TL;DR
A furniture assembly cam lock is the two-part fastener that holds flat-pack furniture together: a metal dowel screws into one panel, and a rotating cam cylinder seated in the mating panel grips the dowel's head when turned a half-turn with a screwdriver. The cylinders strip easily in particleboard if overturned, and a stripped cam is why bookcase panels gape at the joint.
What it means
A furniture assembly cam lock is the two-part fastener that holds flat-pack furniture together: a metal dowel screws into one panel, and a rotating cam cylinder seated in the mating panel grips the dowel's head when turned a half-turn with a screwdriver. The cylinders strip easily in particleboard if overturned, and a stripped cam is why bookcase panels gape at the joint. Handymen repairing wobbly flat-pack pieces re-set cams, add glue dowels alongside, or upsize the hole with a repair bushing.
Where it sits in the glossary
Furniture assembly cam lock is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
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See also
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