You dont need expert assembly to put together this bench. However, there was a flaw in the manufacturing that almost caused us to return this item. The sides of the box are held together by a two part system, a screw that goes into a carousal. When the carousal is turned, the head of the screw is locked into place. The hole for the carousal are pre/drilled. The buyer drops 12 carousals into their respective holes. Of the 12 needed to hold the sides of the box in place, 11 were drilled too deep. The head of the screw could not meet the carousal and lock into place. You could hear them scraping the side of the carousal. We worked for about 45 minutes to hold the carousals w/kebab skewers at exactly the right depth to get the screws to go into their slot. This was obviously a machine flaw. I was writing out my return notice on s website when my mechanical engineer husband said he thought he figured out a workaround. If you are not a mechanical engineer and dont have wood filler handy at home, Id save the packaging material in case you get shipped a bench tooled at the same time ours. We managed to put our together after the workaround and it functions well. Three stars for the hassle.
Manufacturing flaw
You dont need expert assembly to put together this bench. However, there was a flaw in the manufacturing that almost caused us to return this item. The sides of the box are held together by a two part system, a screw that goes into a carousal. When the carousal is turned, the head of the screw is locked into place. The hole for the carousal are pre/drilled. The buyer drops 12 carousals into their respective holes. Of the 12 needed to hold the sides of the box in place, 11 were drilled too deep. The head of the screw could not meet the carousal and lock into place. You could hear them scraping the side of the carousal. We worked for about 45 minutes to hold the carousals w/kebab skewers at exactly the right depth to get the screws to go into their slot. This was obviously a machine flaw. I was writing out my return notice on s website when my mechanical engineer husband said he thought he figured out a workaround. If you are not a mechanical engineer and dont have wood filler handy at home, Id save the packaging material in case you get shipped a bench tooled at the same time ours. We managed to put our together after the workaround and it functions well. Three stars for the hassle.