Making a Jig for Installing Cabinet Pulls

This is the finished jig in action and to the right you can see its results. It is great for easy and consistent placement of cabinet pulls, which are otherwise difficult to place consistently.

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Place the cabinet pull against a door where you want it, and measure how far the lower hole should go from the bottom and the side edge (3" from bottom, 1-1/4" from edge on my doors).

Place a piece of masking tape on the cabinet pull and pierce it with an awl. This will give you accurate spacing for the holes.

Prepare a couple scraps of plywood for the templates. They should be just a little bigger than the handles, and the sides should be square.

Cut some 1" strips of plywood on the table saw and glue them to two sides of the plywood, making sure they are flush to the edges. These two sides will act as a stop when positioning the jig on the cabinet door.

Now it's time to use the measurements you took in step 1 regarding the handle placement.

I measured 3" up from the bottom strip and 1-1/4" away from the side strip. This gave me the location of one hole, then I rotated the tape on that point until the other hole was 1-1/4" from the side strip. Use whatever measurements you took in the first step.

The important measurements here are the distance from the bottom of the jig (bottom of the cabinet door), and that the holes are parallel with the side guide.

Then drill both holes on the drill press or handheld drill.

Attach one of the cabinet pulls onto the jig to test the spacing of the holes. The holes should line up easily with the screw holes on the handle.

Make a second template by gluing strips to two sides of a piece of plywood, but in a mirror image of the first template.

Clamp the second template to the first one and drill through both of them, to make a copy for the left-side door.

This can also be accomplished by gluing 1" strips onto the back face of your existing template.

Place the template against the cabinet door, making sure to press the two guides against two sides of the door. Clamp it in place.

Drill through both of the holes in the plywood template with a handheld drill.

Using a drill, impact driver, or screwdriver, attach the screws through the back of the cabinet door into the handle to secure it.

Repeat this process with your templates for all the cabinet doors.

You can make similar templates for drawer handles as well.

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