Ikea metal drawer construction insanity

Murmansk

I must have assembled 50 items of Ikea furniture for people over the last few years so I'm by no means a beginner but I've just come across some drawers which have a chipboard front but metal sides and backs.

The sides attach to the back by sliding square holes on one piece over metal tabs on the other and it's VERY tricky. Then when you try to assemble the drawer further by attaching the other side, the first one comes apart. If you ever to manage to get both side on there's then the challenge of keeping them assembled whilst sliding the base of the drawer in - but at least this makes the thing a bit more solid.

Then you have to attach the drawer to the wooden drawer front and they now seem to have weird keyhole-shaped holes in their chipboard drawer fronts. You have to line the holes up and then push in a plastic piece which is supposed to slide up and secure the two together. It took me 15 minutes to do just this stage of one drawer front. I've attached pictures. Sliding the bit of plastic and clicking it sounds all very well in theory but in practice it just doesn't slide or click without a great deal of cursing and hammering!

Many people's idea of a nightmare is assembling flat-pack furniture, I don't usually mind but this is a nightmare even for a seasoned assembler! 

FreeBear

Murmansk said: The sides attach to the back by sliding square holes on one piece over metal tabs on the other and it's VERY tricky. Then when you try to assemble the drawer further by attaching the other side, the first one comes apart. If you ever to manage to get both side on there's then the challenge of keeping them assembled whilst sliding the base of the drawer in

A pair of these - https://www.toolstation.com/sip-universal-magnetic-holder/p48436

Or some of these - https://www.toolstation.com/roughneck-metal-spring-clamp/p65149

Either will hold the parts together long enough to slide the base panel in. Alternatively, squeeze the metal tabs with molegrips or pliers. Or if you don't have any grips, a couple of small g-cramps.

Bendy_House

Murmansk said:

I must have assembled 50 items of Ikea furniture for people over the last few years so I'm by no means a beginner but I've just come across some drawers which have a chipboard front but metal sides and backs.

The sides attach to the back by sliding square holes on one piece over metal tabs on the other and it's VERY tricky. Then when you try to assemble the drawer further by attaching the other side, the first one comes apart. If you ever to manage to get both side on there's then the challenge of keeping them assembled whilst sliding the base of the drawer in - but at least this makes the thing a bit more solid.

Then you have to attach the drawer to the wooden drawer front and they now seem to have weird keyhole-shaped holes in their chipboard drawer fronts. You have to line the holes up and then push in a plastic piece which is supposed to slide up and secure the two together. It took me 15 minutes to do just this stage of one drawer front. I've attached pictures. Sliding the bit of plastic and clicking it sounds all very well in theory but in practice it just doesn't slide or click without a great deal of cursing and hammering!

Many people's idea of a nightmare is assembling flat-pack furniture, I don't usually mind but this is a nightmare even for a seasoned assembler! 

Never seen anything like that.

When you press down the funny clip at the end - the thing that goes "CLICK!", doesn't that prevent it from coming apart again?

Murmansk

Bendy_House said:

Never seen anything like that.

When you press down the funny clip at the end - the thing that goes "CLICK!", doesn't that prevent it from coming apart again?

The challenge is to slide the plastic thing far enough to make the thing that goes "click" arrive at a position where it's able to be pressed down to the point where it clicks. It's incredibly hard to move the plastic thing as you can't easily exert the pressure needed to slide it - probably because the slots in the drawer front are subtly too small. Once you've managed to do it the thing that goes click does indeed seem to keep it all together.

Ebe_Scrooge

Murmansk said:

Alderbank said:

Thanks for telling us you have assembled 50 items of Ikea furniture.
Well done.

Do you have a question?

  what did you make of them?"

Metal drawers.

Sorry, couldn't resist :-)

markin

Give the plastic i light rub with sand paper?

Murmansk

markin said:

Give the plastic i light rub with sand paper?

an excellent idea!

Murmansk

Well in case anyone's interested, the way to fit this piece of plastic that attaches the drawer body to the drawer front is to get a piece of wood about a foot long, position it at the far end of the plastic piece and hit it a few times with a hammer to slide it into position - far, far more force than the pictures, which suggest you just push it with your hand!