Published on November 22nd, 2006 | “we finished furnishing our one-bed apartment with exclusively ikea furniture and just when i thought everything was perfect, we found out that we have to move out of state! i want to take everything with me, but there is no way to get the ikea bed (malm) out of our bedroom unless we take it apart. is there some place where we can get instructions on dis-assembling IKEA furniture? we also have the following:1. a futon no longer shown on the ikea site3. but the bed is the one i really need to take apart if I hope to vacate my apartment. (tweety also wrote to ikea’s customer service and the ‘official’ reply is that they “are unable to give advice on how to dismantle ikea products as they are not made to be taken apart once assembled.”) tweety,not sure if i’m much of a help either. i guess i’ll just back-track how i put it together. When it comes to budget furniture, nobody does it better than IKEA. But part of that cost-saving is labor–the labor that you put in to turn that flat-pack box into a piece of furniture.
As with any DIY project, ready-to-assemble furniture is an adventure; a composite of tribulations and accomplishment. Recently, after a project that was more tribulation than accomplishment, I wrote down some ideas that would prevent the myriad mistakes I’ve made building IKEA furniture. I applied these recently to a credenza from CB2; lo and behold, I managed to build a solid piece of furniture without breaking it or putting anything on upside down. It was a miracle. To me, this meant that these 10 concepts are more than just IKEA assembly tips–they’re revelations worth shouting from the mountaintops to all future flat-pack builders. I humbly present to you, righteous assembler, The Ten Commandments of IKEA Furniture. Before you even unbox your furniture, you should physically prepare the area you’ll be working in. You should give yourself enough room that the finished piece could be laid down and you could comfortably walk around every side of it (because, in many cases, that’s exactly how it’s built).
Open the box and read the instructions. Make a mental note of any steps that require rotation and ensure you have enough space to do that. Also, unless you’re working on carpet, use a rug (or the box that the furniture came in) to protect both the floor and the furniture. The first section of an IKEA instruction manual includes a summary of the pieces that should be included in the box. First, open up the hardware bags and organize them as you count them. You can use small bowls or get creative–ice cube trays, egg cartons, muffin tins, or a simple loop of tape are recommended in this Reddit post. You’ll want to do the same with the furniture pieces to familiarize yourself with each piece. Is this the top or the bottom of the dresser? Are they identical and interchangeable, or are they actually slightly different? The reason we recommend inventorying hardware and fasteners first is because these are the most likely to get left out. Missing pieces are a common IKEA woe, so make sure everything is there.
If it’s not, find the six-digit part number in the instructions. You have a few options to get the missing piece: you can visit a nearby store’s “missing a part” section, call your local store (ask for the relevant department rather than going through the operator), or fill out this online request form and get the piece mailed to you. IKEA often recommends (wordlessly via a gender-neutral stick figure) the use of simple screwdrivers, hammers, and the included Allen keys to construct its pieces, but you can make the job faster and easier if you bring some of your own tools. For easier assembly of all IKEA furniture, this is what I recommend you bring: Let’s face it: IKEA furniture isn’t as sturdy as your grandmother’s antiques. A common mistake is to try to compensate by cranking down on screws or bolts. But most IKEA furniture is made from medium density fiberboard (MDF), which is why it’s not as sturdy as nana’s side tables, and tightening past the boundaries of the pre-drilled holes will cause the fiberboard to split.
This results in a looser connection that could lead to an irreparably wobbly piece. When using Allen keys, don’t torque the bolt in with your full body weight. If you’re using a manual screwdriver, tighten screws until they are flush with the wood and no more. You can tell when a screw or bolt starts to get slightly more difficult to turn–stop there or you’re risking cracking the fiberboard. If you’re using a powered drill, make sure to turn the torque down to the lowest setting. Post updated by SpareFoot, 1/30/2017. Sign up or log in to customize your list. Here's how it works: Anybody can ask a question The best answers are voted up and rise to the top My roller chair is now immovable since there is somehow HAIR, which is about 3 feet (9 dm) per strand, rolled and tangled into all 5 wheels. Below is a picture of the chair: MSRP for this chair: $625.49 I cannot afford to take it to get fixed, and I don't have tools to take the legs off and clean them.
Is there a solution for my problem? Turn the chair upside down on a desk or on the floor. Use small scrub or tooth brush or mascara brush/wand, and clean the caster with soap water or alcohol. This will remove dusts and keep only hairs and threads that got tangled. Remove the visible hairs using butter knife on the crevice of the caster on both sides. Kitchen Tweezers are very helpful here. Use nail clipper/cutter's bottle opener. It will have pointed curve. Insert it into the fissure, Catch the hairs and pluck off the hairs. Keep revolving & rotating the caster strategically by other hand while doing this and this will help the tool to catch more hairs. Simply cut a section of duct tape and then stick around the cover and pluck off. You can also cut a section of duct tape and fold it back around your razor knife so that it will be like a closed loop ready to stick, then insert it under the wheel cover and pluck off. Reason why Razor knife is because they are very thin.
Do not use sharp knives including razor knife. It will cut the hairs and make it difficult. But if the hairs are very stubborn and likely to tangled like a closed loop, cut the hairs with small manicure scissors or razor blade to break the closed loop. If you are not satisfied after trying the mentioned workarounds, then I would recommend you to get a screw driver and remove the caster from the chair, then wash on the soap water and apply lubricants. The example sample images are taken from Google search I think my answer will come as a surprise to most people, since I did not see it online during my repair attempts. The wheels or rollers used by common office chairs are universal. They're called "casters" and you can buy a set of five on eBay for around $8, including shipping. Because the other methods can take hours, replacing them is cost effective for anyone making even minimum wage. Unfortunately, while you can remove them, there does not seem to be a simple way to disassemble the casters themselves for repair, since the most popular YouTube method for doing so involved complicated drill holes and other carpentry.