How to Use the AlignRight Cabinet Hardware Template

The Alignright cabinet hardware template from Liberty Hardware is really quite handy for its intended purpose of spacing the drill holes for pulls at a correct and constant distance, and for placing knob holes in a consistent location. That being said, the instructions for use on the reverse of the package are pretty rudimentary. So, here are a few bits of additional info you might need.

As you can see in the image above, when Alignright is positioned squarely  on the corner of your cabinet door the tool does not provide for the multitude of positions one may prefer their cabinet hardware to be mounted. There is simply too much variation for the tool to cover all the possible mounting locations. But this tool does do three things very well.

1. The template offers exact and consistent holes for the center-to-center spacing of the holes to be drilled for cabinet pulls.

2. The side stop assures that the hole pattern is parallel with the edges of the door or drawer.

3. Once the location of the knob or pull is determined, the template produces a consistent location so that the knob or pull ends up in the same place on every door or drawer.

To install knobs and pulls to cabinet doors you will use the thinner corner template. For mounting knobs in their typical location you will see two holes in the bottom corner of the template. One hole is marked 1 1/2" x 1" and the other is 50mm x 40mm. For left and right hand doors, simply flip the template 180 degrees before placing on the door. These are the only two actual knob positions offered. However, if you see any of the other holes in the template that look like a good spot to place your knob on the door, just mark it and use it. After all, the object here is to place the knob hole in a consistent location on all the doors and this work just fine. The picture below shows a knob mounted using a hole intended for a pull.

The same template locates the center-to-center holes for pulls.  Getting the template to place these “span” holes where you want them may require a little ingenuity. An important part of positioning pulls is to make sure they are mounted parallel to the side of the door if mounted vertically and parallel to the top or bottom of the door if mounted horizontally. These templates are designed to do this very thing. But they are not designed to locate them where you think they look best.   So, if the “T” stops  on the edge of the template are placing the holes too far in from the edge of the door, you can adjust this distance by using a shim. Measure from the edge of the door to where you want to place your pulls. Locate the holes in the template that have the correct “span” or center-to-center. Align these holes at the distance you determined and measure the thickness of shim required to place these holes at the desired distance from the edge. Placing this shim against  the “T” stop will give you the location you need. You still maintain a parallel position to the edge. And, using the shim(as opposed to trying to measure each one) will give you the required consistency you must have from door to door. Take a look at the picture below showing the use of a shim, and I believe this will become very clear.

The drawer front template functions similarly, and can also be shimmed if needed. Actually, this template can be used to place pulls or knobs on doors as well as drawer fronts. There are two common positions marked for 96 mm center pulls – at 50 mm from the edge and at 100 mm from the edge. Take a look at the pictures below and you can see the versatility of this template.

Don't forget to carefully measure when finding the center of your drawer face.

This template can but used to place knobs or pulls on cabinet doors as long as you carefully measure the distance you are starting from the edge.

You can use a shim with the drawer template just as easily as you can with the door template.

Remember these templates are only guides with accurately placed hole spacing directly parallel to an edge. You may have to do a little extra thinking to get the exact position you want. But the importance of “parallel to the edge” is taken care of by these templates. Having your pulls and knobs straight and parallel and in the same place on each and every door and drawer is your goal. These templates help you get there.