March 15, 2019
Dear Everyone:
A few weeks ago, I decided that a larger bedside table was needed.
So I tried moving the TV cart over in place of the table, just to get a
feel for what would work.
I’ve had this cart for quite a few years.
It was originally built to hold a big, heavy
Cathode Ray Tube
(CRT) TV, with a shelf to contain the
Videocassette Recorder (VCR), and
a lower cabinet to hold all the
Video Home System (VHS) tapes that went
with the VCR.
Actually, the TV cart was just about the right size.
But that meant finding something to hold the TV in the bedroom.
The existing bedside table was much too small as well as being
too low. I tried looking up
“tv stand” online and was surprised to discover that most places don’t
even carry the kind of cart I was looking for.
Remember those big, heavy CRT TVs?
Nobody makes them anymore.
Instead, everyone now makes the much lighter
flat screen TVs that
we all have. So naturally,
they don’t make TV carts to hold big, heavy CRTs.
Instead they make sleek “stands” that can hold a flat screen on a
couple of light metal posts.
After a bit of comparison shopping*, I decided on a stand that claimed
to accommodate flat screen TVs ranging from 30 inches to 70.
The bedroom TV is a 32-incher, so it looked like a good choice.
When it arrived, and I wrestled it out of the carton, it was
clearly larger than I had anticipated.
No matter. I had already
decided to get a “real” bedside table, based on the overall dimensions
of the TV cart, and sent the original cart back to its place under the
TV across the room from the bed.
In the meantime, I decided to use the new stand for the (much
larger) living room TV.
That, of course, meant assembling the stand.
It used to be, when you bought something with “Assembly required”, it
meant getting instructions rendered incomprehensible, and sometime
hilarious, by some computer-translation.
These days, there are no instructions, just pictures with little
letters combined with teeny-tiny arrows pointing at inconceivable
places.
This stand came with pieces labeled A through Z, plus many, many screws
and washers and such in individual plastic pockets, also marked PA
through PZ. And a couple of
allen wrenches, one of which doubled as a Philips-head
screwdriver, plus
another cute little wrench, just like the bedside table that I had
assembled the week before.
Flush with the earlier success, I decided to start by putting together
just the base, which consisted of only about 20 pieces.
How long could that take?
Several hours, it turned out, using the various wrenches to attach
screws to casters to legs.
While it did result in sore fingers, it successfully ensured against the
scourge of overtightening.
Having got that done, I decided to wait a week or two before continuing.
No sense in rushing anything.
In the meantime, I put the base, along with all the other parts in the
“back bedroom”, also known as The Really Big Closet.
This worked fabulously, except for the parts where I tripped over
it every time I needed something in “storage”.
Eventually, I dragged the whole thing back out into the living room and
continued the Saga of The Assembly.
Two telescoping vertical poles went into the base, fastened with
the ever-present wrenches and screws.
Next up, literally, was a cross-piece of metal with a plethora of holes,
of varying size and width, in it.
These holes were meant to correspond with holes in the upper part
of the poles. Seriously.
That’s clearly what the little picture seemed to be
communicating.
Also, there was a flat vertical arm meant to attach to the cross piece
and hold up a shelf at the top of this whole monstrosity, in case you
wanted to perch a DVD player or something on it.
I actually got to this point when I decided it was time to take another
breather. Plus, the next
step required at least two people to attempt.
It said so in the little pictures.
“Jeannie”, blessings be upon her, agreed to come down a few weeks ago
and help me get the actual TV up onto the actual stand.
First, we had to attach two arms to the back of the TV.
There were a great many screws provided for this.
In fact, upon a visual inspection of the TV back, it actually
came with screws in place for this very purpose.
Unfortunately, after removing said screws, it was clear that they were
not long enough. This meant
going through the usual “Goldilocks process of elimination”.
Trying screws that ranged from “that’s too long” to “that’s too
short” and so on.
Eventually, we decided to try a set of screws that looked like they
would do.
With the arms (sort of) firmly attached to the back of the TV, it was a
fairly simple step, requiring two people, to lift the whole thing up
onto the cross piece and “hang” it in place.
At this point, the little pictures advised placing a couple of
provided screws into place to “lock” the whole thing together with a
not-provided screwdriver.
Fortunately, I have lots of screwdrivers.
And that’s that. I now have
an enormous TV stand in the living room, holding the flat screen TV only
slightly higher than I am.
Admittedly, that’s not very high.
Nevertheless, there it is.
In point of fact, I can move it closer to the wall than when it
was on the original big black stand.
And who’s going to notice it once I place a large potted plant in front
of it? Or I could wrap some
floral garlands around the vertical poles, as long as they don’t block
the VCR and cable box on a small table behind the stand.
Just think how festive it will look next
Christmas with
holiday lights
dangling from it!
Love, as always,
Pete
*Comparison shopping while online.
When you want to compare items online, you can point to the item,
then right-click and choose “Open link in a new tab”.
That opens the item in a separate tab, so you don’t lose your
place in the original item list.
You can do that more than four times, which is the usual limit
that online retailers allow you to use to “compare” items.
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