anyone make their own art supplies/furniture?

[steve kim]

i'm trying to organize all my drawings so i've been looking at flat files but MANG THEY ARE SO EXPENSIVE. like at 3-600 bux a pop.

like: http://www.dickblick.com/zz512/20/products.asp?param=0&ig_id=3761

so i've been thinking about building my own. something simple w/out drawers. but i'm not sure where to begin. i've never had woodshop or anything like that...

my biggest concern though is the acidity of wood. i figure i'll have to coat it with somethnig so i dont yellow the paper that will be sitting on it. what would do the trick? polyeurathane or something?

wondering what kind of wood to use too..

hmmm

[liam.c]

ive gone to make book shelves soo many times but .. by th e time i price the wood and every thign ... it ends up costing the same or more then if ijust buy one :(
so dnno but gl

[Stray]

I've made palettes, drawing boards, brush racks, pencil bins, small tables, etc. out of wood and acrylic. I've never made anything like what you're talking about but if you weren't too concerned with the way it looks I'm sure you could make something very simple with plywood and 2x4s. If you wanted it to look a little nicer you could sand it and then stain, varnish or paint it. I have no idea if the wood would cause problems with the paper but maybe you could put some shelf/contact paper on the shelves.
If you're apprehensive about building something try checking out some local used office furniture stores or see if there are any places that are closing/moving and trying to get rid of things you might be able to use. Here where I live one of the big department stores recently closed and they've been liquidating everything, I've seen a lot of shelves and cabinets sold for under $50 that would make great art storage.

[young paddy1]

Are you saying they are $3600 or three drawers are $600? Either way I got a set of plan drawers (same thing) for £89, 8 drawers twice the size of A0 and the only problem was getting them up the stairs.

Try office surplus warehouses/stores.