Attaching handles to drawers from reverse side of drawer

[strugglingdiyer]

I'm an inexperienced DIYer trying to attach metal handles (which I did not choose myself) to IKEA kitchen drawers. The problem is that the handles don't have holes on the front of the handle that go right through. This means that I can't easily mark the hole from the front of the handle, drill a pilot hole and screw them on.

Instead I will have to drill through from the reverse of the drawer frontage. As the screw holes in the handle are quite small (about 3mm vs the handle length of 125mm) it isn't going to be easy to position the holes accurately when drilling through about 20mm of material from the opposite side.

How do people usually go about this sort of thing? I thought about making a card template of the handle base but even with that it isn't going to be easy to get the holes in the right places. Surely there must be a better way?

 

[Trazor]

Affix some masking tape level with the top of the drawer.
Mark the centre of the drawer front using a pencil and tape rule.
Measure the hole centres of the handles, and mark half of this distance either side of the centreline mark, use a spirit level to keep the holes level.
Mark and drill from the front of the drawer.

Snap on...........nice tools

 

[big-all]

assuming 5mm screw go for 7mm holes

if you have many to do ply and baton with a hole central on the ply at the top edge drilled just under the baton

mark the drawer center or distance from the edge for 2 handles inside at the top edge
slide the jig till the line is central to the hole
use a sharp drill bit onto scrap wood

if you have different drawer height drill holes in the correct depth on the jig for each depth off drawer front
do the same size drawers in groups and tape over the wrong holes to stop you using them

 

[strugglingdiyer]

Affix some masking tape level with the top of the drawer.

Thank you, but I'm not sure I understand the purpose of the tape?

Snap on...........nice tools

Yes, this is part of a set of picks I picked up a few years ago, each with a different shape to the business end. The one in the picture is straight, another has a 90-degree angle, another has a hook, another has a bend in it (difficult to describe) and so on. Very handy for all kinds of things. I was going to use this one as a bradawl to make a starter hole for the screw but as you can see I got stalled...

 

[strugglingdiyer]

assuming 5mm screw go for 7mm holes
if you have many to do ply and baton with a hole central on the ply at the top edge drilled just under the baton

Thanks, that's interesting, though fortunately I only have three to do. Is it standard practice to drill bigger holes than the screw itself? I think the screw holes in the handle are 3mm, so maybe a 4mm or 5mm drill bit?

 

[foxhole]

Simply measure everything and drill from the front.
A spirit level is of no use as there may be slight differences in the individual cabinets.You can drill a 4-5mm hole as this allows minor adjustment when fitting the handles.
Piece of card over drill hole will help prevent damage is you slip with drill and touch the draw front.

 

[vv2806]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxD1VajE_yE

You don't have a template, so use masking tape as suggested in a previous comment. Its purpose is to avoid pencil marks on your drawers.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

pencil marks on your drawers.

Fnaarr fnaarr