Best Cabinet Pull Templates for Straight, Repeatable Handle Holes

A cabinet pull template is a guide that positions the screw holes for a handle or knob so you drill them in the right place without measuring each one by hand. Some are fixed templates with set hole positions, and some are adjustable jigs that slide to match different center-to-center spacings. The point of any of them is repeatability. Once you set the position, every door and drawer gets the same layout, so the handles line up across the kitchen instead of sitting a little high or low from one cabinet to the next.

Center-to-center is the distance between the middles of the two screw holes on a pull, and it is the number that decides whether a handle fits the holes you drill. Pulls come in a range of spacings, and a knob is effectively a single hole with no spacing at all. An adjustable jig like the WORKPRO lets you set that distance directly, while a fixed template is built for set positions. Measure your hardware first, because a template that does not reach your pull's spacing will not line up the holes correctly.

It depends on how many cabinets you are doing and how varied the hardware is. If you are fitting a whole kitchen or mixing knobs and different pull sizes, an adjustable jig pays off because one tool sets every spacing and repeats it cabinet to cabinet. If you only have a few handles at one spacing, a fixed template like the single drill template is simpler and there is nothing to set up. Match the tool to the size of the job rather than buying more adjustment than you need.

A knob uses one screw hole, so a template just needs to center a single hole on the door stile or drawer front. A pull uses two holes set at a center-to-center spacing, so the template has to position both evenly around the middle. Many jigs do both, dropping to a single centered hole for knobs and opening up for the two-hole pull layout. Check that the template covers both if your kitchen mixes knobs on the doors and pulls on the drawers, which is a common combination.

On a door, hardware is usually placed near a bottom or top corner of the stile, so the template registers off the door edge and corner to keep the handle a consistent distance in from the sides. On a drawer front, the hardware is normally centered, so the template references the middle of the face instead. Good jigs give you both references, which is why a kit with separate door and drawer settings, like the Ravinte, saves you from reworking the layout every time you switch between the two.

A center punch dimples the exact spot where the hole goes, and that small dent gives the drill bit something to bite so it does not skate across the surface when it starts. On a finished cabinet face that wandering can leave a scratch you cannot hide, so the punch protects the look as much as the accuracy. That is why several picks here, like the King&Charles template with a punch, bundle one in. An automatic punch does the same job with a press instead of a hammer tap.

Most do, but they set up differently for each. A door usually gets the handle offset toward a corner, while a drawer front gets it centered, so you use the door reference for one and the drawer reference for the other. Adjustable jigs and larger template kits are built with this in mind and switch between the two positions. A very basic single template may favor one placement, so if you have a mix of doors and drawers, choose a template that clearly supports both layouts.

Set the template once, then use the same reference every time. Register off the same edge or corner on each door, keep the drawer holes centered, and do not change the spacing between matching cabinets. A self-centering jig helps because it removes the guesswork of splitting the distance by eye. Drill with a sharp bit and, where the tool allows, a depth stop so you do not go through the face. The repeatability of the template is what keeps the handles aligned, so trust the tool rather than re-measuring each cabinet.