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Frustrating Stainless Steel Cabinet Door Handles to Install

Our photo shows the most frustrating stainless steel cabinet bow style handle that I have ever installed on doors or drawers. If you want to install this pull design on your kitchen or bathroom vanity cabinet set, I will give you the correct instructions for accomplishing this task with as little irritation as possible.

There is no Margin for Error
When you are drilling new holes or if you are replacing existing hardware with new pulls, the hole centers have to be exact. The base of the door handle is so small or skinny that if a hole is off center, there’s not enough room to fix the crooked cabinet pull. Generally, you can ream a hole out a little and the pull will cover it. With this style it’s tough to make corrections this way. So, when you drill for the cabinet door handle, it’s got to be as close to perfect as possible.

You will Need Custom Length Screws
The depth of the threads on these stainless steel cabinet pulls is less than one quarter inch (1/4”). So, you most definitely will not be able to use the one inch long screws you have with your three quarters of an inch (3/4”) thick cabinet doors or your five eights (5/8”) thick kitchen or vanity cabinet doors.

You may have to visit a cabinet hardware store to get the proper length screws for installing the stainless steel pulls on your kitchen cabinets. I’d recommend not trying to find the fasteners at a home center. Go to a cupboard hardware supply company in your area.

Take a cabinet door with you and the stainless steel bow handle when purchasing screws. This way you can try various size fasteners at the cabinet supply company to ensure you get the proper ones.

Measuring for The Drawer Installation Screws
It should go without being said, but you are going to need very accurate measurements on the drawer box thickness and the drawer finish front thickness to get the correct length screws.

You May Need Washers
Get some thin washers for the cabinet drawer pull screws in case the ones you selected for the drawers are a little too long. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

It May be Necessary to Use a Counter Sink
Quit possibly, you may need to countersink the fastening hole on the drawer to get the correct length for the thread depth of the stainless steel bow pull.

Here are a few additional reasons that these stainless steel pulls are so frustrating to install.

1) You cannot see the second screw hole to align the screw correctly after the first one is in place because the length of the fastener is so short.

2) There’s no flexibility in the pull if your hole alignment is a little off. Generally, with most kitchen cabinet pulls, the installation fasteners are long enough that you have some maneuverability. This is not the case with these short threaded bow pulls.

3) Because the thread depth is so shallow, you have to be extra careful that you do not over tighten the fasteners. If you do, you may stripe out the stainless pull’s threads because they have no depth.

Now, please don’t take this the wrong way, but if you have fat fingers the stainless steel cabinet bow pull is not going to be your best option. There is just not enough room between the kitchen cabinet door and the pull to get your fingers comfortably inside.

There are thousands of selections for your kitchen or bathroom cabinet door handles in this type of metal and many of them are very reasonably priced. If you are up for a challenging cabinet handle installation and you really like this type of bow pull put on patience before you start the project.

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