September 10

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I mentioned that I was working on the components of a desk to be made of a hollow-core door and two two-drawer filing cabinets.  I bought the filing cabinets from the University's property disposition -- $5 each, and the beige one is Steelcase.  The door was a brand new birch door from Fingerle's, seen here with a couple of coats of polyurethane.  And the blue rug nailed on the garage wall is a cheapie from Home Depot, airing out as it smelled strongly of chemicals when unrolled.  That's going to go on the floor underneath the new desk.

The file cabinets have been sanded to help them take the new paint.  Note dust mask to try to avoid breathing paint particles.....

Here they are, after one coat.  They look pretty good in this light!

It's much easier to paint a black thing black than to paint a beige one black.  There are plenty of brush marks on the fronts of both, so I'll be putting a second coat on both.  The beige one has lots of places where you can see beige through the black.  I think a second coat will take care of that. 

Both of them have more dents than I realized when I purchased them.  For my purposes, that doesn't matter a bit.  They are sturdy, they will provide a lot of storage space, and, critically, they are the same height. 

Two-drawer filing cabinets come in a surprising variety of heights.  This doesn't matter a bit if you are buying them new, all at once, from the same place.  But if you are buying them used, intending to make a desk of them, it's rather important that they be the same height..........

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