Here are 15 plans for how to build a filing cabinet, as well as ideas for how to reuse and fix up old filing cabinets. You can always make a useful and beautiful piece of furniture by changing one of these designs or combining pieces from two or three of them.
Do you get tired of looking at that old, black filing cabinet? With the help of these ideas, you’ll be able to picture how to give an old file cabinet a beautiful makeover that will match the style of your home or office. The method for changing is short and easy to understand.
Trying to turn a blank drawer into your own filing cabinet? If you know what you’re doing, building a filing cabinet yourself can save you money and give you more options. The knowledgeable woodworkers at Woodworker’s Hardware can give you some tips on how to turn an old drawer into a neat filing system. These simple rules can be used for a wide range of file cabinet systems, such as those that need to be side mounted, recessed, or dropped in.
If you already have a drawer that is the right size, you can use it instead of making a new one. Follow my simple drawer instructions if you want to make a new one, but change the size to fit the files. My drawer is 14″ wide by 10″ deep. When building your cabinet, make sure to leave 1″ of space above the top of the file drawer so that the hanging file tabs can clear the faceframe or drawer above the files.
Still, I’m moving slowly forward with my new workspace. Finally, the two cabinets with hanging file folder drawers that will support the two ends of the new countertop are done. The drawers are 24 inches deep and have full extension glides, so if you need to, they can hold a LOT of files.
Hiii!!! I can’t wait to show you the latest thing I’ve made by myself. I’ve made some progress on making over my home office. Did you see how much I’d changed? I wrote about it in this blog post at The Home Depot! You wouldn’t think that these beautiful built-in cabinets were made by hand, would you? They are beautiful to look at and work VERY WELL. I made these drawers very deep and wide on purpose so I could store almost everything I’ve ever owned in them. But that’s not all! Something strange is in these drawers.
I cut a hole in the bottom of the side panels with a jigsaw so that the toe kick would fit. I made the notch the same size as our 5 1/2-inch-tall baseboards. Whether your baseboards are shorter or taller, just trim the notch to fit. But remember that this could change how you measure in the future. After putting the two pieces together, I used a jigsaw to make these cuts. By tying them together, I cut down on the chance of making a mistake and only had to make two cuts instead of four. #worksmarter
What are file cabinets made out of?
The most common materials for office filing cabinets are wood and metal sheets. Drawers are usually opened with a drawer slide, which has a “stop” that keeps the drawer from coming all the way out of the cabinet.
What is a filing cabinet’s width?
Cabinets for letter-size paper are usually 15 inches wide, while cabinets for legal-size paper are usually 1814 inches wide. A basic vertical file cabinet in an office is 28.12 inches deep and can hold files that are up to 27 inches long.
What is the smallest depth of a file drawer?
Letter minimum depths are 14 5/16″ for 5/8″ thick and 17 1/4″ for 5/8″ thick in most filing cabinets with the bars facing the front.
What are the two different kinds of file cabinets?
The most common types of file cabinets are vertical and lateral. The vertical file cabinet has drawers that stick out from the shorter side of the cabinet. On the other hand, the drawers on a lateral file cabinet stick out from the longer side of the cabinet.
What kind of steel is used to make a filing cabinet?
1 Most of a file cabinet’s parts are made of 18-gauge steel, which is bought in bulk. It can be sent to the plant in coils between 11.8 and 15.7 inches long.
What do I need to do to turn my cabinet into a filing cabinet?
With a hanging-file drawer kit, a large cabinet space can be turned into a two-tiered file storage system. If the kitchen cabinet has a shelf, take it out and put the kit’s hardware on the side, top, or bottom walls of the cabinet.
Can a dresser be converted into a filing cabinet?
To fit a normal letter-sized hanging filing system, which needs a dresser drawer at least a foot high, you may need to combine the bottom two rows of drawers into one unit by cutting the bottom out of the upper drawer and making a new drawer front that connects both rows.
How tall is a typical file cabinet?
Most of the time, it is 28 inches tall. The average height of a cabinet with three drawers is 40 inches, while the average height of a cabinet with four drawers is 50 to 53 inches. The normal height for larger, five-drawer lateral file cabinets is between 64 and 66 inches.
A vertical file cabinet or a lateral file cabinet?
A lot less can fit in a vertical file cabinet than in a lateral one. Even though vertical file cabinets are common because they take up less wall space, most documents are kept in lateral file cabinets.
What is a lateral file cabinet, exactly?
How to Understand Lateral Filing Cabinets When documents are added from the side, the identification tab is put on the side of the file. Grab the edges and sides of the paper to pull it away. This type of file system is better because it takes up less space.
How tall should a drawer in a file cabinet be?
The minimum recommended height for the inside of a drawer box is 9-1/4″.
How do you keep files in a filing cabinet standing up straight?
The best place to keep and sort your papers is in a file cabinet. Put your files in folders or dividers so they stand up straight in the cabinet. You can also use labels to tell what each segment is.