Schreiber wardrobe assembly

babyboomer49

I have just taken delivery of some Schreiber bedroom furniture from Homebase. The assembly contains wooden and metal dowels which fit into pre-drilled holes in the the veneered chipboard..

The metal dowels are encased in plastic and designed to mate with a quarter turn cam in the opposite piece, but when assembled, the dowels just pull out of the pre-drilled holes. The assembly instructions make no mention of using glue and none is provided. The wooden dowels are quite a tight fit and I could use PVA adhesive with them, but they are not strong enough on their own to stop the wardrobes pulling apart.

Are you supposed to use glue on the metal dowels and would PVA/wood glue work with a combination of metal into a chipboard hole?

Gene_Hunt_2

PVA won't hold the metal dowels, they should screw in. Give them a ring the holes sound over sized.

The only option with glue would be something like an epoxy or a little No Nails on the tread of the metal thread.

babyboomer49

My first thoughts were also that the holes were oversized, but on the end that fits into the cam, the dowels do not have a slot or posidrive type cross that you could get a screwdriver into. Anyway the end that goes into the hole is encased in plastic with a fine thread which would not cut into the board sufficiently. There are 4 threaded metal dowels used to support the bottom shelf and the instructions show them being put in with a screwdriver, whereas the plastic covered ones are just shown being pushed in.

I went back to Homebase and they had had someone else in with the same problem so they looked at a drawer chest on display in the store and the front just fell away. They are trying to get in touch with their external fitter to see what he does but I have not heard back from them yet.

If the fitter is just following the instructions, the worry is that the wooden dowels will give it enough strength to be fully assembled but as soon as it is loaded up and subject to a bit of lateral movement, the things will just fall apart. I am sure that either they have sent the wrong dowels or it needs a glue, even though there is no mention of it in the assembly instructions. The dowels are the same in the drawers and wardrobes, and obviously for other customers as well, so if the parts or the carcasses are wrong, there is a pretty big mix up at Schreiber.

Reading the instructions on PVA, it says that 1 of the surfaces must be porous so it might bond to the thread and round the plastic that covers the metal and give it enough strength when it dries into the chipboard.

ormus

i once watched a chap stand inside as wardrobe at a well known furniture retailer.
the bottom fell out. funny as fcuk.
it was held with similar studs/cams as youre talking about.

Gene_Hunt_2

PVA is wood glue.

richardw

The metal dowel with the plastic thread should screw into the hole nicely, if it doesn't, looks like the dowel is the wrong size.

babyboomer49

Pity I can't show a picture, but as I said, the end of the dowel that goes into the cam is smooth and rounded, so there is no way to get purchase in order to screw it in.

As an experiment, I tried some Elch PVA wood adhesive with a couple of the dowels and after 12 hours, I can't get them out - not without damaging the carcass anyway.

Even though it is a wood adhesive, when under pressure in a confined space between the plastic (surrounding the metal dowel) and the board, it must have cured and bonded between the porous chipboard and the plastic thread.

richardw

Is it like this http://www.qckitchens.co.uk/DowelJoint.jpg

richardw

babyboomer49 wrote: »

the end of the dowel that goes into the cam is smooth and rounded, so there is no way to get purchase in order to screw it in.

Are you trying to screw the dowel into the cam?

babyboomer49

No - the end that is covered in plastic has a very fine thread which would not cut into the chipboard. This end is a snug fit (but not tight enough to stop it pulling out easily) into the pre-drilled holes. The other end is the bare metal, like a rounded peg, and this is the end that fits into the quarter turn cam in the mating half of the assembly.

The end that fits into the cam would normally have slots to take a posi screwdriver, so that it could be screwed into the pre-drilled hole before mating with the cam. The fact that the cam end is smooth is what suggests that it is not screwed into the opposite half.

Just heard from Homebase and they have had another customer complaining that they can't be assembled but as as it has only just started happening, it must be a major !!!! up at the manufacturers - either they have shipped out thousands of the wrong dowels or maybe a design change that hasn't propagated through the whole assembly.

richardw

Yep, sounds very much like a wrong dowel, very annoying.

If you don't want to wait for homebase, Ikea often have lots of spares of this kind of thing, but there might not be one near you.