How far apart should shelf pin holes be?
32mm — about 1 1/4" — is the system the whole cabinet industry is built on. Why that number, and how many holes a panel takes.
32mm system: holes every 1 1/4", which is what every piece of European cabinet hardware is drilled for.
A 30" panel with 3" left clear at each end takes 20 holes over 24" of usable height.
How that is worked out
- 32mm is not a woodworking figure, it is a machine one. Line-boring heads are built with spindles 32mm apart, so every hole in a factory cabinet — shelf pins, hinge plates, drawer slides — falls on that grid.
- In inches that is 1 1/4", which is why the spacing looks like an awkward number on a tape and is a perfectly round one in millimetres.
- Holes every 1 1/4" over 24" of usable panel gives 20 of them.
Holes per panel, both common spacings
| Panel height | Holes at 1 1/4" (32mm) | Holes at 1" | Usable height |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24" | 15 | 19 | 18" |
| 30" | 20 | 25 | 24" |
| 36" | 24 | 31 | 30" |
| 48" | 34 | 43 | 42" |
| 60" | 43 | 55 | 54" |
| 72" | 53 | 67 | 66" |
| 84" | 62 | 79 | 78" |
Worth knowing
- Use a jig, not a tape. Cumulative error is the enemy here: measuring each hole from the last one puts the two rows out of step by the top of the panel, and a shelf that rocks is the result.
- Drill both panels of a cabinet from the same reference end, with the jig registered the same way. Which end you index from matters more than where the holes start.
- Stopping 3" short at each end is convention, not a rule. There is no point in pin holes where a shelf would collide with the top or the bottom of the box.
- 5mm is the usual hole for European hardware and 1/4" for North American pins. They are close but not the same, and a 1/4" pin in a 5mm hole is loose.
Work out your own numbers
- Shelf-pin hole layout
Hole count and marks down a cabinet end panel, on the 32mm system or a plain 1" pitch.
- Cabinet boxes
A carcass cut list from the finished outside dimensions, face-frame or frameless.
- Shelf sag and span
How far a shelf bends under books, how far it can span, and what a strip on the front edge buys you.
Related questions
- What is the 32mm cabinet system?
- A manufacturing standard where every hole in a cabinet side falls on a 32mm grid, because line-boring machines have their spindles 32mm apart. Shelf pins, hinge mounting plates and drawer slide screws all index to it, which is why hardware from different makers interchanges at all.
- How far from the edge should shelf pin holes be?
- About 1 1/2" to 2" in from the front and back edges, giving two rows per side. Closer to the front than that and a pin can split the edge; much further back and the shelf tips when you load the front of it.
- Should I use 5mm or 1/4 inch shelf pin holes?
- Whichever matches the pins you are buying. 5mm goes with European hardware and most shop-made jigs sold today; 1/4" is the older North American size. They are about 0.7mm apart, which is enough to make a 1/4" pin rattle in a 5mm hole — pick one and stay with it for the whole job.