Drawer Pull Cutouts! Easy Router Technique!

I have been slowly but surely working on upgrading my shop to make it looks crisp, clean, and organized. One thing that has ALWAYS bugged me was drawer pulls. They always stick out, catch clothing, fill with spider webs, cost MONEY...UHG!

So, the idea of making simple cutouts on a drawer really appealed to me. They are cheap (free) , look sleek, and won't catch clothing or aprons when working in the shop. Of course, the only downside is making more than one drawer pull can be a little bit time consuming...but have no fear!! That's why I designed this awesome jig to do it for you!

Let's get started!

(If you want to build the entire rolling cabinet set, I made an instructables about it here)

Supplies!

• Combination Square
• 5/8" forstner bit
• 1/2" template router bit
• Toggle Clamps
• Glue
• Punch
• Sanding Spindles

Tools that might come in handy:

• Drill press
• Band saw
• Router
• Router Table
• Air nailer

With tools in hand, I sketched out the shape of the handle I wanted. This is a really important step because I wanted to make sure that the drawer pull wasn't too small or too large...basically, I wanted the Goldilocks of drawer pull cutouts template jigs!

I used a combination square to find the center point of what would be the inside corners of the drawer pull, and then use a punch to mark the hole location. (FYI, I never used to use a punch, but once I bought one, I started using it every single time I needed to drill a hole. Game Changer!)

Quick tip here: Be sure to plan on using a drill bit that is LARGER in diameter than the router bit you want to use for cutting out the drawer pulls. Using a larger drill bit means that the contact area of the router bit when cutting the radius is less, and therefore, won't burn the wood!!

Once I had the hole locations for my inside radius marked out, I went over to the drill press and used a 5/8" forstner bit to drill out the holes. If you don't have a drill press, you can always use a hand drill for this step.

Once the holes were drilled, I used my combination square to mark exactly where I wanted the edges of the drawer pull cutout to be. The reason I waited until after I drilled the holes was so that I could ensure that my layout lines were tangent to the holes I drilled.

If I had done this step before, and messed up my hole locations slightly, my lines would not be where I wanted them. This is one of those "measure twice, cut once" scenarios. Sorta...

I used a bandsaw to cut out the waste material, carefully following my lines. And then jumped back over to the drill press to use these cool little sanding spindles to sand off the saw marks.

I then glued and nailed a some scrap plywood to the edge of the template. This fence will become the reference guide for the drawer face so that the top edge of the drawer is always flush with the jig.

I also mounted some toggle clamps to the template. If you only needed to do one drawer front at a time, you could use some double stick tape to hold it in place....but these toggle clamps are super handy to have around the shop - so I suggest just picking up a few.

Alright, now let's to cut some drawer pulls!!

FINALLY!

To make the drawer pull cutout, I took the drawer face and placed it on the jig, with the top edge of the drawer face up against my guide. I then double checked that the drawer face was centered and clamped it into place.

Optional Step: I then traced the cutout using my handy dandy pencil, unclamped everything, and used the bandsaw to cutout the waste from the drawer front. This isn't totally necessary, but significantly reduces the amount of dust and debris generated from this operation.

Once I finished cutting out the waste, I clamped the drawer face back onto the jig and used a 1/2" router template bit (and my makeshift router table) to copy the template cutout shape onto the drawer face! Be sure to work left to right, this will help make sure you get a nice clean cut.

Lastly, since my template bit was super short, and couldn't each high enough to go past the template AND the drawer face, I took the face off of the jig and repeated that last operation.

Now I can make as many drawer pull cutouts as my little heart desires! This jig is definitely going to get a lot of use as I build more and more shop furniture to organize my woodshop.

If you want to check out a quick video of this whole operation, check out this link:

https://youtu.be/-Leg3R6wXlc

Thank you so much for hanging out with me today, now lets go make something awesome!!

If you want to check out more project, be sure to head over to my YouTube channel or my Instagram page! I post lots of cool stuff and wouldn't want you to miss it!