DFAE2MBFBW0618 Box Storage System

Oh my - this is quite something to put together. Mine is the leaning tower of Pisa. I got it for my basement. The last thing in the directions is "this must be screwed into a wall to avoid tipping over". I think that should have been the first direction. I didn't plan to drill into my concrete wall. So I tied wire from the joist to the top in 3 places of it and hope for the best.It would have helped a lot if they had lightened the photos in the directions, so you could actually see more specifically how the steps went. They were so dark, I had to guess. The PVC tubes are very difficult to slide together. I had a nasty blood blister from getting my thumb caught between the two pieces. I pushed down on them with my arms and weight, and feared I'd be black and blue. I finally ended up using a hammer to pound the tubes down, a little bit at a time for each one. Luckily this did not crack or break them. It was the only way to move things along.Then you have all those screws. I worked on it for 2 days. I couldn't tell where the screws were supposed to go, from the description and the dark photos. There are 92 screws but twice as many little holes. So I tried to disperse them throughout.I couldn't understand how you could lay the sections flat after you inserted the middle short tubes, however I was able to push them down for one the one stage illustrated in the directions. But it was easier to do the screws when I had it on the floor, so I didn't follow the directions to get it upright to do more of the screws. Therefore, when I put it upright, it was quite the slanted mess.This gets a lot of high ratings. Maybe more of them were used in office situations where those assembling them were engineering pros. I have assembled countless desk units and such over the years. But for one person to assemble this alone, this is not easy at all. You get very warn out putting in the screws. My drill was not powerful enough, so I hand screwed a majority of them.There is no way what I ended up with would look decent in an office. But for my basement, it will do and gets the bankers boxes up off the floor and able to be pulled out individually, without stacking on each other. I bought the shorter boxes. I don't see how the extra long bankers boxes wouldn't hang much too far to be balanced.This is really the only option for bankers boxes, though, if space is a consideration. None of the utility shelves have the right spacing to get this many bank boxes in this small of a space. You'd have to have way more shelving units and a lot of wasted space.

If you’re up for the install, it’s a great shelf and great solution for storing and more easily accessing banker boxes. Sturdy and nice design once assembled, but the assembly complexity level is more advanced than “IKEA level”. Lots of pieces that need to fit together all at once.

Love these things! I have 6 now. (And yes, that is a lot of file boxes to have or store, but the bin racks make storing them easy and neat and tidy. Assembling them, after you go through the first one, is pretty easy. The instructions are fairly clear, but at first can look confusing. Key things: make sure the little nubs on the cross bars face down, not up, so the boxes don't catch on the nubs when you slide boxes in and out of each slot. And likewise, make sure the screws for the bars that go under each box are screwed in from underneath the bar, not on top of it. Also, if you want a really smooth look, put in all screws on the vertical and horizontal bars from the inside of the rack. Their are guide/starter holes for the screws on the inside and the outside of each piece, so you can have either the screws visible from the front/back, or screwed in on the inside. (Inside looks cleaner in my view). All said, a very nice product for a good price. And yes, attach it to the wall with the braces/loops provided. Once attached to the wall it feels like you could load a ton on it (300 pounds I think its rated too), and it won't shake.

I put together 2 of these. The first one took about 2 1/2+ hours to figure out the layout instructions and put it all together, and the 2nd one only a little over an hour after I had gotten the hang of it. The Instructions are just OK w/small black & white photos, the poles are all numbered, but the corner poles could be a little bit more clear about which end is up and down.On a difficulty scale, with 10 being the hardest, I'd say these are about a 6, mainly because of the large number of screws you have to put in (all pilot holes are pre-drilled).Two items you must have on hand are a white head rubber mallet to pound the rods into the holes, and a power drill w/a No #2 Phillips bit, or you'll never get it together. Cardboard "Bankers" File Boxes are sold separately. This file stand system is not meant to be free standing, pvc poles must be strapped to a wall stud or w/the supplied drywall anchors (all hardware is included).After getting them built, it was very sturdy and held full boxes of thick heavy legal sized folders in "Bankers" cardboard boxes. Much less expensive solution than metal cabinets, and especially good for "retired" files that aren't needed too often.Recommend: Would certainly buy again when I need them.

We've had a problem with accumulating files for years. Regular file boxes are too weak to stack well, and when you have to move several boxes to get at the box on the bottom -- well, it just doesn't work.I started with two of the storage systems. They are made of PVC pipe in three sizes that has been cut and drilled. You get a big bag of screws, too. An electric drill/screwdriver is essential because you're going to turn in about a hundred of them. The first one I built took some head scratching and reading the directions VERY carefully, but if you pay close attention, you won't make any mistakes. The second one I built was a breeze. By the way, the file box system MUST be attached to a wall to stand securely and hold the weight of 18 file boxes.In use, they are a dream. Boxes slide easily into their slots, they remove easily from the slots, and if you set up a table nearby to hold a few boxes at a time, you can easily sort and tidy up the contents of the boxes, then put them back in their slots.

Way too many pieces. Way too many screws. Need large area to assemble. Extremely hard to put together. Two people needed. Both of us came out with many deep cuts on fingers and hands because of the difficulty in assembly.