Under the Desk CD-ROM Cubbies.

Turn useless CD-ROM drives into some cubbies to hide things in under your desk.

What You'll Need.

1: a CD-ROM drive that you don't care about. For my example I'm using an old Memorex 48x CD-ROM
2: Tweakers; or precision screw drivers.
3: a medium sized phillips screwdriver
4: a drill
5: *not shown* 4x screws. USE SCREWS THAT WILL NOT GO MORE THAN 3/4 OF THE WAY THROUGH YOUR DESK.
6: drill bit that is no larger around than the screws mentioned in 5. (not sure what size I used.)

Gut the Drive!

1: Usually you can remove the guts by taking out the 4 screws on the bottom of the drive (we'll need to keep them, so don't lose them).

2: Pull of the cover. You might need to pry at it a little.

3: Gently pull on one side or the other and lift up on the guts to remove them completely from the chassis. See figure 2.

Remove All the Fun Parts. :)

I found at least one rare earth magnet and 2 bi-polar DC motors in each drive... We can keep those for fun. The image below is the carnage from 3 drives I tore apart tonight.

Drill the Holes to Keep It in Place.

You need to drill 4 hole in which you will put the screws to hold it to your desk. Most CD-ROM drives don't have that annoying hole in the middle of the case... but the one I used in the example did...

Mount It in Place & Replace the Cover.

1: Drive the screws into the bottom of your desk to hold it in place.
2: Replace the 4 screws and the cover that we removed in the first step.

Now Put Some Stuff in Them!

We're finished, now fill them with crap that might clutter up your desk. I put my remote, phone and external drive in mine.