The problem was keeping the insert aligned with the drilled hole. If it tipped at all, the insert would jam and break. What worked was to take a long screw, cut the head off, thread on two nuts and the insert and chuck it in the drill press. Then I could lower it straight into the hole and turn the chuck by hand and it would thread in perfectly.

Just be sure not to turn on the drill press!!!

My wife works from home, and needed a work area for both her computer and her writing. She looked at catalogs and in stores and decided on an open work table with return; essentially an L-shaped computer desk with the space underneath open to make it easy to move from side to side. I started late in the fall, and finished the day after Christmas. Later that day it was in place and covered in “stuff”, so no pictures, but I’ll get some this weekend. It’s constructed of oak and oak ply for the legs and sides, and the top is a walnut field with an oak boarder and breadboard ends.

It wasn’t long after that she decided she needed draws to store stuff in, so I started on a file cabinet to match. To add some interest I used a G+G detail on the legs:

The desk design has sides that don’t come all the way to the floor, so I did the same thing for the file cabinet. Very cleverly I made two left sides (on bench), so I used the test leg from the desk along with a new one to make the new right side.

This limited the vertical draw space and has me a bit worried about structural strength as I didn’t feel I had space for a top streatcher. To address that I rabbited the bottom of the sides and added a MDF panel. This makes it much more ridigd, and adds weight to help keep it from tipping if the draw is pulled all the way out. I may revisit the top streatcher later if I think it’s necessary.

The draw boxes are made from 1/2” pre-finished birch ply. Great stuff, and much better than the $100/sheet 3/4” oak vaneer ply (I’ll post pics later)

Test assembly: top draw for pencils, middle for all that stuff that accumulates, bottom for files:

The draw fronts are ply with iron-on edge banding. I watched the woodwisperer’s video on edge banding and they came out great. I will use walnut dowls for the draw handles. I’m in the process finishing and hope to have it in place this weekend, so I’ll have pics of the beginning (desk) as well.
Robb