I put my screws through the front and box. Had to buy longer screws but it is the right way. Right for me anyway, lol!

Like GH mine go through both with longer screws. The drawer front did not have to come off in order to drill the holes or mount the handles.

Ditto what gh said and my cab maker installed the pulls. I ordered my pulls online and had them sent to the cabmaker, Ayr.

So our guys just drilled them through the slab drawer, which they would have had to take off to do. It's such a thin piece of 'wood'. I have 30, 34 and 36 inch drawers, and I'm not sure it will be sturdy enough.

I also noticed a part was a bit crooked (3 piece with echelon (eustation? I don't know the right word!)), so I was going to straighten it out, but I would have had to take the drawer front off!

I don't know what's going on around here!

Thanks for the real life experiences. I also would have put it all the way through, and the carpenter took the screws so he'd know to get longer.

I don't know what happened - well, I do. (it was raining today, they couldn't do outside work elsewhere so they called at 7:30 this am telling us they were coming as we were going to work!)

If your fronts are thin anyway make them redo it. I think you are at risk of damaging your fronts or even compromising their attachment to the boxes.

Greenhaven makes a good point.

My cabs are shaker style and have a veneer center.

I installed all of my handles on the solid frame and when my cab maker came back to install my wet bar he told me he was "proud of me"
When I asked why he said he has seen several customers put the pulls in the center panel but that's really not a good idea. The center is so thin and you are constantly putting stress on it, it almost assuredly will fail and cause damage.

Pulls should only be mounted through solid wood.

Thanks Texas_Gem and Greenhaven, that's what I was thinking, it's so thin! And we'll be having plates and stuff in them. Ugh, always something!

Sorry to interrupt, but are drawer pulls not to be installed on the recessed part? Here is my cab sample:

If the recessed part is full thickness, I.e. a raised panel that was installed with the raised part facing inside the cab, then its no problem to put a handle there.

If you don't specify that you want the cabs that way and the recessed part is much thinner then no, you shouldn't be installing a pull there and should put the pull on the frame.

Thank you very much.

Linste, you should not have a problem installing a pull in the recessed area if you are also going through the drawer box behind the front. Open the drawer and see how high up the drawer box goes. If you install through the box as well that can be sturdier than through just the frame of the drawer front. Good luck.

Totally bizzaro. Non standard. Pulls should be drilled through the drawer box assembly as well as the drawer front applied on top of the drawer box.

Thanks. I'll check it out when they're delivered Friday!

Ours are installed just through the drawer front. These are on slab drawers and, for the deep drawers, on the rail of 5-piece drawers.

Contrary to other opinions here, I think that's the right way. The slab drawer fronts and rails are 3/4 inch which is plenty thick enough for sturdiness and the drawer inside is tidier without the pull screw heads showing.

Of course if one is mounting hardware on a thin panel of a 5-piece, it needs to go through the drawer box because there may be too much force for the panel to hold.

Escutcheon was the word you were looking for. I've never had 5-piece drawers before so I defer to others about where the handles should be mounted.

Ours are not on the rails except for one, which is fine as that is thick.

The others are mounted on the centre thin veneer. I called the owner and asked for an explanation.

They will have to come and redo it to put it through the drawer box. And this took them 5 hours to do like 8 of them. Sigh.