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To begin with the idea of normal maps can be a rather scary business and
by starting small you will learn your own techniques as well enjoying
successful normal map bakes. The best place to start is with environment
props, with the advent of real-time sculpting programs like Zbrush and
Mudbox it is rather tempting to jump in at the deep end and in most cases
you will sink. But you can create normal maps without needing to learn
Zbrush or Mudbox and in some circumstances you wouldn't want to use ZB
or MB anyway! For example. A wood crate or a steel security door....or even
a robot. In all these cases you would want to do your detailed modelling in
your native modelling package like 3D Studio Max, Maya or Softimage So
lets begin there!

(For this tutorial I will be using Maya 8.5 with no plugins) I'm going to build a
metal filling cabinet much like the ones you'd expect to find in an office. So
I'll start with building the draws and the outer shell making beveled edges
where I see fit. (see fig1)

You can see there that my overall model is a few different polygonal shapes,
dont worry about this for now! Lets proceed with the detail. As you can see I
have a few beveled edges on the actual draws themselves as well as some
of the cabinet shell itself - this should come out wonderfully but its missing
things.

-Card Holders-
Using more polygon objects I'll build the card holders and handles and
position them in the center of each draw face (see fig2).

-Lock-
Once happy with your shape it's time to build the lock, typically there is only
one master lock on a metal filing cabinet on the top draw. So I'll begin with a
polygon cylinder and do some nasty booleans 'Difference' operations which
can be found in the 'Mesh' drop down menu near the top. So place your
shape that is acting as the cutter roughly where you want the operation to
happen then select your target shape....in this case the cylinder, then select
your cutter! and apply the 'Difference' operation and it will leave a hole in
your mesh. Do this as many times as you like with different shapes to get a
result your happy with and add any bolt heads around the cabinet/draw
surfaces till your happy with the detail. For the bolt heads I simply place a
polygon sphere poking half out of the cabinets surface although you can do
another Booleans cut to make a screw head groove (Note that screw heads
typically arnt round though - see fig3).