The Wood Whisperer is sponsored by Powermatic and Titebond Installing drawer fronts can be a huge pain in the butt. A lot of times you gotta use clamps, or sometimes you can buy a fancy clamp that's built for that purpose or double-stick tape. Something to keep the drawer fronts onto the drawer boxes while you adjust their position and inevitably as you drive your screws and get everything in place and finalized, things move, right? So kind of a pain in the butt. What I'm going to show you today is what I know to be the simplest way to get drawer faces in place. The one thing it does require is that you have the hardware. This is a key component to getting this done. Let me show you how it works. If you have the ability to do so, working with the cabinet on its back can be really helpful. Just bend with the knees. Mill your drawer fronts to approximate size, leaving them just a bit oversized. Back at the cabinet use shims to represent your gaps. Mine are 1/8th of an inch and that's gonna allow you to sneak up on the perfect fit. The good thing about shims is you don't have to worry about numbers. When everything fits, you know it. Now locate and drill the holes for the hardware into each drawer front. With the cabinet upright again, put the drawer fronts and shims back in place. Gravity can play a role in how the drawer boxes sit in the case, so it's best to do the front attachment upright. To attach the fronts temporarily but to lock them in position, drive some short screws through the front and into the case. It's a good idea to use pan head screws here so you don't widen the hardware holes at all. Tapered head screws will work but you gotta be careful how far you drive them in. And no. That's not a beer. It's a yummy, delicious, cream soda, baby! Back in Jersey, we used to go out for pizza every Saturday night. It was actually tomato pie and this place we'd go to had the most delicious cream soda. It paired perfectly with pizza. Ahhh...brings back memories. Anyway, what the heck were we doing? Once the fronts are attached, remove the shims and then pull out the drawers. Be careful not to knock the fronts around, because they could still move if you're not careful. On the inside face of the drawer box, pre drill for a couple of permanent screws. Make sure the screws aren't long enough that they poke through the fronts. That's never fun. Now it's safe to remove the temporary screws. The hardware holes only go through the front and not the box, so extend the holes all the way through. Finally, install the hardware and pop the drawer back into the case. The best part of this process is that the fronts will need absolutely no adjustment and your gaps will be dead on consistent, and we didn't even have to damage the drawer fronts or use any specialized clamps. So obviously, those were inset drawers. What if you have overlay drawers like this? Well fortunately, you can use the same exact technique, but typically what I do is take a piece of plywood, some kind of piece of scrap, put it under the overhang of the toe kick and then start building up from there with your shims. Ultimately, it's the same process, though you just need that little bit of extra support. So hopefully this tip helped and when you're doing your next set of drawer fronts, this will make your life a whole lot easier.
