I know some Forums members do master level furniture building, beautiful pieces out of expensive and rare hardwoods and such. This is not that. My wife spotted a coffee table online, assemble yourself. She liked the color of muted blue-green, and she wanted it. I thought it looked nice but was rather heavy for a coffee table at 50 pounds, but agreed to her purchase. I knew I'd have to study the instructions because the last thing you want to have to do is disassemble the item and start over, so study I did. At first I thought I'd wandered into crazy land. The table is held together with patented "hidden cams," cam dowels, and cam screws mostly. These have to be put in place but only tightened when they are juxtaposed with the other part that joins them -- cam with dowel or screw. Once I got the drift, I think it went okay. The last assemblage needed a bit of persuasion and didn't fit as tidily as the rest, but it seems to hang together. It's just a kit, and someone else has done the thinking, but there was some satisfaction in have a coffee table out of a pile of parts, I admit. My wife gave me a rocking chair to assemble when I retired, but I don't always get in it as often as I'd like. Next a corner book case, but relatively, it looks straightforward -- uh oh. Any self-assembly adventures to report out there?
