Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First let me apologize for giving this any stars. However after many hours of assembly it did make an acceptable shelf. My wife and I are finally going through boxes that have sat around since we moved and I needed a shelf for my small parts and things in my room in the basement. Already had big shelves, needed a set of small ones for little things like computer parts,manuals, small boxes of items that would get buried in a big shelf. I had a hard time finding what I wanted, lots of shelves, not too deep or tall, and able to handle a decent amount of weight until I found the Edsal canning shelf. I read the reviews and it seemed the assembly experience of some was horrid and others not so bad. To my regret I discounted the negative reviews on assembly, figuring some portion of the reviewers might simply not have been mechanically inclined or followed directions well. I also found the same brand and model offered online from big box retailers, figured they would not all sell it if it was as bad as some stated. This size of shelf and number of shelves does not seem common or easy to find. If some manufacture decides they can cut and bend sheet metal in a straight line they could corner the market on these shelves, however the Edsal shelf I received sure don't meet that standard. I now believe the variation in assembly experience is due to a lack of quality control in manufacturing these shelves. Some folks got lucky, some did not. I base this on 7 years working in a plant that manufactured stamped, formed and punched steel parts that use the same processes as are used to make these type of shelves. From steel in the door to prototype development and all the manufacturing steps in-between I have been there and done that. I know what causes the type of quality problems I saw. Simply put the shelves I received were cut a little off and or fed into the form press a little off, and in some cases the press itself was probably a little off. That accounts for the consistent location of the places where there were quality issues. Same bad bend or too much metal in slightly different amounts, same location. I posted pictures of both what was messed up and how I addressed it to assemble the shelves. 1). Do not assemble as instructed, build 1/2 of the shelf unit on a table upside down starting with top shelf, then move to floor when half the shelves are in and add the second leg section (still upside down) then continue to add the rest of the shelves. If you follow the instructions and put the leg sections together with the top and bottom shelf in place you will have a flimsy, floppy framework that can't be moved and will have you working on your hands and knees for a couple of hours. You need to work with shelf unit upside down to get the nuts into place. 2). Do not tighten ANY shelf nuts beyond getting them started until you have at least half the shelves in, even then leave the last shelf loose until the rest are added. You WILL need the play and slop from the loose screws to twist and push leg holes into alignment with shelf holes as you add shelves. 3). Do not expect shelves to fit between legs, two of my seven shelves were so under bent or so poorly formed at the ends that the shelf was too long. I fixed by laying shelf upside down on wood with shelf bend lined up with wood edge with a little overhang, standing in middle of shelf to avoid bending rolled edges and clamp it down with my weight. I used a wood block and gentle hammer strokes to finish bending the end in. You can also somewhat fix the deformed corners with a wood block and hammer. You will probably scratch the shelf paint, don't worry paint job is bad enough it won't really matter. Pictures posted. 4). Typical of sheet metal shelves the edges are folded over, this adds rigidity, however in this design the front and back edge fold forms a "box" with a screw hole on the outside and a square hole on the inside to apply the nut. Good luck with that. The square hole is not in front of the screw hole. You have 28 little nuts that have to be inserted through the square hole then slid sideways inside the box to get them in front of the machine screw hole, then held in place by the very edge of the nut while you start the screw into the nut. If you don't get the nut behind the inside of the "box" edge when you tighten you will crush the box and deform the edge. Even more than it was when manufactured. New friend, bent needle nose pliers. Pictures posted. 5). While doing step 4 don't expect the screw hole in the shelf to align with the screw hole in the leg, it may not even be close enough to share the same zip code. A bar clamp or ratcheting cargo strap are now your new best friends to align screw holes. Pictures posted. 6). If paint finish matters plan on repainting, and plan on sanding off the places where the paint job is really poor before repainting. I decided I don't care, if it was going in the laundry room or pantry my wife might not share that opinion. 7). I would do everything I could to avoid re-drilling holes or reaming holes that only partially line up with a drill, there just isn't enough metal around the holes. Bar clamp across legs, ratchet cargo strap or even a light rope around two legs with a stick used to twist the rope tight would be a better option. I figure I'm pretty mechanically inclined, between manufacturing job mentioned above, machine shop, welding work, and three years working as a state certified master motorcycle mechanic I have spent at least 20 years of my life making a living by making or assembling stuff. Add in hobbies, rebuilding cars, building computers, remodeling a few of houses and the general it's broke so I guess I'll have to fix it work brings it up to about 40 years of using tools. Assembling this shelf makes it into my top 10 list of things I don't ever want to work on again. To sum it up the only thing that makes this shelf worth purchasing is desperation or the free time to devote several hours to assembly if you lose the lottery on getting a "good" set. The fact that I can't get those boxes off the floor until I get someplace to put the stuff is what made me desperate enough to assemble instead of sending back when I opened the box and saw bent and badly formed shelves. I did not expect Cadillac quality for a Chevy price but I did expect a decently built Chevy if I paid for a Chevy. Too bad I would have bought one or two more if this one had not been more of a pain to assemble than building them from scratch or buying a decently manufactured one at a garage sale. I'm sure I could repaint an old rusty one that was well built with a lot less work than assembling this one new. As always delivery from Amazon was as expected, package arrived on time and without problems.