Build Your Own File Cabinet – We’re back with another fun build to add to the matching series we’ve been building for Dad’s office. This time it’s a DIY filing cabinet.
If you’ve been following this entire series, you might be wondering if you’ve already made a filing cabinet for your dad’s office.
Build Your Own File Cabinet
Yes, it is. Last fall I built these modular file cabinets for my dad so he could set up a large stencil cutting machine in his office.
Custom Home Offices
However, it seems that this was not enough for all his paperwork. This time he went back to making another document with a design that matched the style of his recent creation of tables, desks, cupboards and shelves.
This is a very basic cabinet that doubles as a file his cabinet, but it can also be used as a nice printer cabinet, or a side table or nightstand.
I have a step-by-step plan for building it below, but if you want a video, I have that too 🙂
If you’ve already seen matching table, desk, or shelf projects, this might sound like a broken record.Because we built all of these projects with matching legs made out of 2x4s, The leg building process is the same as the previous project.
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Cut the 2x4s down to about 32 inches long, paired and glued together he made four pairs for a total of four legs for this cabinet.
Once the glue was dry, I cleaned the edges of the table saw and trimmed it down to a 3 inch square post. Basically, I cut about ¼ inch off each edge that was glued.
Note: You don’t need to trim these, but they look a little cleaner. If you don’t trim them, you may need to adjust some measurements in your project.
I cut it 30 inches long with a miter saw, and to add a little decorative detail, I adjusted the miter saw to 60 degrees and trimmed the taper outward from the center on both sides of the bottom of each leg.
Ships April 7th
I used a circular saw to cut out a 3/4 inch piece of plywood for the side panels and a miter saw to cut out a 2×2 piece for the frame.
For assembly, we used pocket holes and screws to make things easy and quick.Of course, if you prefer a different joinery method, that’s your choice.
Pocket holes were drilled into the ends of the 2×2 frame pieces along the edges of each plywood panel.
As I said before, when using 2x2s with pocket holes, I usually just use wood glue and one screw per joint. there is.
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I assembled it so that all the pieces were flush with the inside of the leg.
Note that I mounted the bottom 2×2 flush with the side 2×2 so that there is a 24 inch gap between the top and bottom.
Tip: People often ask how to use only one pocket hole screw to make sure things aren’t bent. I often put everything together quickly before the glue sets, then set it on the table saw (because it’s a known plane) and adjust as needed until the feet are flat.
If the floor is flat, you can also use the floor. But my workshop is absolutely not horizontal, so it’s impossible to make it horizontal (laughs).
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This time it was flat with no adjustments, so I left it as is for the glue to dry and fix it during my lunch break 🙂
I cut the top out of 3/4 inch plywood and tied the edges. Then I put it on top, centered it and attached it.
I used 2 inch wood screws to attach the top to the frame via the top 2×2 on the front and back.
I installed 16 inch ball bearing drawer slides in the cabinet. I installed these 1 ½ inch insets because the drawer fronts are going to be that thick.
White Stow 3 Drawer File Cabinet
You can also use longer slides if you prefer… I usually buy drawer slides in bulk and down to 16 inches as they are a very universal size that can be used for almost any project I will stick to it.
That’s what I have on hand. But if you want to build a bigger drawer for this, go for it.
For more information on drawer and drawer slide sizes, assembly and installation instructions, please see our Drawer Assembly Guide here.
Cut the drawer box pieces out of the 3/4 inch plywood and once cut to size (see picture below) use a table saw to cut his 1/4 inch dado along the bottom of each piece. I cut it out and installed the bottom of the drawer.
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You don’t need to have a dado blade on your table saw to cut dado. You can make one cut, move the rip fence slightly up, and make another cut until the width is 1/4 inch of him.
If you don’t have a table saw, you can use a circular saw and straightedge (like I did for this DIY pie carrier project) or router to cut the dadoes. Or skip the dadoes altogether and just clip the bottom in place later.
Of course, this doesn’t have to be a DIY file cabinet. Can be used as a regular drawer. However, if you want to add file rails, here’s what I did.
When I built my dad’s other filing cabinet, he used 1/4 inch plywood as rails to slide the folders on. I wanted to do the same thing here, so I had to cut the dados on the sides of the drawer box to allow the plywood to slide through.
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You only need to cut these on the side pieces, not the front and back.And each should be cut about 13 inches from the edge.
I roughly marked where I needed to cut, calibrated the table saw and cut the dados so as not to get confused.
Again, if you don’t have a table saw, you can cut these dados using a router or a circular saw and straightedge.
These drawers are made using plywood so for a cleaner and more professional look I added an edge band to the top edge.This is optional but really takes the project up a notch. increase.
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I drilled pocket holes in the drawer box pieces and assembled them using pocket hole screws. I cut out a 1/4 inch piece of plywood bottom to insert into the dadoes along the bottom of the box.
After assembling the entire box, I cut another ¼ inch of plywood to make the file folder rails.
I used a thin scrap piece and glued it to the front edge of the drawer box and screwed it in. I attached it with a 1 inch wood screw so that it protruded about ¼ inch beyond the edge so that the tab on the file folder would catch.
Originally, I planned to install these drawers so that the file folder portion of the drawer was facing toward me. However, I came to think that the narrow space in the back might be difficult to reach.
Diy File Cabinet Desk Tutorial
It’s a small space, but I didn’t want to waste it because I could put extra files, documents, codes, etc.
To be honest, once this cabinet was finished, I realized that I needed to pull out the papers in the file at an angle to avoid hitting the drawer front and frame part, so I’m not sure if this would have been a better option. I don’t know, on top of that.
That’s fine, but in hindsight, I should have stuck with my original plan of putting some of the file folders in the front of the drawer… live and learn.
Like the matching pieces in this build series, it is cut to fit the cove molding and glued around the edge of the drawer front.
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In a previous project in this series, when I added the trim here, I used wood glue and painters tape. It worked, but I had to wait several hours to attach the drawer fronts due to the glue.
I’ve seen a few people do this before, but it never crossed my mind to use this method here until DAP sent me his RapidFuse. As soon as I opened the box, I knew immediately what this could be used for.
This time I used wood glue for the trim, but also added some RapidFuse dots.
RapidFuse holds the parts in place while the glue cures so you can move on to the next part of your project and install them while maintaining the strength of the wood glue.
Diy Desk With Printer Cabinet
Once the trim was secured, I attached the drawer fronts to the drawer box using wood screws from the inside.
As a note, you will need to remove the 1/4 inch plywood pieces to screw these into place. Good thing you made them removable.
I lined the side panels by cutting them to fit the cove molding. This time, instead of installing with wood glue and RapidFuse, I used RapidFuse.
To be honest, I was a little worried and just put it on the workbench, so I thought I’d give it a try (laughs).
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