hole over the 'X' mark and drill your holes for the pull (after checking for level if you don't trust your eyeballs). Good luck.

Answer 3

This is the easiest and fastest way. If you have a scrap piece of material such as plywood or particle board and it is larger then half of the width of the center of drawer you can start. Take a narrow piece of material and attach it to the top of it forming a T. Find the distance you want the pulls or handle to be located from the top of the drawer front and mark it on the template you are making. Find the center line on the template. Measure half the distance of the width of the holes of drawer pulls to the left and the right of the center line on the template. Drill these marks with a hole slightly larger then the screws you are using keeping the drill as straight as possible.

You will now apply a piece of tape to the approximate center of the drawer and then find the actual center and mark it with a pencil. Lining up the center of the T to the mark on the tape while the T portion of the template is being firmly held to and down from the top of the drawer you drill your holes and then remove the tape.

Today's standards call for the pulls to be down either two inches from the top of the drawer or centered which ever suits you. Normally centered so you will have to make different templates for different size drawer fronts.

Answer 4

Measure twice, cut once, is something my dad always told me. This has saved me from alot of trouble during installing various things in various applications.

What I would do in this situation is measure the handle from attaching point to attaching point, then measure the height and width of the face of the drawer and find the center from there. Use a small level to ensure that the marks are straight and centered. I'm basing this on the assumtion that they're semi-circle handles, not just knobs. Make sure to check your cabinatry and compensate accordingly if the cabinatry is not exactly level, or as others have mentioned, it'll look odd.

Answer 5

How To Install Drawer Pulls

Answer 6

Easy, Make a template. Here's how. Take a piece of scrap thin plywood or masonite and attach a straight strip of wood to one edge with a few screws. Measure your drawer fronts to determine how tall they are. Usually all the upper drawers are the same size heights. Some drawer cabinets though have different heights. Measure each one to be sure and record your measurements. Make a mark on the center of the template top and draw a line down it and around the wood strip with a square. On the back side of the template measure down from the bottom of the wood strip making marks equal to 1/2 of the height of the drawer fronts. Make a mark for each different drawer front height that you have. Take one of your handles and measure center to center how far apart the screws need to be. Divide that number in half and measure off from your centerline on your template and make a mark on both sides of the centerline, parallel with the top i.e. for 4 inch centers you would make a mark 2 inches away from centerline on each side. 3 inch centers would be 1 1/2 inches on both sides, etc. Do that for each different drawer height. Next drill holes through your template using a drill bit a tiny bit bigger than the handle screws. You should be able to build one of those in 10-15 minutes. Next you simply make a pencil mark on the top edge of the drawer front in the exact center, place your template with the centerline of the template lining up with that mark and drill through the holes you made in the template through the drawer front. If you do have different drawer heights I would recommend doing each different height one at a time using masking tape to cover the incorrect holes so you don't drill the wrong ones. Some drawers have the fronts attached to a 1/2 or 3/4 inch drawer box. That creates a little problem in that the handle screws won't be long enough. 2 choices here, easiest is to stop off at the hardware store with a handle screw in hand and buy longer ones, adding the thickness of the drawer backer to the length of the factory screw, or drill from inside the drawer carefully through the drawer box with a bit a little bigger than the screw head. Be extremely careful with that part because the drill bit will VERY EASILY drill deeper than you want it to. What I do is wrap some masking tape around the drill bit a tiny bit deeper than you want to drill and stop before you get to it when you're drilling. Do not use a level for this operation. If your drawer fronts are not level, the handles will look crooked. Drilling them with the template will center them and they will look straight even if they aren't level. Your other choice would be to use a strip of masking tape across the center of the drawer front and make marks with a pencil and square. Just draw a horizontal center line and mark the verticle center and make 2 marks for the holes equidistant from your center reference mark.

Answer 7

We made a template out of a cardboard shoe box top (or anything sturdy) and used it. Just remember that your cabinets are not "perfectly" straight or even, especially the doors. So, we went around with one of those laser lights and marked a straight line around the room. That way, when you look at the cabs, the handles all look straight. If you measure, say 2" (or whatever the measurement may be) from the bottom of every door or drawer, they'll all end up crooked looking. Odd, but true! Just be careful and remember to measure 2 or 3 times before you drill those holes! Good Luck!

Answer 8

use measurments

take the front of the draws off for this.

Cut some wood that is perfectly Half the length of the draw face and use this as the center hole template that way all draws handles will line up perfectly (If the handle only has one screw needed) Just place the template on the draw face, make sure its flush with the 'bottom' and then run your pencil along the top of the template. You could do the same for the other side if you want so then you have the hole 'crosshairs'. All draw holes will be in the exact same location.
If the handle requires two screws then your screwed, too hard to explain here. Need more info

Answer 9

Tape two lengths of string at each corner so they make an "X" across the face of the drawer. At the center point of the "X" should be the exact center of the drawer. Make a mark and you now know what point to use as the center. If your knobs have only one screw to hold in place that is the spot to drill for the knob.

If they have two, cut a piece of paper or light cardboard a couple inches larger than the handle and punch the screws through. Measure halfway between the holes and punch it out. That is the center of the paper to line up with the center mark on the drawer.

If two screws, measure down from the top of the drawer to the center mark. That is the distance you want both screws of the handle to be at so it sits evenly on the drawer. Put your piece of paper on the center mark and measure down to either of the screw holes in the paper. Make a mark at each of the holes in the paper and you have a perfectly centered knob.

Answer 10

simple, I assume there are no existing holes and the cabinets are stained or painted, if you can remove the drawer covers, if not no biggie.
Measure the length and mark the center do the same with the height get the cross hair, now you can work, 1 hole that is the spot a 2 prong knob measure the length from Center to Center of the prongs (Prongs that's the part on the knob where the screw goes) From the center mark on the drawer face measure 1/2 of the prong to prong length on each side of the center then remeasure the height and and now you will have 3 cross hairs, one in the center one 1/2 the measurement of the two prongs, drill and repeat, take your time and measure often,

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Answer 11

Use a template, made either from paper or cardboard. Measure the face of one of the drawers. Transfer measurements to a piece of paper. Lengthwise, determine the exact center of the drawer and draw a horizontal line on the paper. Then determine the exact center measuring side to side. mark the paper to show both lines, the length and width, intersecting in the middle. then measure the point from center where each hole needs to be drilled to attach the handle. Use this template for each drawer and they will be standard for all. good luck