7 drilling shelf holes

This video is all about how to safely and accurately drill shelf pin holes in cabinets of all kinds

Shelf pins are small pieces of hardware that fit into holes drilled in the sides of the cabinet to support shelves

Each shelf is supported by four pins. The trick is to get all four holes at a given level to be exactly in the same plane with each other

If that doesn't happen, the shelf will wobble. Here we've got a side view of a cabinet

This is the front face frame here, and then there's the back on the other side

These are matching pairs of holes that you could see as if you had X-ray vision looking through the side of the cabinet

Now, you might think that this whole business would be easy to do

You just simply measure one side and the other, and then drill holes accordingly

But I can assure you, if you do that, you will be unhappy sooner or later

The reason is because no matter how carefully you measure for your holes, there will always be a certain amount of error in the drilling

One hole or more will be out of plane with its neighbors, and that will cause the dreaded shelf wobble

The solution is a three-quarter inch thick plywood drilling jig. You drill the holes in the jig, and you use the jig to guide your drill bit

First on one side, then you flip the jig over and use it to drill corresponding holes on the other side

You repeat this in all four corners of the cabinet, and you'll have holes that are perfectly aligned with each other with no wobbling shelves