A client in Austin pointed out my drawer fronts were all out of whack

I was finishing up a big kitchen job, feeling good about the cabinets. The client, a retired engineer, came in and just ran his finger along the drawer fronts. He said, 'The reveal is off by a full sixteenth on the left side, see how the light catches it?' I looked, and he was right. I'd been eyeballing it, trusting my level and assuming the boxes were perfect. That tiny gap was driving him nuts. I spent the next two hours with feeler gauges and a block plane, shimming and planing each drawer front until the reveal was even all the way across. It was a pain, but the final look was so much tighter. Now I use a set of feeler gauges on every drawer and door install, no more guessing. Has anyone else had a client catch a detail you missed, and what did you start doing differently after?

3 comments

3 Comments

norab211mo ago

That retired engineer's eye for a sixteenth is wild.

-1

jenkins.reese1mo ago

How many times have you been saved by that kind of sharp eye, lol?

shane_fisher371mo ago

Honestly, I see it the other way. That hyper-focus on tiny measurements can really slow a job down. I've watched guys burn an hour getting a bracket "perfect" when being close was good enough for it to work just fine. Sometimes you just need it to function, not win a beauty contest.