Dictation Slide design questions

[Bob]

I want to modify my wife's desk to add a dictation slide. For those of you not familiar with the term, its a flat sliding shelf located just below the desk writing surface. It usually has a small centered knob on the front. You can pull it out to provide temporary writing space to the right or left of the person sitting at the desk. I think of it as a cutting board mounted in a desk with a knob on the front.

I will cut down one of the side drawers to make room for the dictation slide. What I am not sure about is how to make the joints for the sliding sides. I prefer to use wood sliding on wood, instead of some kind of metal shelf hardware. I'm thinking it needs to be some kind of loose fitting tongue in groove or sliding dovetail.

What do you recommend?

Bob

[Leon]

Bob I built a desk with 2 of those slides. I simply put a cleat on both inner sides of the desk cabinet and a cross piece in front where the face frame may or may not be. The cleats keep the slide from falling inside the drawer located below when closed.

[bridger]

the board is the tongue. build channels and mount them in the desk for the board to slide in.