On Sunday, June 9, 2013 9:31:29 PM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
I do agree that probably with less setup trouble and cost, drilling holes for a hand full of cabinets would best be done with already available tools. But I knew that these particular cabinets were being mass produced. The cabinet appears to be pretty well constructed and the joints are very good but the use of the piano hinges and lack of a decent finish is a little hard on the eyes. The piano hinges used in this orientation is an open invitation for sag, and the doors already have a bit of sag. In anticipation of this I beveled the front and extended the front of the "step up" to help realign the door fronts when returning them to the closed position.

I did initially noticed that bevel on the lower edges (close-up pic of the bottom), but didn't give it a second thought as to why.

Sometimes, the idea of "bigger is better" is not better. For someone's personal thread rack, as that, an enclosed cabinet is a piece of furniture, so I can understand having doors, for looks. For the doors to store spools of thread, also, may be weight-loading the units too much, IMO. When opened, it becomes a display cabinet, with showy (numerous) spools, and contributes very little, if anything, when in actual use for sewing or quilting.

If the doors/hinges are a little weak, the builder sacrificed sturdiness for asthetics (for show?). Might be best to eliminate the doors' rack aspect and just have doors with no pegs. That's a heck of a lot of spool storage on the doors. Not even all my pegs have spools on them and quite a few pairs of pegs have same color spools. Even for hanging on the wall, I made sure the hanger aspect, of my racks, were strong/secure enough not to pull out from the wall.

Another aspect of my rack use: It's not so neat and clean looking. I grab a spool, use it, put it back with end-thread hanging down, so there are ends of threads hanging from almost every used spool... some end threads hang from the bobbins, also. No doubt those quilters and other like-sewers are more neat, than I am, that way.

As per your observations, I think you're suggesting the cabinets could be designed a little better (for sturdiness, at least), a few tweaks here and there, and still be asthetically nice and presentable. Yep, I'd likely agree.

Sonny