Centering Drawer Pull without measuring

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/center-drawer-pull-26593.html

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Thanks, JustJoe, but that is not exactly what I’m looking for. What I’m looking for is a method where you draw four diagonal lines (I think) and the intersection of the lines gives you the exact places to drill the holes. It does not involve measuring from the center of the drawer front.

-- "Man is the only animal which devours his own, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor." ~Thomas Jefferson

I have mentioned a “no math” method a few times on LJ’s. Here is a link…
http://lumberjocks.com/pintodeluxe/blog/34346

Basically, if your pulls are 3” on center make a mark 3” in from each corner. Then connect a corner with a mark. Continue connecting the dots until you have 4 lines drawn. Where the lines intersect marks the spot to drill the holes. I actually do the drawing on a plywood jig, then use the jig to drill the holes.

-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush

That’s it. Thank you.

-- "Man is the only animal which devours his own, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor." ~Thomas Jefferson

Remember to account for an offset if the threads are not centered on the pulls. I use bail pulls for arts and crafts furniture, and the threads in the pulls are often set 1/2” above the centerline of the pull.

Good luck.

-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush

One can also cut off a couple of 10/32 machine screws and
file them to points. Put them in your pull. Then draw
a single line down the center or of the drawer or pair of
layout line and press the pull into the wood to mark the
drilling locations. Assisted “eyeballing”, basically.

If you’re going to measure to draw lines, aren’t you still measuring?

I had the name wrong, it is “no math” not “no measure.” But it is really quick, partially because the measuring is so simple and completely accurate. Seems to me to be the fastest method for dead on accuracy.

-- "Man is the only animal which devours his own, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor." ~Thomas Jefferson

That method is for locating one pull, not two right?

(I guess drawing a midline, and then doing it twice; once for each half would work.)

-- Steve in Richmond, VA

It is for locating two. Check out the link from PintoDeluxe above, and he has a picture of what it looks like. The second diagonal is drawn using the center-to-center measurement from the pull. As soon as I read his post, I went out and had the drill hole locations in about 60 seconds. You don’t have to draw the whole lines, just little short lines near the center of the board.

-- "Man is the only animal which devours his own, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor." ~Thomas Jefferson

try makeing a jig it works for me.

Drilled the holes today. Perfect. So easy almost feels like cheating.

-- "Man is the only animal which devours his own, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor." ~Thomas Jefferson

I did my whole house with a couple of jigs that I made from 1/4” ply. Set the drill centers on the jig, placed the jig on the drawers/doors (raised molding doors and drawer fronts), marked and drilled. Easy!
Bill

-- bill@magraphics.us

I have this jig, I’ve used it many times and it has paid for itself.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=5877&site=ROCKLER

BJ

While there are simplistic methodologies for laying out the holes for drawer pulls, NOWHERE, absolutely NOWHERE does the axiom of measure twice, drill once apply.

You have a finished surface, you’re drilling a hole in it, and once that drill bit hits it you are past the point of no return.

Here you use green tape, mark your holes. dubble check your measurements, hold up your pulls to make sure hole centres look good, Step back, scope it out. Only when you are confident drill yer holes. And some of them funky handles don’t have consistent bot holes.

Once watched a cabinet installer with years of experience bore a whole ditchen of doors in the wrong place, but he sure was fast doing it. Too much time effort and too much$$ at risk to be anything but absolutely confident and dubble or triple check the measuremts. Cliient just had Fridge door pulls bored in the worng location (wrong size handles on site, nobody checked specs) 2500$ mistake to repair (not by me! thanks be!)

Have I ever bored wrong holes, you bet, and I kicked my butt and learned the lesson.

I’ll look for quick mehtods to get me to that first layout, but from then on it’s a “step back” and dubble check

My install kit includes several jigs, and even when they are used, they get dubble checked. I cannot afford FU’s

Pye wrote about the work of craftsmanship as being the work of risk, and in the realm of cabinetmaking, where appearance is paramount, the finishes, handles etc become the end point for the client. Such a simple task as boring holes for handles, thus becomes the be-all and end all for the client, and if it’s a FU, the costs to remediate easily represent any profit you might have made, . Drilling holes for pulls is “bottom line” time, no distractions allowed…..

Cowtown Eruc
And that’s all I gotta say about that.

-- Real_cowtown_eric