Call to all who have an Expedit bookcase from IKEA

[ChocFudgeCake]

We bought one yesterday. My mum and I have been trying to assemble it. I am useless and she thinks she is the queen of assembly. Nothing stops her and now she wants to saw up the wooden bits that go between the shelves. I told her not to because the instructions don't say we need a saw, only a hammer. I should be calling IKEA not coming to mumsnet... It goes to show how much I trust mumsnetters
Tell me no-one used a saw, please.

of copurse you dont need a saw for ikea stuff sahe is a loon

DO NOT USE A SAW

Under any circumstaces

No! Step away from the saw!

i had four of these in my shop i have taken them apart and put them together what is the problem

OK describe the piecse you have

I am guessing a top & a bottem the same plus 2 sides the same

What is in the middle

I normally find IKEA instructions easy to follow

[[http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00071356 This one?] Absolutely no sawing at all! Should all just slot together - I know sometimes drill holes get missed, but the wood pieces should all be right. is she putting the right pieces in the right place?

Maybe she should be using this?

crap This one?

It is this last one, Serenity.
I feel even more miserable and stupid now
The problem bits are some kind of wooden little sticks that go in a hole between the side and the horizontal shelf. SO it's side then stick in a side's hole, then shelf with hole for the remaining bit of stick. It's straightforward except that these wooden bits look too long and don't allow the shelf to touch the side. We hammered some, but one shelf started to crack
Well, I'll tell her to stay away from the saw. Thanks.

Ah, the assembly service. Yeah I've been calling them all morning they don't answer.

we have that one.
no saws.
can't remember much about building it htough. sorry!

We have one of those, flat pack guru dh put it together no probs. Could it be you have a wrong bit? Your sticky bits could need swapping for shorter ones.

I think some of the shelves have deeper holes than others so some are 'end' shelves & some are 'middle' shelves

Ohhh that's an idea! I'll go and check now.

shudder we have that bookcase in white and it took me two hours to put together. The problem I found was that everything needed to be lined up absolutely perfectly and when bits had to be pulled out a little to insert another shelf then the whole thing had to be rearranged. I put up all our flatpack myself but this time I actually had to get DH involved to hold it together while I put the next layer on (it had already been taken apart , moved house and so this was the second time it was constructed which may have been part of the problem.)

I identified and then laid out the bottom and the two sides in the right place and gently screwed them into place leaving the screws wobbly. Then I put in the little vertical shelves along the bottom and pushed them into place. Then the first horizontal shelf and so on. Finally I screwed the top on and tightened the bottom screws before lifting it into place. I used the hammer a lot!

It was a nightmare and I remember my brother who put it up the first time saying how difficult it was. It was very easy to take down again though if thats any consolation!

Dh assembled one of these and he did say it was a nightmare and he seemed to have an awful lot of fixings left afterwards which I know is not a good sign. I am usually queen of flat pack but DS was only a few weeks old and I didn't feel up to it.

Anyhoo 2 years on it is still OK so sheer brute force must have won the day. He might even have glued it. Don't think he used a saw though.

Don't try a Hemnes 8 drawer chest. That took me best part of 2 days and I cried.

Ds ws sat in his bouncy chair for hours poor thing.

It looks lovely in his room though.

Update. My mum has a cold so she went to rest and the wood has been left alone. All the little shelves look the same and all the little sticks are the same size so, taking the hint from your posts, it's all up to the hammer now. There might be tears, wish me luck

PS DingALongCow, you didn't follow the instructions then, it says to put first a side and the top and then insert the little shelves. But if it worked for you, I may follow your way! Sounds good to me. I wish we were neighbours

Alas the instructions were long gone, so I had to work it out without them. I had taken it apart myself though before we moved and so I put it back up the opposite way to how I took it down if that makes sense. It worked for me, but as I said it was definitely a two person and an extensive hammer use job! My brother followed the instructions and he said it was a nightmare so not sure having them would have made any difference. He helped us move and specifically said to me he wasnt going to help me put that back up again before making a hasty exit!

LOL at being neighbours, I am in no hurry to tangle with that bookcase again without at least two bottles of wine ! I give it a dirty look everytime I pass it as I literally wept over the bloody thing .

Good luck, dont let it win!

If the shelf is cracking when you're trying to fix it on using the dowels (little bits of stick ) then they're probably not far enough in the other bit, if that makes sense - trying knocking them further in the support before trying to attach the shelf again.

Also, if you're going to be whacking things with a hammer, don't hit the shelf or support directly. Use another piece of wood inbetween, otherwise you're going to end up with unattractive hammer shaped marks on the bookshelf!

I once assembled my brother's ikea bed (which is kind of japanese style, has a low wooden frame all around the mattress, no headboard and no footboard) not only without instructions, but without actually knowing what it was spposed to look like when complete.

It was like the Krypton Factor!

The blooming bookcase is winning
My sister took a look and said that we should drill the shelves to make the holes deeper so the dowels (thanks, Serenity) can really go in (I'll check that they are far enough on the other side, thanks again). My mum argued that when she drilled it this morning the thing began to crack (she didn't tell ME that, it's my bookcase). DH came home took a look and after a briefing said that the dowels are too long and we probably have the wrong ones, so my mum jumped in again with her idea of using the saw. DH called IKEA and they are happy to take a look because sometimes they do give out the wrong bits, but WE need to take the whole thing back! Which I'm not doing (we payed for the delivery). I need some sleep now. Thanks.

when i put it together, i put the dowels into the smaller square shelves and not the big long bits.

We bought one of these about 2 mths ago, spent ages trying to put it together cos some of the bits didn't fit!
We told Ikea we were bringing it back and they admitted that they had had a batch problem with them yet they hadn't taken them of the shelf so people were buying the faulty ones.
Needless to say we went for a different range in the end!!