OOPS! Sorry, C-Bag. Didn't see yur question until just now. Regarding sturdiness - they're a pretty light gauge of sheet metal, but well designed. The fold lines are punched, so it's easy to fold in the right places without a brake. The drawer ends slip on, then you bend a tab to retain them. I ran a bead of hot melt along the joint areas, to reinforce and de-rattle, as well as to prevent small objects from slipping out. The drawer sides have inverted U channels on the top of the outside edges, Mating U channels are assembled to the sides of the case. They slide pretty nicely by themselves, but I used a Q-tip to apply Motor Honey inside all the Us. Now they slip in and out very easily. Each drawer has a pair of tabs you can bend outward, to prevent it from pulling out all the way. But the tabs are not too easy to bend back, and I decided I'd rather be careful opening drawers than not be able to remove them. The kit comes with four non-swivel casters for the bottom. I left them off because of how I was using the units.
What else to say? The cases are NOT something I'd want to place a heavy load on top of. And I'm sure they're pretty vulnerable to dents, etc. As others have pointed out, the drawers are not suitable for heavy loads. And I don't see a good way to reinforce them. But they've served me VERY well for what I'm using them for. I think I saw somebody (sorry, couldn't find it again in my hurry) suggest downloading the assembly instructions. That would be a good idea if my ramblings aren't clear enough. As you and others have pointed out, $40 ain't bad.
AGREED!!!! I really dislike the maze-like layout of the stores. Nearly impossible to find anything specific! They want you to take the full tour and get "ideas" and buy on impulse. I guess their business model/ target market is hipsters looking for ideas to decorate their first apartment. As the saying goes, Ikea stuff is good for
at most two moves.
IF you're able to figure out what you want from the website, you can save a lot of time and aggravation by going directly to the warehouse section and using one of the kiosk computers to find out where the item is stocked, then just grab a cart and pick it up. Skip the maze! The rub can be figgering out what it is you want. When I was first composing my post above, I'd forgotten the Helmer name, and tried various (fruitless!) searches for "drawer unit," "metal drawers," etc. No joy. So I went out to the shop and found the assembly instructions I'd filed away. About the only other Ikea item I've bought recently was a bookshelf unit that I'm using as a display case. Got the name of the item from watching one of Adam Savage's videos on
https://www.tested.com
