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| The style of keyboard drawer I purchased was like this - a Fellowes drawer. The first thing I did was dump the mouse extension. I like my mouse on top of my desk. Notice that nice straight desk without anything underneath it? That is SO NOT my situation. My desk is a half-moon front cut-out and I have a TON of stuff under it. |
After putting the groceries away and starting a load of laundry, I settled down to drill holes and insert screws. The hardest part of an under-desk drawer is gravity. It just gets in the way. I tried taping the drawer to the underside so that I could work without balancing the drawer with various parts of my body, but that didn't work. I also found that I needed more power than my drill and my hand screwdriver were able to give me. I'm old (well ... certainly older than many) and I just didn't have the strength.
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| I "borrowed" DH's Milwaukee Power drill. It's a beast, but it really did the job. I needed the extender because the actual tip here was too thick to allow the screws to fit the screw tip of the the drill at a 90 degree angle. The extender worked beautifully. |
So, I found hubby's power drill. The right one - the one that actually was perfectly charged up and ready to use. I was ready to go, and re-drilled my holes to begin mounting the desk. For the actual desk, they provided eight screws for four holes. But for the brackets, they only provided four - one for each bracket to attach to the rail of the drawer. I wasn't having success with the desk drawer as a unit, so I decided to try installing the brackets and then reattach the rails. Great idea, but ... no. Not really a great idea after all because getting those rails and brackets re-attached was well neigh impossible.
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| The screw I needed was about half the height of this one. I ended up with something like this, since it was the smallest one available, and some washers to reduce the length. It actually worked! |
By now my floor had tools scattered around, and screws in a little holding pen so that I didn't lose any. Except ... one bracket that I thought I had reattached properly apparently wasn't and it dropped its screw. Someday when my home is excavated by archaeologists looking at early 21st century lifestyles, they will find a tiny screw. But I wasn't able to find it at all. I grabbed one from the other bracket on that side and bundled up. Time to go to the hardware store.
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| When I need something more unusual, I'll always check my local hardware stores first. The big box stores have their uses, but I prefer the smaller stores. |
I know that the big box stores are hopeless when it comes to things like this. I went to my local ACE Hardware - family owned and operated with lots of screws. The young man helping me really tried, but failed to find anything short enough (we're talking approx 1/4" in length - really tiny). I drove another 20 minutes south to a different ACE where I've found some really tiny screw in the past and talked with a lovely old man who would have put Santa Claus to shame - great white beard and bright red shirt. After a lot of looking we found a screw of the correct dimensions, but longer. I had him toss some washers in to pad out the extra length, and after also finding a nice 4" screwdriver tip extender for the power drill, I was on my way home.
Tools reassembled, screwdriver extender in the power drill and the new screw holding the bracket together successfully, I attacked the desk with renewed determination. I had gone grocery shopping on my way home from the store and had a lovely bento of sushi awaiting me as a treat when finished, so I wanted to make quick work of it. It did take another 30 minutes, and putting some stuff under the left side while I worked on the right, but I was successful! Drawer was installed.
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| Success! I've got drawer once again. I'm absolutely delighted that I am able to type with my hands at a good height once more. It was worth the fuss and bother, but it was a true PITA to get done as a solo person. |
Of course, all of that eliminated my time for the pearl restring. It's coming with me to the shop today where I can at least get started on it. The drawer works perfectly and it's wonderful to have my area back in sync once more. After a wonderful chat with Aearwen, I called it a good day and relaxed for the evening. How was your Wednesday? I'm now into Thursday and the pool is calling. Have a great day and a shout-out to Iris for one of the most wonderful holiday cards I've received so far this year. I'll be scanning cards after the holiday is over, so all of you can see what I mean then. Happy Thursday!
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