Sauder End Tables
Sauder 'Carson Forge #414675' side tables:
Not much here. Small Sauder end tables. Pretty nice little tables. They are what we started with when replacing furniture, inexpensive and look nice and led to acquiring several other Sauder pieces.
Has door in front, with shelf inside. Top has a small slide out shelf for setting stuff on with an open shelf underneath. We originally got 2, one to set beside Margarets chair and one to set at end of sofa. However one at sofa left pretty huge unused space in corner, plus the 2 tables facing each other looked funny. Ended up replacing the one at sofa with larger 'TV' cabinet.
The unused end table was later merged with the "Smart" table to make a larger table between chairs.
Except for the one that was later merged to the Smart table, these were not modified and assembled pretty much as manufactured. Again they are really nice small tables. They also were the simplest to assemble. However of the different Sauder pieces we picked up these were the only pieces I had a real exception and issue with the assembly procedure.
In the highly unlikely scenario that some one actually putting one of these together stumbles upon this page-and only reason for this page
FYI (but not the issue) These use pins and captured cam lock to assemble. Pins shown on right side, the cam lock screw head on the left.
As screw head is turned it pulls the metal wedge shaped pin down spreading the plastic in the hole its inserted into. They work ok. However critical is aligning the plastic as shown. So when it spreads its against the long part of edge of material, NOT against the sides. I read too many reviews where folks tighten and the material splits because plastic is spreading against the sides or thickness. Its just particle board and where hole is in an edge, like shown, there is only about an 1/8" of material to resist the force. No where in any of the instructions of any of the different Sauder furniture pieces I assembled is this mentioned.
This isn't the exception/issue I had with the end tables, Just an FYI, this is typical of all the Sauder pieces I assembled.
Problem with the end tables is the cam locks holding on top. Top is assembled to sides then the 2 slide rails for shelf must be installed working inside the very very small shelf area. Next to impossible. Many end up stripping out wood trying. Just no room. The rails really should be installed before putting on top.
But you cant, because the rails cover the cam screws. Very simple fix as shown above. Drill large holes in the rails so when attached the cam screws holding top are accessible.
Makes it simple to attach the rails with easy access before top is attached and still be able to attach the top. Sauder should really modify the rails to simplify assembly. Doubt that will happen, if you have a drill create holes to access the cam locks thru the rails. Hole only needs to be large enough to insert screwdriver thru. If you don't have drill, at minimum pre install the rails then remove. It would make starting the small screws after top is on easier. This in my eye is a shortfall in design by Sauder that just causes a lot of undue grief that 'could' be easily addressed by the factory.
Other than that really like these tables.
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