When Dad arrived for the next session, we went straight to work addressing the gaps between the cabinets and the drawers. The drawer fronts don’t extend past the drawer boxes and the drawers originally slid on runners under them rather than guides on the sides. Those factors combined to leave gaps on the sides. The gap below the bottom drawer is due to the old desk having frames between the drawers. I used the taller stack of drawers to determine the height of both cabinets, knowing there’d be a gap below the drawers in this one.
I bought this 1/2” weatherstripping knowing there’d be gaps. Its brush is ideal for filling the 1/2” gaps and allowing the drawer guides to pass.
I intended to run a strip down each side in front of the guides. I didn’t even think about the clearance when I ordered it. So we had to come up with Plan B.
Dad had the idea to put a strip on each side of the drawers. I balked at that until I realized they’d be just fine there and we had no better options. Nobody else will see the desk on a regular basis and they’d only see them when the drawers are open.
Besides, the gaps look great. I may take a brown marker to the white parts if they end up bothering me.
I wanted to use or repurpose as many parts from the old desk as possible. The wide center drawer wouldn’t have fit between the drawer pedestals with both of them under the desk. Even if I came up with a way to mount it there, it would have hung too low for my knees to go under. So I knocked the joints apart, then tried to remove the bottom. I couldn’t pull the three small nails holding it onto the back, so I had the pry the pieces apart with my door panel removal tool.
I vacuumed the junk hiding beneath the pencil tray, then measured the parts to see if they’d work for what I had planned. Some were too thin or non-symmetrical to use. I would’ve had to compromise my original design to make them work. I also thought the end result would detract from the desk, so I scrapped the idea along with most of the wood.
Dad cut a strip from the bottom of the center drawer, drilled three countersunk holes, then stained the raw wood with a dark stain I had laying around. Then he screwed the strip onto the bottom drawer using flat-head screws from the drawer’s former pulls.