Celtlund
30-10-2005, 21:46
The wife wanted a curio cabinet to put her doll collection and other stuff in for a long time. A week or so ago a store had them on sale for about $150.00 and her birthday is coming soon. Very nice looking cabinet, lots of glass in the front, glass doors on the side, glass shelves, an upper and lower mirror in the back, a light in the top and a cherry wood finish, very posh and well worth the money. Oh, did I mention you have to put it together yourself?
Got it home, got the neighbor to help me get it in the house and put the huge box in the front hall were it stayed for a week while I got up the gumption to put it together. Yesterday I opened the box, got out the directions, and did an inventory. Surprise, everything was there.
I sat down to read the directions, which were printed in China. Fortunately, they were written in English and were marginally poor. Not real clear on some things which made putting the thing together a little of a challenge.
We didn’t get it all done yesterday and all we had to do today was put the upper and lower mirrors on the back and install the shelves. The mirrors are supposed to fit into a groove in the wood, but instead of using clips to hold the mirrors in place you get two pieces of heavy cardboard and a bunch of screws. The cardboard goes over the back of the mirrors and the screws hold everything in place. Needless to say, the mirrors did not fit into the groove. Side to side they fit perfectly, but they were a little to long.
Well said I, I’ll just set the mirrors in place, make sure they set in the groove in the bottom and put the cardboard in place. That will be fine. It will hold. Needless to say, there were no predrilled holes in the wood for the screws, so I put the cardboard in place over the mirrors, and drilled through the holes into the cardboard into the wood. I used my trusty electric drill to tighten the 25 or so screws and when I was almost done, I heard a very distinctive and loud POP. I froze and the wife said, “What’s wrong?” I replied, I think I just broke the mirror. The cabinet was laying face down on the floor while we put the mirrors and back on. When I set the cabinet up straight, both mirrors were cracked.
Was the huge crack in the mirror of the cabinet on display in the store trying to tell me something? Why can’t life be simple? Why can’t people build kits that have all the pieces and all the parts fit? We humans can make precision equipment that will take astronauts into space, but we just can’t seem to make kit furniture that works. :headbang:
Got it home, got the neighbor to help me get it in the house and put the huge box in the front hall were it stayed for a week while I got up the gumption to put it together. Yesterday I opened the box, got out the directions, and did an inventory. Surprise, everything was there.
I sat down to read the directions, which were printed in China. Fortunately, they were written in English and were marginally poor. Not real clear on some things which made putting the thing together a little of a challenge.
We didn’t get it all done yesterday and all we had to do today was put the upper and lower mirrors on the back and install the shelves. The mirrors are supposed to fit into a groove in the wood, but instead of using clips to hold the mirrors in place you get two pieces of heavy cardboard and a bunch of screws. The cardboard goes over the back of the mirrors and the screws hold everything in place. Needless to say, the mirrors did not fit into the groove. Side to side they fit perfectly, but they were a little to long.
Well said I, I’ll just set the mirrors in place, make sure they set in the groove in the bottom and put the cardboard in place. That will be fine. It will hold. Needless to say, there were no predrilled holes in the wood for the screws, so I put the cardboard in place over the mirrors, and drilled through the holes into the cardboard into the wood. I used my trusty electric drill to tighten the 25 or so screws and when I was almost done, I heard a very distinctive and loud POP. I froze and the wife said, “What’s wrong?” I replied, I think I just broke the mirror. The cabinet was laying face down on the floor while we put the mirrors and back on. When I set the cabinet up straight, both mirrors were cracked.
Was the huge crack in the mirror of the cabinet on display in the store trying to tell me something? Why can’t life be simple? Why can’t people build kits that have all the pieces and all the parts fit? We humans can make precision equipment that will take astronauts into space, but we just can’t seem to make kit furniture that works. :headbang: