This article is an attempt to provide detailed instructions for those who decide to independently drill holes for handles and then install them on a furniture façade.
Chief technologist of furniture production Timur Denisov will tell you step by step how to drill and install handles on a swing door and on the front of a drawer yourself.
Marking, drilling and installing furniture handles on a swing facade
1 Marking the facade for furniture handles
Required tools:
- metal ruler;
- construction tape;
- square;
- a simple soft pencil or marker.
Marking stages:
- put the facade on flat surface;
- mark from the edge 50 mm parallel to the future location of the handle;
- using a square we draw a straight line;
- mark again 50 mm from the top of the facade;
- draw a straight line perpendicular to the previous one;
- From the resulting point (at which both lines intersect) we measure a distance equal to the center-to-center size of the furniture handle.
Important! Before marking the place for drilling holes on the facade, measure the center distance on the handle itself. Most common distance: 64; 96; 128 mm.
2 Drilling holes
Where the lines intersect, carefully drill through holes for handles.
Please note that the drill must be sharp and the drilling itself must be done slowly so as not to tear out particles of the laminate.
This is how it should look - the markings and drilled holes are clearly visible in the photo.
3 Installing a furniture handle on a swing facade
Even a novice amateur can handle this. Insert the screws into the prepared holes, place a furniture handle on them and screw them on.
If after these steps the handle dangles, it means the screw is longer than necessary. In this case, it is advisable to replace the screw or place a special seal under its head.
Marking, drilling and installing the handle on the front of the drawer
The principle of marking and drilling remains the same as in the considered instructions for swing facades.
The main nuance is the difference in installing (screwing) the furniture handle to the retractable facade.
The design of a drawer assumes the presence of two walls through which the screw of the furniture handle must pass.
When deciding to install handles on your furniture yourself, make sure you have long screws in advance. Ideally, their size should be equal to two thicknesses of chipboard plus 4...5 mm.
That's all!
As you can see, it’s not so scary and absolutely not difficult to mark, drill and screw furniture handles to the facades. The main thing is to be attentive and strictly follow the instructions.
Always yours, Timur Denisov
(modena select=18, Custom kitchens)
FURNITURE CATALOG: All cabinet furniture in Moscow and the Moscow region
This article will help you figure out how to embed a latch handle into a door leaf. By adhering to the work algorithm described in the article, you can easily perform this operation yourself, with a minimum set of tools and very quickly.
No door can do without a handle. The most popular type of handles for interior doors today is the latch handle.
The design of handles of this type is such that, regardless of appearance, they are all installed in the door leaf in the same way. This article will tell you how to do it yourself.
Latch handle design
The handle itself, that is, the visible part of it, can look completely different. So:
or like this:
All these latch handles essentially consist of two parts - the handle itself:
and the latch mechanism:
Both parts of the latch handle require separate insertion into the door leaf.
Latch handles come without a latch - a door with such handles cannot be locked from the inside, with a latch - an additional turning mechanism installed on the handle and allowing you to lock the door from the inside, and a key - on one side of the handle there is a key holder that allows you to lock the door from the outside, on the other there is a latch . All handles have design differences that do not in any way affect the insertion process. Interior(latch) is also the same, that is, it cuts in the same way for all types of latch handles.
So let's get started.
Necessary tool
To make the process of installing the latch handle as easy as possible, you will need:
- Hand drill or screwdriver.
- Wood crown with a diameter of 50 mm.
- Wood drill with a diameter of 23-24 mm.
- Chisel.
- Hammer.
- Pencil.
The crown and drill can be purchased separately, or in the form of a set, which is called “Kit for inserting latch handles.”
Installing the latch handle
1. We begin the installation process by marking the door leaf for drilling. The marking diagram, as a rule, comes complete with the handle.
If there is no diagram, you can mark it manually. To do this, place a mark at a distance of 60 mm from the edge of the door.
2. On the side edge of the door, along the center marking line, mark the center for drilling.
3. Using a chisel, hollow out a three-millimeter recess under the face plate of the latch. It makes sense to first mark the center with an awl so that you don’t have to mark it again.
4. Using a crown with a diameter of 50 mm, drill a through hole. It is better to do this on both sides of the door to avoid damage to the door covering at the exit of the crown when drilling.
5. As a result, we get the following hole:
6. Move on to the side edge. Using a wood drill with a diameter of 23-24 mm, drill a hole for the latch into the marked center. You shouldn’t make it too deep, otherwise you risk drilling through the door all the way to the panel.
7. We now have two holes.
8. Install a latch in the side hole and screw it with self-tapping screws.
9. Remove the upper part of the handle. To do this, look for a hole on the side.
Using the included key or any other thin flat object:
press the tongue inside the hole:
and remove the handle itself:
10. Remove the decorative trim and thereby open the mounting holes.
11. Insert the outer half of the handle.
12. Insert the inner half. We tighten both with the screws included in the kit.
13. We put on the decorative trim and the handle body. Don't forget to press the inner tongue with the key.
14. When closed door We mark the place where the latch tongue of the door jamb touches, and then we hollow out a recess for the latch tongue in the resulting place.
15. Insert a decorative plastic pocket.
16. Screw on the metal plate.
17. The handle is installed.
If you don’t have a drill, then all the holes can be made using a suitable chisel, however, in this case, installing the handle will require more serious repair and construction skills and may turn out to be an overwhelming task for an untrained person.
If you purchased a branded kitchen set in a store, then you are unlikely to need to replace the handles, at least at first. But perhaps you have decided to assemble such a structure yourself, then handles for kitchen fronts and their installation will be of extreme interest to you.
The variety of pens is amazing
There are many handles, but there is only one facade
Handle selection
Kitchen fronts with comfortable large handles
- We should not forget that handles for kitchen facades are not so much a decorative thing as a functional one, and the condition of the handle itself may also depend on its choice.
This can be confirmed by any housewife who has to open and close cabinet doors many times a day.
- In order to frequently open the cabinet, the handle must not only be comfortable - it must be a single whole with the facade so as not to come off it (the price of the handle in this case does not matter at all).
Kitchen handle decor
Classic kitchens with brace arms
And if the façade panel is made of glass, then a poorly held handle can cause the door to crack and even cause injury (glass cuts).
Advice. As has already been noted, functionality comes first for kitchen handles, so when choosing them, it is better to abandon decorative small devices that are held on by a single screw.
The advantage of large handles, such as in the photo above, for kitchen fronts is that they are fixed to the panel in several places.
Kitchen handles in modern design
Modern orange kitchen with comfortable handles
Installation of handles
- Making templates for marking. When installing handles on kitchen facades with your own hands, it would be nice to make templates for marking.
Keep in mind that there are a lot of doors and cabinets, and you will need to maintain symmetry during installation, otherwise, even if the handles are very beautiful, all your work will look clumsy.
When you have a template, you can install handles on all facades at once, even before hanging them.
In addition, using a template, hinges are also installed on the doors, where every millimeter of distance is extremely important.
- Take a piece of plywood or OSB. Of course, it is not necessary to make a template with a ruler and a rod; you can simply use a piece of plywood or OSB with 90⁰ angles and make holes there in the right places.
In the future, you will simply need to attach this template to the edge of the facade and drill it without preliminary marking. - Adjusting the puck. To do this, you need to adjust a washer under the bolt on the back side so that it does not push through the array and the handle does not become loose.
Also, a washer is required for glass panels so that the load from the fastening is distributed over a larger area, which will reduce the risk of cracking.
Accessories for kitchen facades in the Art Nouveau style
Advice. Installing handles on kitchen fronts involves drilling the panel, and if it is made of solid natural wood or MDF, the back side can break off, especially if you need to make a hole of a large diameter.
To prevent this from happening, you can use a step or core drill, or make the sharpening angle of the conical drill sharper and drill without much pressure.If we use some type of cutting drills to install handles on kitchen facades made of natural wood or MDF, and everything is clear here, then what about glass?
No instructions will help you with this, because any glass is a fragile material to a certain degree. physical activity(some more, some less).
- We use special drills. For this, you can use special drills with diamond coating on the working part, that is, on the tip.
When drilling a hole, it is very important to place the glass on a level base and sand is best for this purpose.
- Burning with liquid tin. There is another way to make a hole in a glass panel for a handle, this is burning with liquid tin.
The method is fail-safe, with a 100% guarantee that the glass will not crack. To do this you will need regular sifted sand and soldering tin.
- Marking the façade panel and in the place where you need to make a hole, pour 20-30g of sand. Then, using some kind of rod (pencil, wire), make a funnel of the required diameter in the sand at the drilling point and pour molten tin into it.
After a few seconds, the solder will cool down, and you can shake off the sand and remove the frozen mass along with the glass stopper - the hole is ready.
And here is the result
Conclusion
In principle, installing a handle on a kitchen facade is not difficult, at least not much more difficult than choosing it. In addition, you can watch the installation video, which is on this page.
Designer kitchen handles
Gallery
When assembling cabinet furniture, the design of which includes hinged facades or pull-out shelves, it is often necessary to install furniture handles. Today, the market offers a huge variety of pens in size, shape, design, color and material. But all the variety of handles has one thing in common - the type of attachment to the facade. The main applications are handles with one- and two-point fastening. Such handles are attached to the facade using screws installed in drilled holes on the facade. There are also handles that are attached to the end of the facade, and even built-in (mortise) handles. To attach this type of handles, grooves on the facades must be milled.
Let's talk about the simplest handles with one- and two-point fastening that are accessible to home craftsmen. Handles with single-point fastening can be different in shape and design - mushroom-shaped (or so-called button handles) or so-called earring handles. Mostly such handles can be found on old furniture. Handles with two-point fastening, also often called a handle-bracket, also have a huge variety. Installation of these types of handles requires one thing - drilling holes on the facade. This means that installation errors like those of a sapper are deplorable))). It’s very disappointing to see a crookedly installed handle on a brand new façade. And if the facades are arranged in a row, then a crookedly screwed handle will look like a “White Crow” and spoil the whole look. Reinstalling such a handle means drilling a new hole.
So before drilling a hole for the handle, you need to quite accurately mark the center of the holes. When installing handle brackets, it is also important not to forget about the center-to-center distance. It’s understandable when professional furniture makers, who manufacture furniture on a regular basis, have special conductors or, in general, everything is done on CNC machines.
But at home, when handles are not installed every day, making devices is not entirely advisable. I will tell you about my method of how to quickly but efficiently mark the center of the holes. A simpler method can be used, but in my case the difficulty was due to the fact that the markings were carried out on painted facades that had rounded edges on all sides. You can’t easily apply a ruler to such edges))). To do this, we need a ruler of sufficient length, a corner, a T-shaped ruler (or another corner), a tape measure and a pencil. And also two drills with drills - centering and main. Two drills are generally for convenience, so as not to rearrange the drills every time, so you can get by with one.
Let's start with mathematics. We measure the total width of the facade with a tape measure. We measure if we do not know the center-to-center distance of the furniture handle. In general, this is a simple formula:
where A is the distance from the edge of the facade to the center of the hole for the handle;
L is the width of the façade;
M is the center-to-center distance of the furniture handle.
Let's start marking. First, use the square scale to measure the distance horizontal line markings from the edge of the facade.
Then we apply a simple ruler, basing it along the crossbar of the T-shaped ruler (since the edges of the facades have radii) and measure the distance “A”, calculated by the formula (see above).
This way we mark the center of the first hole. We measure the second hole in the same way, only on the other side. Instead of a T-shaped and simple ruler, it was possible to get by with a second square of sufficient length. But I didn’t have a second one, so I had to get out of it this way). If you need to prepare several identical facades for drilling, then (in my case) I marked the distance “A” with a pencil and for further marking I used only a square and a T-shaped ruler.
But we are not in a hurry to drill, first, as the old saying goes: “Measure 7 times and cut once,” apply a pen and make sure that the resulting markings exactly match the holes in the pen.
Once convinced, we begin to drill. For precise drilling, pre-drill centering holes.
Yes, I would like to point out the following:
- It is better not to neglect the centering drill; it will allow you to more accurately direct a drill of a larger diameter in the desired direction;
- Also, the centering hole, making it easier for a large drill to enter, reduces the likelihood of chips and cracks. Moreover, in my case, the facades are painted MDF and the paint layer is very fragile and is afraid of sharp impacts. last photo it is clear that the holes turned out smooth and “clean”;
- when drilling, it is better to use a sharp (well-sharpened or new) drill;
- Choose a drill with a diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the mounting screw so that the screw fits freely into the hole. Otherwise, if the screw fits tightly into the hole, you risk “lifting” the edges of the hole with the thread of the screw. Secondly, a small gap will allow you to select the error in the spatial location of the drilled holes (I’m talking about fractions of a millimeter, not perceptible to the eye, but sometimes perceptible during installation). But the drill should not be too large in diameter so that the handle fits into place as accurately as possible.
- To avoid chipping on the reverse side, at the exit of the drill, you need to drill on the substrate, pressing the façade tightly against it;
- In order to eliminate the appearance of defects, it is better to start drilling from the outside of the facade.
- In one of the photos you can see that there is tape wrapped around the drill. The adhesive tape serves as a beacon so as not to drill through the facade and the substrate and not spoil the floor))). I do not recommend using a drill stop washer, because... When drilling, you run the risk of hitting the washer against the facade and leaving round scratches around the hole on the facade for a long memory.
A kitchen set assembled with your own hands, and this is not so difficult to do, requires the installation of handles on the kitchen facades. It would seem that there is nothing complicated here, drill holes and screw the fittings onto the screws. But, as practice shows, very often screwed handles begin to interfere with the full opening of furniture doors, this is especially noticeable on corner facades, or blocking of neighboring cabinets or cabinets occurs. Therefore, before installing the handles, you need to try them on.
By the way, it should be noted that handles in the form of rails or brackets can be positioned in different ways: all horizontally, all vertically, or combine the installation. So, if you are ready to install handles yourself, then prepare the following tools:
- Drill with a drill 4 or 5 mm in diameter.
- Pencil and ruler (wooden or metal).
- Square.
- Screwdriver.
It will be very convenient if you first make a template from cardboard with precisely drilled holes for fastening. That is, by applying it to the facades of the kitchen set, you can avoid long operations associated with setting the fit dimensions of each handle.
Setting dimensions and drilling the façade
Let's start by installing handles on the doors of the kitchen unit.
- The door is placed on a flat surface, let it be a table.
- In the corner where it is necessary to install the handle itself, a distance of 5 cm is set aside from one and the second edges.
- Two mutually perpendicular lines are drawn through the points. Their intersection point is the place of the first fastener. In order for the lines to turn out to be mutually perpendicular, it is necessary to use a square to draw them, applying it to the edges of the door.
- Now you need to accurately measure the distance between the mounting holes on the handle itself.
- This value is transferred to the door from the point of intersection of the two lines. If the fitting element will be installed vertically, then the displacement must be carried out downwards, if horizontally, then to the side. The second location for fastening the fittings is indicated. In this way, the exact location of the handles on the facades is determined.
- Now we need to drill. This operation is performed from the front side of the facade. The thing is that when the drill comes out of the material, it may delaminate and chips may appear along the edges. And although they will be closed with the fittings themselves, there is always the possibility of a large chip or crack appearing. Of course, this all depends on the quality of the material used and the sharpness of the drill used. Therefore, when drilling, be careful and carry out this operation carefully.
- So, two mounting holes are drilled, now you need to insert two mounting screws from the back side. Install the handle on the front side and attach it to the facade, screwing in the screws with a screwdriver. If it is not pressed tightly against the door and is loose, then you will have to remove it, put washers under the heads of the screws, and put the fastening back on.
Before screwing on the handles, it is necessary to clean all surfaces from dust and particles of the material from which the facades were made. So, the handles are installed, you can hang the facades on the hinges.
Installation on drawer fronts
In principle, this is the same process associated with drilling. The only thing that distinguishes them is the dimensions, which are marked in the center of the drawer front. You must first determine the middle of the facade, that is, by dividing its length in half. And then put 5 cm down from the top edge. This will be the installation center. Now from this point in different directions you need to set aside half the distance between the mounting holes. Let's add that the handles on the drawer fronts are installed horizontally.
Another point to pay attention to is the double wall of the front side. That is, the outer panel is the facade, the inner part is the frame. It is this double wall that will have to be drilled. In this case, you will also have to take into account the fact that to fasten the handle it is necessary to use a screw of a longer length than the standard one. The length of the screw will have to be chosen taking into account the thickness of the two panels of the material used, plus 4-5 mm. And again, the screwed handle should not dangle.
Conclusion on the topic
Since the facades of kitchen units are different, the drilling process must be carried out, taking into account the material from which they were made. For example, glass facades must be drilled with diamond-coated drills. It’s not always easy to do this yourself, so don’t take risks, call a specialist. By the way, under the handles and under the screw head on glass facades it is necessary to install gaskets that will soften the pressure of metal products.
Otherwise, this is a fairly simple process. Here it is important to accurately establish the landing site, make precise markings and carefully drill the mounting holes. There is no need to rush, especially when making holes. You simply won't have a second chance.