How do you line up the drawer knobs on a dresser?

[dennis thompson]

I just finished a dresser with 4 drawers. Each drawer had two knobs on it to pull the drawer out. I spent hours measuring & placing the knobs so they would all line up beneath each other & at the same height on the drawer. It came out OK but I'm just wondering if there is an easier way to do this?
Thanks
Dennis

[Donny Lawson]

Dennis, that's the way I done it on my last on.I just measured over about 6" and up to the middle of the drawer. Put a mark,drill a hole and add the knob.
Donny

[Larry Edgerton]

One thing I do when locating knobs is to put a brick in every drawer to make sure they are as they would be when loaded.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

On identical sized drawers where I want the knob spacing to be the same, I take some scrap plywood and make jigs for drilling the holes. It eliminates mistakes in measuring, marking and drilling.

I do the same for doors.

[james gerus]

I have used Sommerfeld's tools for wood "the easy mark jig" for a complete kitchen drawers and doors call 888-228-9268. Jim Gerus

[Dave Gaul]

A piece of peg-board with a scrap wood "fence" can make for a nice drawer handle/knob jig!

[james gerus]

This is the website for above post Jim
http://www.sommerfeldtools.com/

[Mike Wilkins]

Check out the latest issue of Fine Woodworking magazine. There is an article on placing/locating cabinet and furniture hardware that is very good. May find some useful information there.

[Steve Griffin]

I just mounted pulls on a dresser/linen cabinet yesterday with a new tool

Took me 10 minutes to go from deciding where to put them to having all the holes drilled perfectly. I didn't even need a pencil.

Goodbye shop built jigs, measuring twice, combo squares and horsing around.

http://www.amazon.com/True-Position-TP-1934-Basic-Hardware/dp/B003E46SVO

-Steve

[Rod Sheridan]

I drill the hardware holes on the drill press using a fence and stops.

That way they're identical, and I only have to layout one.

regards, Rod.

[Jerome Hanby]

On identical sized drawers where I want the knob spacing to be the same, I take some scrap plywood and make jigs for drilling the holes. It eliminates mistakes in measuring, marking and drilling.

I do the same for doors.

+1, I use jigs wherever possible, I don't trust repeated measurements.

[Jim Rimmer]

On identical sized drawers where I want the knob spacing to be the same, I take some scrap plywood and make jigs for drilling the holes. It eliminates mistakes in measuring, marking and drilling.

I do the same for doors.
That's what I did recently when I added knobs to a knobless kitchen after I repainted the cainets.

[steven c newman]

Actually, on the last dresser I made, I used two combo squares. The first one was set at the distance I wanted from the edge. The second one needed to be variable, because each drawer front was a different height. I'd find the center point of each drawer front's height, and set the second square to that. Drawers were already assembled, so a handdrill was used for the holes. I counter-sink the inside holes just a bit, as well as the outside of the hole. The real challenge would be to line up full drawer handles with the top "half-width" drawer handles.

[Sean Troy]

I just mounted pulls on a dresser/linen cabinet yesterday with a new tool

Took me 10 minutes to go from deciding where to put them to having all the holes drilled perfectly. I didn't even need a pencil.

Goodbye shop built jigs, measuring twice, combo squares and horsing around.

http://www.amazon.com/True-Position-TP-1934-Basic-Hardware/dp/B003E46SVO

-Steve
That's a great tool but crazy expensive. Maybe they can donate one for the tool giveaways? ;)

[Nathan Allen]

Home Depot has a plastic jig for standard sizes in the $5 range.

[Steve Griffin]

That's a great tool but crazy expensive. Maybe they can donate one for the tool giveaways? ;)

Yep, it really hurt to shell out so much for this. It's a very high quality product, and needs to be. But for the rest of my woodworking life I will never make a jig or pencil and tape measure or even set up a drill press for knobs.

You are right though, it's a perfect gift. It's just a delight to use.

-Steve

[Doug Shepard]

I just load the drawers in the carcase and decide whether I'm going for 1 or 2 pulls and figure out center measurement if 1, or inset from end measure if 2. I lightly pencil those marks on the top edge of the top drawer and bottom edge of the bottom drawer and stretch a strip of tape up all the drawers from top to bottom roughly centered on those marks. Then I do a dark pencil line up the tape using a straightedge lined up on the top and bottom marks. To get the height on each drawer I lay the straightedge diagonally on the drawer corners and pencil lines onto the tape where the SE crosses the vertical line. Then I grab my birdcage awl to mark the drill center points and start drilling.

[Tom Ewell]

This jig (http://www.amazon.com/Euro-Limited-EURO-HANDLE-IT/dp/B001E0D66A/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1286595318&sr=8-3-fkmr2) works well, fast setup, durable and works for almost all situations I've run across. It flips over to go left or right.

I normally just use the jig to locate the centers with a tap of a turning bit then finish the bore "freehand" while holding (or clamping) a backer board to prevent blowout inside the door or drawer.

[keith micinski]

I just mounted pulls on a dresser/linen cabinet yesterday with a new tool

Took me 10 minutes to go from deciding where to put them to having all the holes drilled perfectly. I didn't even need a pencil.

Goodbye shop built jigs, measuring twice, combo squares and horsing around.

http://www.amazon.com/True-Position-TP-1934-Basic-Hardware/dp/B003E46SVO

-Steve

Uh, for that much money that thing should drill and mount the hardware on its own. I seriously thought for 20 or 25 bucks that would be kind of a waste of money since a scrap piece of wood is free but it would be handy to have. I almost did a spit take all over my computer when the price came up.

[Steve Griffin]

Uh, for that much money that thing should drill and mount the hardware on its own. I seriously thought for 20 or 25 bucks that would be kind of a waste of money since a scrap piece of wood is free but it would be handy to have. I almost did a spit take all over my computer when the price came up.

Definitely not as cheap as a block of wood.

It's only for people who value their time.

Roughly speaking, it cuts knob/pull time in half. I charge 1/10 hour per knob for my business, or $4 each. It will take 80 knobs to pay for itself. If it lasts 10 years, I need to do at least 8 knobs per year, which even in this economy seems likely.



-Steve

[Mike Harrison]

I do the same thing Ken Fitzgerald does. Jigs are terrific time savers and make multiple parts easily identical.

[Steve Griffin]

The last kitchen and vanity job I did had door knobs in 3 different positions (Tall doors, upper doors etc) and drawers with 8 different heights and two different widths of pulls. Now, keeping in mind I only have 30 years woodworking experience so I'm pretty slow at building good jigs, I ended up opting for the combo square/pencil mark method.

Still took me two hours, and I almost made a mistake which I caught just in time...

Thats when I decided to buy the best possible layout jig available.

Frankly, it's much more than just the money/time equation. It's a pleasure to use a well designed tool which makes your work easier. Sort of like some guys who enjoy a finely tuned hand plane, or a festytool, or a workbench which looks like it should be in a church.

-Steve

[bennie blackwell]

Check out the latest issue of Fine Woodworking magazine. There is an article on placing/locating cabinet and furniture hardware that is very good. May find some useful information there.

A date/title/author/issue of Fine Woodworking would have been helpful.

[David Eisenhauer]

Without getting into the "shop made" or "store bought" jig discussion, I always slap a jig up to a corner of the drawer (indexing off the top and a side, either right or left side all the same) and drill. Some of my shop made jigs have multiple holes in then to accommodate different drawer widths (heights remain the same) within the same kitchen/dresser/etc, but I temporarily tape over the unwanted holes and only leave the one I want exposed for use. There is no way I'd not screw something up if I used a tape/squares/ruler/etc and I have been adding knobs to drawers for 30 years also.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

A date/title/author/issue of Fine Woodworking would have been helpful.

Bennie.....this is a 4 year old article but...... Issue 215 December 2010......the article starts on page 70....

[James Zhu]

Now, keeping in mind I only have 30 years woodworking experience so I'm pretty slow at building good jigs, I ended up opting for the combo square/pencil mark method.

-Steve

Is this a typo? Did you mean 3 years woodworking experience? :)