Don't be too negative, whenever I've done this, the holes & therefore the screws have enough wiggle room to get things sorted. Use the template to mark for the holes then drill each door, by the time you've finished you'll be quite good! :-)
Eek! error & cost potential high.....
Reading the instructions for fitting the handles to kitchen cupboards they say "use a 5mm flat tipped drill".
I can find flat wood bits but I'm pretty sure that isn't what they mean.
Looking at
I would guess that the spur point bit is the most likely to drill an accurate hole for fixing the handle, but would like to be sure.
Can someone confirm, pretty please?
Cheers
Dave R
Dunno, but there *are* metal flat tipped drill bits made for drilling out spot welded panels on cars. In your case that would seem a bit OTT though.
That's what I'd use for getting full diameter to a sufficient depth without going through the other side. But you need a fixed stop on the drill bit or a very steady hand and a marker.
Is this chipboard? I've never seen anyone not put holes in the right place to start with. Brian
That is what I use for drilling through laminated board, as used in kitchen furniture. Drill from one side until the point just breaks through. That takes a very steady hand or a drill stop. Then use the hole to guide where to place the drill to finish off from the other side. That way, the outer cutters make a clean hole through the laminate, without breaking through from the wrong side.
I would think the bottom of the hole ideally needs to be flat not conical.
Yup, use a spur point.
Also, make a template: Bit of scrap wood with two properly spaced holes, at right angles, shaped to position all the handles at the right spot relative to the front. This serves two purposes: 1 all the holes in the right place, and 2 drilling through a template leads to less chipping.
And check so the handle doesn't end up on the hinge side of the door:-)
Thomas Prufer
Thanks to all.
To be clear the handle requires a hole all the way through the drawer or door front. The screw/bolt then goes from the inside through the hoe and screws into the body of the handle.
To avoid splintering you are advised to have a piece of scrap clamped to the inside of the drawer front to allow you to drill all the way through without splintering.
Cheers
Dave R
Thanks. I like the idea of a template, I wasn't looking forward to getting all the holes in an identical place on all the drawers.
So; drilling through from the front/outside, I have a template to position the drill and a piece of waste wood at the back to prevent splintering.
Only remaining issue is that I think I put all my scrap wood through the log burner during the last tidy up.
Cheers
Dave R
Yes -- and the bolt head and the handle itself will hide any minor fraying. Washers under the bolt head can be used to hide any mishaps, er, "to provide extra strength", of course.
Always the way!
Thomas Prufer
Accurately mark up one drawer front and drill. Then use this first drawer front as the template.
Ideally use a drill stand to get the holes at 90 degrees to the drawer surface or be very careful with a hand held drill. If the holes in your template are not at 90 degrees the spacing will be incorrect at the back of the drawer front. You should turn the template over and drill from the back side of the first drawer. The drill will follow the original path and end up with the correct spacing at the front of the second drawer front.
The problem with holes that are not 90 degrees to the drawer front and with handles that have a machine screw fixing is that the bolts will be presented at an angle and not start because the male/female thread are not aligned and/or not fully tighten.
Or stack several drawer fronts on top of each other and drill them all in one go. Use blocks of wood to align the drawer fronts ontop of each other and clamp them. You really will need to get the drill at
90 degrees to the work in two planes though.Or get one of these:
first
Measure twice (thrice...), cut once. B-)
Wouldn't do it without being sure that the drill will be at 90 deg to the fronts. Plenty of potential for c*ck ups repositioning a template for each front.
The Wolfcraft "mobile drill stand" is quite good. Bought to drill a
1" hole the long way through a 6" x 4" gate hinge post of an already constucted gate. Doesn't get a lot of use, if the work will fit under the drill press that's better, but handy to stop a drill "wandering", as you can get the drill position set, start the drill up to full cutting speed and slowly advance it into the work.
Unfortunately I am following the written instructions which tell you to fix the handles as the last action after everything else has been done. [To ensure that you can return the drawer fronts up until the last possible moment. Presumably to guard against the "I've changed my mind about the colour!" moment as long as possible.]
So the drawers are fully assembled and in situ. I don't fancy taking all the fronts off again unless I have to. The release mechanism is counter intuitive.
I could use a drill stand to drill out the holes in the template to make sure that they are at right angles to the surface.
I think rather than drilling the first drawer front the best way for me is to construct a template to do all the drawer handles. I just(!) need to make sure that the holes are parallel to the edge of the template then mark up the centre of the template to match the centre of the drawer,
Hours of innocent fun ahead.
Cheers
Dave R
The kitchen has the same handles, so I could use one drawer front as a template for the template, so to speak.
Cheers
Dave R
If you have one, yes.
OTOH, I think most handles are 4mm bolt anyway, so you may be drilling with 1 mm margin anyway.
Yes. The cabinetmakers round the corner here used a rechargeable drill freehand, and made out fine.
More so if you take the fronts off. Handles at the bottom, at the hinge side, ... :-)
Also because you can adjust the drawers to get an even gap round the edge, and running bolts through front and drawer sometimes fixes the two together firmly.
Thomas Prufer
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