Techni MobiliRolling Storage Cabinet With Frosted Glass Top. Color: Graphite

Not that long ago there were printer stands of every kind available. Not just cheap tables but high quality office grade heavy duty stands that looked appropriate for business use. It is very difficult to find those anymore. I spent hours researching one for a color laser printer with enough room for the typical basic supplies like extra paper and spare toner cartridges and after a lot of effort this is the one I came up with. My expectations were low considering the price but the size is perfect for the space I have available and the color is contemporary and attractive.The main unit is sent in one pak and the heavy tempered glass top arrives in another, with an impressive amount of protection around it. Unfortunately I can’t say I was even remotely impressed with the way the main unit was sloppily thrown together. At first I thought it was previously owned because some of the pieces were preassembled, but I guess that’s how they designed it. The pieces were dirty and some were deeply gouged although the unit showed no signs of physical mishandling.I’ve put together at least a hundred ready to assemble furniture pieces for stores and my home so I would consider myself at the expert level. Good instructions are never enough, you have to be able to visualize the finished unit and trust your sense of logic when putting something like this together. The instructions for this unit are actually better than average, the drawings are clear and show closeup diagrams of each step. Some descriptions are better than others and in at least one instance they were completely wrong, identifying left as right and right as left.There are an unusual number of pieces for this piece with many bags of different sizes and types of fasteners, in my opinion far more different types than necessary. By nature it has to be a one person assembly, but there is one step that absolutely requires two people. It took a lot longer than I estimated, close to five hours from start to finish.Here are some hints based on things I ran into.1. Because of sloppy manufacturing some of the holes and most of the channel tracks are completely covered in the vinyl that coats all surfaces. For the holes if you poke a fastener through it you run the risk of tearing the vinyl away from the surface so it is better to poke through the vinyl with the tip of a pencil or similar sharp object. For the unfinished channel tracks you should cut the vinyl away with an xacto knife, otherwise you may find inserting the cardboard back or drawer bottoms into the slots impossible.2. This cabinet uses primarily cam locks to hold it together. They rarely stay tight for long so I always use a good grade of pro wood glue at all assembly points where one surface touches another.3. The unit comes with a small but nice tool with a soft rubbery handle. Use it. You might be tempted to use your own screwdriver or even a power tool. Although the included tool is small the size and rubbery handle actually work to your benefit to help over torqueing the fasteners.4. Remove the part ID numbers as you get to each part, otherwise some of them get trapped between two pieces making for an unattractive finished product.5. When you get to the glass top turn it over on to a piece of the thin foam material to avoid scratching it and to keep it from sliding around. Don’t insert the fasteners into the metal rise dowels but rather insert them into the metal ferrules bonded to the glass and hand tighten them, then insert the metal dowel on to the fastener.6. Clean the undersurface of the glass with a good glass cleaner before you install it. It is very dirty and will be almost impossible to reach later. Also, note that there is a subtle etching stating that this is tempered glass, if it might bother you later make sure you orient the glass so that logo isn’t upside down.7. Glue the cardboard backing and drawer bottoms into the channel grooves all the way around. This will add a lot to the structural strength of the product.The finished product is relatively sturdy and attractive. Unlike most ready to assemble furniture that tries to pretend it is wood grain this one opts to cover all visible surfaces with a tough sheet of spatter paint dark gray vinyl that not only looks good but is easy to clean. The cabinet would have looked better without the gouges on it and would have functioned a little better if they put a little more effort into designing a stronger drawer system.If you think the floating glass top is only for looks and otherwise impractical, in fact under it turns out to be an excellent space to store a laptop with power supply, mouse, etc. It seems I never have a good place in my home office for my laptop and this location is perfect.BOTTOM LINEBefore I even received my order I got a form letter from Elizabeth at the marketing company requesting a review and asking me to contact her if I had any problems. I only post the facts but I am willing to take into account how a company resolves issues and tries to improve so I contacted her back to discuss the defects. I hoped for an immediate and positive resolution but now a week later she simply ignored me. That tells me everything about their customer service and proves my suspicion that they really don’t care. The product is adequate but the customer service is non existent.

Assembly not for the feint of heart...First, and the reason for my 4 star rating, I was impressed with quality. The building materials are higher than I've come to expect from flat-pack furniture of this price. It feels sturdy once built and the glass top feels heavy duty. 'Once built' being the key words in that last sentence. This thing was a nightmare to put together and my hands and fingers are aching the next day as I'm typing this.It will take very strong hands to put this together (insanely strong if you're to use the tiny included screw-driver). It is a fight to thread every single screw into this material. I highly recommend gloves and a larger screw driver. I just ended up breaking an important law of flat-pack furniture and got out my power drill. My 18-volt drill was still not powerful enough to thread in the screws all of the way, so I still had to put considerable effort into finishing off each screw. I probably could have gotten out a socket wrench, but I've put too much torque into fiberboard furniture in the past and learned my lesson. I've never been so physically sore the following day from construction of this type.To put the last handle on the drawer as well required me to slot the hole as they were too close together. Luckily, this uses the only type of screw on the assembly with a built in washer. This, however, was really the only quality issue with the product. Directions were easy to follow and the parts came labeled, with plenty of spares.Pros:Solid constructionGood materials (relative to other flat-pack furniture)Looks goodEasy to follow instructionsSpare partsEverything lined up with minimal adjustmentCons:AssemblyI highly recommend a cordless drill with an impact driver attachment. (Be Careful!!!)

Upon getting this item I quickly appreciated the fact that it is delivered in two seperate boxes. One houses the glass top and the other the wood cabinet/hardware. This insured nothing was broken or chipped and made the boxes easy to manuver around. After opening and inspecting the boxes, I loved how all the screws were individually grouped together and labeled, the directions had very little words. I mean hardly any! This isn't that bad of an issue, however it leaves a few items up for debate and/or guesswork. The directions illustrated fairly well what to do in most cases however. The unit took about an hour and a half to complete. I actually took my time and slowly worked thorugh everything to ensure it was done correctly the first time. I am seasoned/skilled at putting things together and I was impressed by the quality of the items. Nothing, besides the back and drawer panels, felt cheap. The wood was solid, MDF, but still didn't feel as if it would easily chip away or crack. The wheels and the accent pieces are well made. The wheels were a mix of pastic and metal, two of the wheels move freely, while two have locking switches to lock or unlock as warranted. The handles were not even plastic! The door hinges were a lot better quality than I would have thought too. One thing that stood out during the install was that they supplied an actual phillips head screwdriver! That was the first I have ever seen of that. I am used to the customary allen wrench but to receive an actual screwdriver was impressive. Its very small, but it was actually needed once or twice for the tight areas.An issue I have is the size of the unit. While standing over the unit I expected it to a little taller than it was. While sitting down its not bad but again it is not as high as I expected a three drawer setup to be. The drawers are small, they are not that deep or long, however they are okay for storage.After all is said and done I would recommend this unit. It looks GREAT! The quality is GREAT! The size could be better but it wouldn't deter me from buying this unit again.

Awesome. Just what I needed.