Need advice on filing cabinet drawers

[Serge Goudreau]

Hi all, this my first time posting, and I am in need of some advice. I am not a novice at woodworking but more like beyond beginner.
The wife has commissioned me to build her a corner desk . She wants a filing cabinet on each end. The filling cabinet(s) would have a bottom drawer to accommodate hanging folders for letter size documents and the other drawer(s) 1 or 2 would handle other office supplies( I’m even thinking of one of the cabinets would have two drawers for files in the other cabinet only having one!) I have looked at several options for the hanging folders. The one that appealed to me the most was either the one that mounts on the sides of the drawer that Rockler sells (http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=212&site=ROCKLER) .
My question is …how wide should the drawer be in order to accept the hanging folders. The typical letter size hanging folder is 9 3/8 x 11 ¾ and the actual hanger is 12 ¾ wide (with the distance between the center of the groove that hangs is 12 ¼ ).
I just happen to work for a plant the manufactures MDF. I get some material free (5 sheets of year, any size from ¼ to 1 ½ thick…free!) Any advice that maybe provided would be greatly appreciated.

[Art Mann]

I built the desk I'm sitting at right now and I used 1/2" plywood for the sides of the file drawers. I also used slip on hangers like the ones in the Rockler link. The external distance between the drawer sides is 12 1/2" and that spacing worked well. I would not count on stacking two standard file drawers and resting the top on those unless you want a very tall desk top.

[Bob Daniel]

If you've got the space, go legal size rather than letter size. When you need it, you need it. And it makes for a less jam-packed-feeling drawer, even if it's mostly letter-size stuff in legal size hanging folders.

[Richard McComas]

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o159/rmccomas0043/tlffdia1.gif

[Danny Hamsley]

Here is a cherry two drawer file cabinet that I made. The inside dimension of the drawer is 16.5". To hang the files, I simply attached a strip of wood on the drawer front and back, made a slot in either end, and used the metal strips from a hanging folder metal frame that is designed to free-stand in a metal file drawer.

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