How To Make DIY Drawer Pulls

In this video, we're making a set of DIY drawer pulls for our Jay Bates Miter Saw Station out of scrap plywood. The best part about this project is that it was totally free! This is a table saw heavy build and it would be difficult to make these cuts without a table saw. You could use a bandsaw with a fence, but a miter saw would be unsafe due to the small sizes of the pieces. With that out of the way, let's get onto the build!

Tools Used in the DIY Drawer Pulls Project:

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Materials Used in the DIY Drawer Pulls Project:

  • Scrap plywood
  • 2" Screws

DIY Drawer Pulls Build Process

The first step of this build is setting the miter angle on your table saw to 25 degrees. After setting the angle, make the first cut on one side of your pieces. One thing to note here: you want the side you want facing out to be facing up on the table saw. Basically, make sure the pretty side is facing you. The final dimensions of the drawer pulls are 4 ½” by 1 ½” inches, but the width isn’t important yet. Make the angled cut on one side of the piece, which will be properly dimensioned in the next step.

After making the 25 degree angle cut on one side of all of the pieces, set the fence to 1 ½", turn the pieces 180 degrees horizontally, and cut the 25 degree angle into the other side. The combination of these two cuts create the angles on the long edges of the DIY drawer pulls. I came up with the 1 ½” height by trying out different sizes. This size is comfortable in my hands, but you can definitely customize the sizing to fit your hands.

After finishing the long edges, crosscut the miters into the short edges. I’m using an Incra miter gauge here, but you can definitely use your stock miter gauge. This is just a 90 degree crosscut. Setup your miter gauge in the miter slot to the left of the blade and flip your drawer pulls over so that the back side is facing up. Make the cuts so that the 25 degree miter is cut into one side of the pull. Again, width doesn’t matter on these first cuts, we’re just establishing one edge.

Also, one safety note here: since the cutoff piece ends up resting on the blade, they will almost always shoot back at you. Make sure you’re wearing your safety glasses here. These small pieces don’t really have enough mass to do any real damage, and I had a few hit me with no issue. Just make sure you’re being safe.

After making the crosscuts on one side of all of the pulls, turn your piece 180 degrees and set up a stop block at 4 ½”. If you don’t have a miter gauge with a stop block, you can use a piece of scrap wood and a clamp to set up a stop block on your stock miter gauge. Do not, however, use your table saw fence for these cuts; that would be asking for kickback. Make the same crosscut on this side of all of the drawer pulls and you’ll end up with a rough version of the final DIY drawer pulls.

Next, I rounded over all of the edges of the drawer pulls at the router table. I used a ⅛” radius roundover bit from Whiteside. It would be tough to do this with a handheld router as there isn’t much of a surface to support the router. If you don’t own a router table or a router, you could just sand the edges instead. After rounding over the edges, I sanded them all using Rockler Contour Sanding Grips with 120 grit sandpaper. This just helped to clean up all of the edges and remove any stray pieces of splintered wood.

Next, I marked the center line on the front of the drawer pulls, both horizontally and vertically. I used a Veritas Dual Marking Gauge here, but you could also use calipers to scratch in the lines or a combination square and pencil to draw on the lines. The lines will be used with the Rockler Drawer Pull JIG IT system to mark the hole placement on the drawer pulls. Line up the center line on the JIG IT system with the vertical center of the drawer pull, then line up the horizontal line with the 2 ½” hole spacing. Once the two lines are aligned, mark the hole placement with the center punch that’s included with the JIG IT system.

I drilled holes into the drawer pulls at the drill press. The bit size will be dependent on the size of screw you use to attach your drawer pulls. I’m using #10 screws so I used a 7/64” drill bit. Also, make sure to use a scrap piece beneath your drawer pulls to avoid blowout.

After drilling the holes in the drawer pulls, I used the JIG IT template again to mark the holes in the drawer fronts. Basically, you line up the center line of the jig with the vertical center of your drawer and then line up the holes that correspond to your drawer pulls with the horizontal center of your drawer. Mark your hole placement with the center punch and then drill holes for your screws. Again, I used a 7/64” drill bit here.

If you wanted the hardware to attach from the inside of the drawer, you could mark the center lines on the back of the drawer pulls instead and drill the holes so they don’t go all the way through the pull. This way, the hardware will be hidden. Since this is a shop project, I don’t really care that the screws are showing, and also, most of these drawers are already full of stuff so installing the pulls from the inside would have been pretty frustrating.

After installation, you're done! Enjoy your simple DIY drawer pulls that cost nothing but your time! Thanks for checking out this build. If you enjoyed it, please consider subscribing to our YouTube channel and support us on Patreon. Thanks!

Project Videos, Woodworking Projects, Beginner Projects, Shop ProjectsJohnny BrookeDrawer Pulls, WoodworkingComment