Replacing Cabinet Hardware

Hi! I’m Bob Schmidt with Home Remodel Workshop. So, you’re going to go ahead and spruce up that kitchen or that cabinetry or maybe a piece of furniture, by getting some new hardware. Some new knobs, or some new pulls, and you’re going to put it on. Seems like a simple enough project, until you get started. I got some advice and tips for how to make this go off flawlessly. Let’s get to work. My first bit of advice is always take off your hardware and take it with you to the hardware store. This will do two things, this will show you the outline of the existing hardware, and it will give you the spread on the holes that you’re going to need to match with the existing hardware. Also, when taking this off, make special notes to look around these holes and any place where this base plate covered to make sure that if there are any defects in the door, that your new hardware will cover those defects. The last thing you want to do is put on brand new hardware and be able to see defects around every handle in your door. So, you found the perfect hardware, it’s exactly the look you want, and it’s going to cover all the defects in the existing door. Every new piece of hardware you purchase is going to come with a screw that matches the hardware. The only problem is 9 times out of 10, these screws aren’t going to be the right size. You have lots of different style doors, sometimes it goes to the panels, sometimes it goes to the style, sometimes it has a drawer box behind it which makes the screw even longer. Most cabinet knob suppliers do not supply you with screws that match every scenario. So, that means you’re going to have to cut some of these screws. How are you going to do that and make sure that they are all at the right length? 0nce you’re at the store, I advice you get you a cheap set of wire cutters, and some plumbing Teflon tape. Now what would you possibly need this for? One more thing, also while you’re at the store, purchase you a pack of two inch long screws that match your hardware. Two inches long is generally longer than the thickness of any cabinet door and drawer box that could possibly be behind it. It’s a lot easier to shorten the screw than it is to try to make it longer. There are two things you’re going to need to know for how to cut that screw down to get it so that it fits into the door. Number 1 is how deep the door is? Sometimes what you have is going through a thinner panel here than the outside style, it’s very difficult to measure. Simply take your longer screws that you purchased, stick it through the door, get you some of that Teflon tape, that plumbing Teflon tape that you purchased, and wrap it tightly right around the surface. Make sure you pull it nice and tight. And then take it back out. Here’s the screw that you just ran through your door. You got a little mark of Teflon tape on it. You know right where the surface of that door is and the thickness. Now I’ll go ahead and take your new screw and just barely get it started in that hole of your new hardware. Now start by counting the turns that you turn it in. One, two, three, four, five, six… and there that’s it, it bottomed out. Now you don’t want this screw, while you’re putting it on your cabinet door, to hit the bottom of that before it tightens it down. So you always back to screw out one third of however many turns you went in. If you went in three times, back it out 1. In this case, we went in six turns, I’m going to back it out 2. One, two…Now I’m going to go ahead and take my Teflon tape, and I’m going to mark this right here at the back side of this hardware. Here’s the original screw that you ran through the door and you got a mark right there where at the surface of the door is. Here’s your second screw that you marked with Teflon tape and you know that’s the projection that you want to come out in front of them. Go ahead and line the third screw up, so that these are all in line with each other. The end of that is in line with the thickness of the door and then take another small piece of Teflon tape, get it started on your last screw and you know that this is the length of the screw that you want that will come through your door and have the perfect amount of projection into your new hardware. Every electrical wire cutter has these little holes up here on the top and they have numbers next to them: 10/32, 8/32…what that is, and it says, “Insert screw here.” it’s a cutter for little screws just like your little bolts, just like this. What you do, is you go around and you turn this into each one of those holes until you find a really good fit. As soon as you find a really good fit, you know that that’s the cutter that you’re going to use. Even though you know this is the length you want to screw for that cabinet handle. There’s one more thing you have to compensate for. On these wire cutters, the cutting surface is actually in between the two different sections of wire cutter that slide past each other. So, what you need to do is you need to hold that length screw right to the middle of those two. Go ahead and take your thumb, and put a mark right at the surface where the screw will bottom out on this side, putting that cut more right in the center. Get your one final piece of Teflon tape, and put it on here, and then basically you’re ready to go. All you do at this point, is you know as soon as this Teflon tape reaches that cutter, you’re at the right length. Go ahead and just turn it in, and as soon as that second piece of Teflon tape gets right flashed with that cutter right there, you stop. Now, at this point, cut this and go ahead and have the right length screw. But since we don’t want to do this for every single screw, what we’re going to do is get us a flat piece of board and I’ll show you what to do next. Simply take your wire cutter, place it flat against the side of the board, and put a mark right here at the end of the screw like this. You can even put a little notation there of what type of screw this one’s for, like say drawer screws, because it’s very possible that you may have two or even three different length typical screws in a kitchen. So, from this point on, all you have to do, you can go ahead and make that cut now. And from this point on, all you have to do is run your screw in, set it against here, and turn it in until it’s to that line and you know you got the perfect length screw for your hardware, coming through that style door. Here’s your first cut, all you do, squeeze the handles together, release them a little bit, your cut side will come off, but see how that cut side looks a little bit tore up? You’re going to say, “Well why is it that when I take this out, it’s going ahead and it’s going to thread perfectly into that new hardware?” Well, it’s simple. This is threaded, so when you’re taking this screw out of here, if those threads are a little bit chewed up at the end, the wire cutter will actually help straighten those threads back out, so that it will start easily back into your cabinet handle. At this point, the first one you do, go ahead and take the Teflon tape back off. Another good question is, “Why do I use Teflon tape and not any other kind of tape?” Well Teflon tape is pretty much the only type of tape that you can use that you can actually run into a screw thread, and it won’t move the tape, and it won’t bind it up, so that you can run it through a screw thread. And it also stays real tight to the threads, so that when you slide it back out of that door, it doesn’t pull your tape off, like it would with a dock tape or a masking tape. Now after cutting your first screw for each of the different lengths of screws you’re going to need for your cabinets, go ahead and take that screw and try it out. If it’s a little short, or it’s a little long, adjust your storage board mark here, and give it another shot. Once you get this board made with all the different length screws you got, and you’ve checked the first one, and made sure it worked. It’s time to get cutting. Replace that hardware, spruce up those cabinets, make that kitchen look nice. I’m Bob Smith with Home Remodel Workshop. Hope this tip helped out, and have a great day. Thanks!