Doors and Mini Struts for Dummies

cabinet door with strut

As we read through each day's "research" material, posts at the internet's various surviving content farms, we are often amazed by the apparent inability of supposedly well-educated "freelancers" to read a simple interrogative sentence. Take, for instance, today's nominee: more than a decade ago, some poor schmuck took to the web to find out "How to Install an Overhead Cabinet With Mini Struts." The question made it to eHow.com, where some freelancer using the name F. R. R. Mallory attempted to answer it. Despite FRR's Berkeley degrees, however, she doesn't appear too literate...

You might wonder why we would say something so mean (you wouldn't be the first). Well, look at the question: someone wanted to know how to install the cabinet; Mallory barfed up directions (and rather sloppy ones at that) for installing a set of struts...

Yup, according to FRR, "Upper cabinets often open upward on modern kitchens." In fact, that's rather rare and tends to occur in one of two places: above a combination microwave/exhaust and above a refrigerator; both sites of short, wide cabinets. Regardless of kitchen design, however; first, the OQ didn't want to know how to install the struts, and second, the instructions Mallory supplied are suspect at best.

We firmly believe that if someone asks you how to do something, you are not being helpful when you start by saying stuff like this:

"Follow the mounting directions for your particular mini strut."

We mean really, FRR: if they had the directions, why would they be asking you? Never mind that you completely blew it when you said rubbish like,

• "Screw each bracket into the wood. Select screws shorter than the depth of your cabinet side wall and door." – You do mean "thickness," don't you?
• "Position the strut bracket approximately 2 5/8 inches from the hinge on the inside face of the door. The bottom or cabinet side of the piston should mount 3/4 inch inside the front face of the cabinet, and from one-third to half the height of the cabinet." – Wait, you said to follow the instructions, yet now you're providing measurements? and FRR, do you have any idea how these instructions will work for a cabinet with a face frame? Assuming you have the slightest idea what a face frame is, of course. Or how they'd work if the strut were a different size from that discussed in your (uncited) reference?

So Mallory not only answered the wrong question (a common enough failure of eHow's contributors), what she did say was essentially useless. It appears that she found a random set of instructions for installing gas struts and decided that they would fool the content editor into thinking she knew what she was talking about.

Well, maybe her bullshit fooled eHow's content editor, but it didn't fool us. More to the point, it's highly unlikely to have ever helped anyone who needed help installing an overhead cabinet whose door operated on struts, most likely in an RV or travel trailer. See why Mallory is now the proud owner of a Dumbass of the Day award? Sure you do...

DDIY - CABINETS