Taffycat
Crunchy Cat
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2006
- Messages
- 12,853
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It's not unknown for me to indulge in a spot of DIY, which I rather enjoy, so, my latest project involved putting together a couple of flat-pack cabinets.
Specifically, they are for the bedside - with a drawer on top and a one-door cupboard beneath. The first one went together very easily and only took me a short time to complete. (The instructions were not great, but that didn't matter, because I'm pretty familiar with all the bits and pieces, so instinctively knew which bits went where.
I then set to work on the second cabinet and promptly came unstuck, when - of all things - one of the metal cam-locks sheared off as I tightened it! (For anyone who might not be "into" DIY, the cam quite literally locks a metal dowel into place, drawing two panels into a nice, invisible, strong joint.) Very annoying, but no biggie...... or so I thought.
This is what is looks like:
How very wrong. We travelled around most of the darned county yesterday, trying to find a replacement cam lock. Most DIY stores claimed either "...er, no call for 'em.." or else showed us their supply of door locks! Duh!
Smaller hardware stores were more productive.... but all their offerings were the wrong size, being much too big for the job.
We even tried a local joinery. They were really helpful, and had a cupboard full of left-over, spare cams locks.... none of which were the correct size, all were much bigger. (No, I can't make the holes any bigger in the panels, because they'd then be too close to the edge...)
Naturally, I resorted to the internet... but, when I managed to locate a suitable size, at 49 pence each, I spluttered into my coffee, when I found they wanted £5 just for p&p!
I really don't want to be mean, but really, how expensive can it be to pop one of these things into a wee jiffy-bag and post it?
Elsewhere, I would be required to purchase a whole pack of about 20 of the things.... for £9, plus an additional £5 p&p. (Clearly better postage value to buy a pack.... but come on... it's a bit of a rip off to charge the same for just one item.... isn't it...? And I don't really need 19 spares!)
So my project is currently at a bit of a standstill as I try to think of a way around this. There are always knock-down blocks, I suppose, but they're not quite so neat as the metal dowel and cam set-up and not entirely suitable for the location either.
Oh well... back to the drawing-board I guess...
Specifically, they are for the bedside - with a drawer on top and a one-door cupboard beneath. The first one went together very easily and only took me a short time to complete. (The instructions were not great, but that didn't matter, because I'm pretty familiar with all the bits and pieces, so instinctively knew which bits went where.
I then set to work on the second cabinet and promptly came unstuck, when - of all things - one of the metal cam-locks sheared off as I tightened it! (For anyone who might not be "into" DIY, the cam quite literally locks a metal dowel into place, drawing two panels into a nice, invisible, strong joint.) Very annoying, but no biggie...... or so I thought.
This is what is looks like:
How very wrong. We travelled around most of the darned county yesterday, trying to find a replacement cam lock. Most DIY stores claimed either "...er, no call for 'em.." or else showed us their supply of door locks! Duh!
Smaller hardware stores were more productive.... but all their offerings were the wrong size, being much too big for the job.
We even tried a local joinery. They were really helpful, and had a cupboard full of left-over, spare cams locks.... none of which were the correct size, all were much bigger. (No, I can't make the holes any bigger in the panels, because they'd then be too close to the edge...)
Naturally, I resorted to the internet... but, when I managed to locate a suitable size, at 49 pence each, I spluttered into my coffee, when I found they wanted £5 just for p&p!
I really don't want to be mean, but really, how expensive can it be to pop one of these things into a wee jiffy-bag and post it?
Elsewhere, I would be required to purchase a whole pack of about 20 of the things.... for £9, plus an additional £5 p&p. (Clearly better postage value to buy a pack.... but come on... it's a bit of a rip off to charge the same for just one item.... isn't it...? And I don't really need 19 spares!)
So my project is currently at a bit of a standstill as I try to think of a way around this. There are always knock-down blocks, I suppose, but they're not quite so neat as the metal dowel and cam set-up and not entirely suitable for the location either.
Oh well... back to the drawing-board I guess...
Well, Well TC I have one of those cam locks but only one and you are welcome to it if you want it 
