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Tales from the repair guy


kmealy

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Spent half the day yesterday at the furniture bank with a couple other guys.  They seemed to have enough help to cut parts so I spent my time doing repairs.  Some of the usual stuff, but two of the pieces were RTA (ready to assemble) furniture held together with connectors.  One was a drawer in five pieces.  Added some glue, screws and corner blocks.  The second was a large six drawer dresser.  The top was off, the frame was mostly apart split in a few places, and the drawers were drooping in position.  In addition to the connectors there were a few dowels, 1/4", in oversize holes (I guess "for alignment only")  Added glue where I could and hoped for the best.  Particle board was often even too thin (and fragile) to add something like pocket screws.   I could not believe such a large and heavy piece was made this way.

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We did some furniture shopping a few years ago when our children were getting out of the house.  We wanted them to have quality furniture.  I was so disheartened when I saw so much particle board that looked good at a distance, but up close, it was not worth the refuse pile.  For a chest of drawers, they wanted something like $500 for paper over particle board.  I told my children, tell me what you want and we'll make it.  

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59 minutes ago, FlGatorwood said:

We did some furniture shopping a few years ago when our children were getting out of the house.  We wanted them to have quality furniture.  I was so disheartened when I saw so much particle board that looked good at a distance, but up close, it was not worth the refuse pile.  For a chest of drawers, they wanted something like $500 for paper over particle board.  I told my children, tell me what you want and we'll make it.  

It will mean more to them, for sure.

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If you can't make it, i still recommend checking places like your local Restore resale.   we get all manner of furniture into our local store and much of it is from older folks and the kids don't want all the "wood" stuff.   they're looking for the ikea style (which my dad used to call schlock:(

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20 hours ago, DAB said:

there is something satisfying about being able to say "i helped make that"

Like from IKEA?   I have occasionally seen "IKEA hacks" that for the most part are not all that clever.

 

Not that all IKEA stuff is all that terrible, for what you pay for it.

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