Raised panel drawer fronts

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1,519
Location
Austin, Texas
I am finally building a cabinet with raised panel drawer fronts that will use handles. The front will overlay the cabinet edges and hide the metal drawer slides - what some people call a 5 side drawer.

My question deals with how the handle is attached... In all cases I will have to attach the rails and stiles to the drawer front to keep the alignment, no matter what I do with the handle and floating panel.

Option 1: can I just attach the handle to the floating panel? The handle pulling on the panel will in turn pull on the slots in the rails and stiles.
Option 2, must I get extra long screws for the handle, and go through both the floating panel and the drawer body (the panel no longer floats),
Option 3, attach the handle to the floating panel, but screw the floating panel to the drawer body to reduce the strain on the slots in the rails/stiles
 
I have always just screwed the drawer fronts on to the drawer. Then counter sink the screw hole for the knob until the screw sticks out far enough to hold the handle on.
 
When I replaced the drawer pulls in our bathroom, I ended up going with your option #3. The drawers are plywood boxes without mechanical slides. The front panels are painted MDF. The old pulls were bodged together with long screws (drywall screws into machine threads, no less). The new drawer pulls had different hole spacing than the original ones, so I patched the holes and repainted the front panels, drilled new holes and mounted the handles on the panel alone, with countersunk screw heads. Then I used Spax screws from the inside of the drawer to attach the MDF faces. Dunno if it was the right way, but it worked.
 
I'm only had one project I've done this with and I used option #1. A couple years later, I ended up drilling access holes in order to tighten the handle screws.

Next time, I was already planning to do what Chuck suggested.
 
another vote for chucks methode, the loosing screws would definatly be something that would happen to me on the other ideas you mentioned. and the floating panel really shouldnt move much charlie unless its quite large frnt.
 
Charlie i have done the same as Bill in the past. Extra long screws all the way through. They are not easy to find in my experience. The handle threads i have had to match were not common.
 
I have always just screwed the drawer fronts on to the drawer. Then counter sink the screw hole for the knob until the screw sticks out far enough to hold the handle on.

Thanks all. The countersink won't work, since the screws that come with the handles assume a 3/4" inch drawer, and the raised panel is 3/4 thick, so the countersink in the drawer will go all the way through. However, I'm off to find longer screws!
 
Thanks all. The countersink won't work, since the screws that come with the handles assume a 3/4" inch drawer, and the raised panel is 3/4 thick, so the countersink in the drawer will go all the way through. However, I'm off to find longer screws!
If you check the link I posted, you'll see that McFeely's has exactly what you need.
 
i allways attach pull to panel so when i adjust door/drawer they will always be where i want them. then if needed will hot glue the back side of panel-rail/stile to stop them from moving . and last screw thru drawer to drawer front.
 
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