Catskill Craftsmen Library Book Truck in Natural Maple

This book cart with wheels is supposed to be used for moving many books from point A to point B. The wooden materials and wheels provided are excellent for this purpose. The overall design and impression are quite pleasing. Looks can be deceiving! This unit, when assembled following instructions, is totally inadequate for its intended purpose. Its main failure is that the 12 bolts used to attach the three shelfs (bottom, top, middle) to the two sides are not nearly sufficient for holding the entire unit firmly together when loaded with typical books. Thus, despite very tight fastening of the three shelfs to the left and right ends, the book cart leans sideways terribly when either pushed or pulled. The weight of books is simply far too great for the 12 screws provided to hold this unit firmly together by themselves. Since I had considerable money and time already invested for initial purchase and assembly, and returning the unit after I assembled it would require even more time and money lost, I decided to reinforce (rebuild) the unit myself rather than returning it. So I first used a strong wood glue to strengthen the attachment of the three boards to the sides and then retightened the 12 blots with this additional reinforcement; this helped a great deal. The book cart is now fairly stable and I can push and pull it when fully loaded. I am now searching hardware stores for two steel cross bars to attach, "X like", -- the right top shelf to left bottom shelf and vise versa on the back of case -- to further strengthen the structural integrity of the unit. Had the manufacturer included the appropriate glue, and two back cross struts to hold the entire unit together, this would have been a five star product. As it is, this product, thought quite pretty, is a disaster!

This book cart with wheels is supposed to be used for moving many books from point A to point B. The wooden materials and wheels provided are excellent for this purpose. The overall design and impression are quite pleasing. Looks can be deceiving! This unit, when assembled following instructions, is totally inadequate for its intended purpose. Its main failure is that the 12 bolts used to attach the three shelfs (bottom, top, middle) to the two sides are not nearly sufficient for holding the entire unit firmly together when loaded with typical books. Thus, despite very tight fastening of the three shelfs to the left and right ends, the book cart leans sideways terribly when either pushed or pulled. The weight of books is simply far too great for the 12 screws provided to hold this unit firmly together by themselves. Since I had considerable money and time already invested for initial purchase and assembly, and returning the unit after I assembled it would require even more time and money lost, I decided to reinforce (rebuild) the unit myself rather than returning it. So I first used a strong wood glue to strengthen the attachment of the three boards to the sides and then retightened the 12 blots with this additional reinforcement; this helped a great deal. The book cart is now fairly stable and I can push and pull it when fully loaded. I am now searching hardware stores for two steel cross bars to attach, "X like", -- the right top shelf to left bottom shelf and vise versa on the back of case -- to further strengthen the structural integrity of the unit. Had the manufacturer included the appropriate glue, and two back cross struts to hold the entire unit together, this would have been a five star product. As it is, this product, thought quite pretty, is a disaster!