Drawer pulls

The drawer pulls we had built for us don't have an edge to hide any mistakes made when routing the holes they are placed in. It was very important to me that no mistakes be made since I was not going to build a whole new drawer. I also thought attempting to patch any mistake would not be acceptable. A custom form or a template was necessary to meet my goals.


My good friend Chris, who is an excellent craftsmen and has been taking classes at Red Rocks for many years, suggested I use a method he'd learned while in class. He said the method was used when a joint was required to fit exactly with another non-standard joint. The method involves Bondo and Petroleum Jelly.





To create the form/template, coat the object with Petroleum Jelly, mix the Bondo, place it around the object, and let it dry. The Petroleum Jelly prevents the Bondo from bonding with the object. It worked quite well for this project. Here's a picture of the template created by the hardened Bondo.



Removing the drawer pull from the hardened Bondo was quite easy. I drilled a hole in the back of the plywood and pushed the drawer pull out from behind. I didn't have to worry about damaging the drawer pull since it is made out of some hard metal.


Using a 1/2" bearing flush router bit, I created the custom templates I would use when routing the cabinet drawers.


Here's a picture of the front of a template with a drawer pull inside.

Here's a picture of the back a drawer pull inside the plywood template. Quite a nice fit!

After removing the hardened Bondo from the plywood with a hammer and sandpaper, I then routed the drawer faces using the three templates. It is difficult to make that first cut into something you've worked so long and hard on!


Here's an up close picture of the finished product. I'm really pleased how it turned out.


All three drawer pulls installed with drawers in the cabinet.



The next task for this project is the drawer front for the bottom drawer. My friend Chris will be helping me. I'll start this after main doors are installed. Thankfully that isn't my job.