Having been a cabinet maker many, many years ago I have a somewhat picky view of commercial self-assembled furnishings. And If youve assembled these kinds of products as many times as I have, you come to expect some limitations here and there in hardware quality, but this one is among the worst Ive seen in terms of hardware components. The cast metal of the screw bolts for the cams were so soft that many of the phillips heads quickly became worthless and I had to tighten them in with a pair of vice grips.
And in some cases, the threading of the screw bolts tore out chips from the finished layer surface before taking hold into the wood.
Theyre also probably not deep enough into the material. I would anticipate this to become a problem over time if the unit is moved around quite a bit.
The cams, too, were soft to the degree that a larger flat screwdriver had to be used to tighten them appropriately.
A design oddity is that there is a supporting center cross-member under the bottom shelf layer but not under the top surface layer although the three pieces that make up both surfaces are the same thickness and apparent strength.
Finally, the wood pegs supplied are actually quite loose in the holes. The instructions indicate you have to tap them into place with a hammer but they slip in easily and will still allow movement - I would recommend using a bit of wood glue if you want it to be a more durable piece of furniture.
For the price its okay.
Having been a cabinet maker many, many years ago I have a somewhat picky view of commercial self-assembled furnishings. And If youve assembled these kinds of products as many times as I have, you come to expect some limitations here and there in hardware quality, but this one is among the worst Ive seen in terms of hardware components. The cast metal of the screw bolts for the cams were so soft that many of the phillips heads quickly became worthless and I had to tighten them in with a pair of vice grips. And in some cases, the threading of the screw bolts tore out chips from the finished layer surface before taking hold into the wood. Theyre also probably not deep enough into the material. I would anticipate this to become a problem over time if the unit is moved around quite a bit. The cams, too, were soft to the degree that a larger flat screwdriver had to be used to tighten them appropriately. A design oddity is that there is a supporting center cross-member under the bottom shelf layer but not under the top surface layer although the three pieces that make up both surfaces are the same thickness and apparent strength. Finally, the wood pegs supplied are actually quite loose in the holes. The instructions indicate you have to tap them into place with a hammer but they slip in easily and will still allow movement - I would recommend using a bit of wood glue if you want it to be a more durable piece of furniture.