TANYO Cabinet Hardware Jig

How to use the cabinet hardware jig

Start with the hardware itself. Measure the centre-to-centre distance between the screws on one of your pulls — 3 in, 96 mm, 128 mm or 160 mm are the common sizes — and set the jig's slider to that spacing. Then set the edge stop for the distance from the edge of the cabinet door or drawer front. Once both are locked, the jig holds every measurement for you, so there is no tape, no pencil marks and no square on each door.

Clamp the jig to the panel, put a piece of scrap wood behind the drilling location to stop breakout, and drill straight through the metal drill guide with a sharp bit. Fit the first handle and check that the screws line up before you move on to the rest of the kitchen.

Accurate placement on doors and drawers

• Doors: reference the opening edge and drill the same distance from the bottom or top corner on every door.
• Drawers: use the centre scale to put pulls in the exact middle of each drawer front, even when drawer widths differ.
• Knobs: a single hole at the same position on every door — the jig makes it repeatable.
• Pairs of pulls on wide drawers: set the spacing once and flip the jig for the second handle.

Why precision matters when you install cabinet hardware

A pull that sits 1/16 in off its neighbour is easy to see across a row of cabinets, and a wrong hole in a finished door is hard to hide. A hardware jig turns the whole job into the same few steps repeated: set, clamp, drill, fit. The result is cabinet hardware that lines up from the first door to the last, which is why installers and DIY kitchen refits both use one.

The TANYO jig is designed in thickened aluminium alloy, so it stays flat and accurate year after year; the drill guide bushings are metal rather than plastic, so the holes do not wear oval, and the whole kit packs into a storage case between projects. Two versions are available: the precision jig and a positioning jig for quick, small installs.

What you need

• A drill and a sharp brad-point bit sized for your handle screws (usually 3/16 in or 5 mm).
• One clamp to hold the jig on the cabinet door or drawer front.
• A piece of scrap wood for a test hole and to back up the drill.