Has anyone installed drop pulls on a curved drawer

Have you considered tear drop pulls? *LINK*

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

Not a direct answer to your question, and someone no doubt has the answer; and you may be committed to the drawer pulls you already have.

But, if all else fails, have you considered tear drop pulls, such as "B" in the attached link, which have a single post?


One possibility at Lee Valley

Buy slightly curved hardware?

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

Re: Has anyone installed drop pulls on a curved dr

Moses Yoder

The ones I have worked with the holes in the hardware were large enough that the pulls didn't bind. We would just drill the holes and attach the pulls with backplates, the backplates would be pulled pretty snug to the front from bolting the pulls down. You could possibly drill a slightly larger hole in your hardware and maybe bend the backplate (depending on what it is) to fit with a hammer and scrap piece curved to match the front.

And where do you buy that?

Paul Dzioba

Re: Has anyone installed drop pulls on a curved dr

Paul Dzioba

Bill,

I�ve done this before on my Bombe� chest. My hardware had to go concave instead of convex on your bowfront. My hardware separated into backplate, posts and nuts, and bail. I bent the plate to match the drawer front, placed them to locate the holes, and drilled perpendicular to the face. On the drawers with the most curvature I needed to pinch the bails together slightly. You might have to spread them a touch. I needed to file the ends of the bail SLIGHTLY on a couple of bails so they would drop freely. Make a mock-up drawer with the same curvature. I can�t believe the radius is so severe that it would cause you great problems. Patience, you are almost there. Period hardware is usually a kit.

Paul

I have one solution

Bill Tindall

BTW, the pulls I am suing are also called "rosette pulls". Cut a profile in a block of wood to match the profile of the bow front drawer in the area where the pull will be installed. The opposite surface from this profile will remain flat. Locate and drill two holes on the flat surface, perpendicular to this surface and spaced appropriate for the pulls's posts.

Place this block on the drawer in the correct location for the pull. Using the guide block drill the two holes for the posts. Presuming the guide block is correctly located the resulting holes will be properly space and aligned for the bale to swing without binding.

didn't work, but

Bill Tindall

I think if after drilling the holes if I resaw the flat side to be of he same thickness at the hole location as the curved side it will work.

Re: didn't work, but

James Watriss

Are the drawer fronts curved in back and curved in front? Or just in front?

Trying to understand what's going on here...

Photos?

200 year old chest

Warren in Lancaster, PA

This morning I was walking down a hall in a retirement community and there in the hall was a nice 200 year old cherry bow front. I spent a few minutes looking at the pulls. This chest had 3 or 3 1/2 inches of bow in maybe 40 inches. The plates did not quite conform to the curvature; you could probably stick a business card under each side edge. It could be that if the posts were good and tight the plates would flex enough to close that gap.

I tried all the bails and just one was a little sticky. I am rather certain the holes would have been bored by eye. I calculate that ideal posts would be about 1 degree from normal to the arc. I don't think it is reasonable to expect this kind of precision and the old posts seemed to have very slight angular discrepancies. I would make the holes and then adjust any bails that were having problems. On historic hardware I would not expect the pivots on the bails to have been perfect either.

question

Bill Tindall

You propose a good idea.....if the bale binds, bend it a bit. I wasn't sure this could be done. The bales are cast brass, from Whitechapel. Can it be bent a bit with out breaking, ie is it malleable, not brittle? I may be recalling plated pot metal, for I have some remote fear of trying to bend something cast, like it broke.

picturing the situation....

Bill Tindall

This picture shows a pull similar to the one I will be using. The pull is laid on a diagram of the bow front drawer looking down on the top edge of the drawer. The front and back surfaces of the drawer are shown as well as the axis defined by the drawer pull and its posts. What could be described as the "cord" across the width of the drawer is shown at the bottom (chord here is like the chord of a circle except this arc isn't a circle).

This picture shows what I think will be a "C" shaped drilling jig that will work to locate the post holes in the drawer such that the posts and bail all line up on one axis. The holes in the posts for the bail as well as the pins on the bail ends must define one axis or the posts bind.

I did note that one catalog suggested calling for instructions if these rosette pulls were to be installed on a bow front. I would have ordered from this company except they didn't have the bail I wanted.

rosette plates were left off posts for clarity

Bill Tindall

Re: picturing the situation....

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Hi Bill

Two options:

1. Drill a slight recess/mortice for each leg so that the ends are bedded.

2. (my preference ..) Heat the brass and bend it to shape (carefully!). Test this out on one first.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: question

Warren in Lancaster, PA

Yes, I have bent bails before. Brass is not brittle unless it has been work hardened (like from repeated bending) or old. Old brass becomes very gradually crystallised and somewhat brittle. You could also work on the pivots or the holes in the posts.