cabinet door and drawer drilling jig

[chips ahoy]

I have seen many times people have made jigs for drilling accurate holes for door and drawer handles for kitchen cabinets. Being an old fart I don't remember very well any more. Anyone have a plan for such a jig? Thanks.

Mel

[MstrCarpenter]

I make mine as needed using a couple pc.s of 1 x 3 x about 10" long; carefully layout and drill holes as needed as straight as possible. Test fit the handle and verify its correct, then using the first as a guide, drill the second one. add 1/4 ply. about 2" wide to one side and one end. Clamp the jig to the door face with a scrap on the back to protect the finish and back up the holes, then drill.

It's a similar jig for drawers but the 1x needs to be about 6" wide. I find it is well worth the time to drill the hole(s) exactly centered on the jig (equidistant from each edge). This way I don't have to draw centerlines on the drawer, which would be covered by the jig anyway, I just hold the jig flush with one side and measure the space remaining to the other side, then clamp the jig with half of that measurement on both (or either) sides.

Placement is personal preference; but I follow a few rules. The hardware should not be closer to the bottom of the door (for uppers) than the width of the rail. Same for the lowers (except possibly for cathedral doors which are rarely on lowers). For drawers, only the top drawer should have hardware centered vertically. On lower drawers, the hardware should be slightly (1/4" - 3/8") higher than center; increasing that amount for each descending drawer. The reasoning for this is that for anyone looking at the cabinets from less than ten feet away, hardware centered vertically on lower drawers will actually appear too low.

[chips ahoy]

Thank you sir.

Mel