Continuing on the theme of organizing this holiday season, I built this organizer insert for a file drawer that I plan on using at work. My desk at work doesn't have a shallow drawer for pencils, etc.; only two deep file drawers that I don't use. This insert will fit down in and let me have the small stuff at hand easily.
This box is 11 3/4" x 17 1/2". The trim on the sides makes the total width 12 7/8". Total height is 5 1/4". The pencil tray is 4 1/2" x 10 1/8" x 1 3/4".
I started with 1-by that was left over from the porch trim project a couple years ago. I ripped them down to 5 inches and built a box with pocket screws. I used some left over hardboard for the bottom, which I glued and nailed on.
I added a thin runner down each side so that a smaller pencil box could sit in the insert and move along the rails. These are just glued in as they will not carry much weight.
Next, I made the pencil box. The picture, above, is it in process. I added another divider a bit later on. Its bottom is quarter inch luan left over from another drawer or box project (can't remember which). I was pleased at how easy it was to get this glue up nice and square. You can never tell how tricky that kind of thing will be especially when you're using thin wood like this.
The top is trimmed with quarter-inch luan, too. The trim on the sides sticks out about 7/8". The side trim sits on the rails that are used for file hangers and support the weight of the box. They are glued and nailed and feel really solid so I'm hopeful that they'll carry the weight of the box and contents well. Even though there's a lot of wood in this project, it's surprisingly light weight. This picture shows a bit of the construction technique I used on the box. After glueing the corners but before driving in the pocket screws, I shot in some trim nails to help keep everything in place. Then I let the glue cure for a few minutes so that things stayed aligned while I drove the screws. I have found that unless you're careful when driving pocket screws (or don't use clamps), the parts you're screwing together can come out of alignment easily. Using nails and letting the glue set helped a lot.
I tested the fit on a file cabinet I have here at home so I'm pretty sure it'll fit at work even though the drawer design is slightly different. Since I took my measurements from the work drawer before the holidays and I checked it against a hanging file, I think it'll work.
