"KD" wrote in message
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Hi all,
I'm about to buy some flat packed dining room furniture from Homebase.
No doubt it'll come with a bucket load of dowels and adhesive sachets. Is
there such a thing as a 'better class of dowel' ? Are plastic dowels
better ? Basically, I want to take little bit more time and make the
joints as strong as possible. Is the adhesive provided with these units
up to the job or can/should everything be upgraded ? If so, can someone
recommend a supplier of upgraded little bits ?

Cheers,
Keith

P.S. I know I could spend a bit more and get pre-built furniture but
money is a bit tight (like me).

Hi Keith,
I've just completed a Homebase flat pack assembly of a kitchen (u don't
say if that's what you're getting, but I'll assume it is) so I am 'current'
on the Homebase system. IMHO their product isn't bad at the moment, and with
careful assembly you should have something that will last you a good few
years - I'm intending mine to see me out, anyway!

They don't actually provide any glue at all. In their system, the drawers
are this new metal sided style, where dowels, glue etc do not feature. The
assembled finished drawers are very nice - robust and free running.

Where they do use dowels is in the carcass construction, which I will try to
describe. Each carcass corner joint consists of 4 dowels, half in the 'end
grain'(!!) of one carcass piece, and half into the 'side' of the other
piece. In addition there are 2 specialised alloy dowel systems that are
intended to drag the joint together and hold it together - the wooden dowels
seem to be only included to stop lateral dispacement. In the Homebase system
the special bits work as follows:

An alloy pin with an enlarged head and a slightly trumpet shaped tail has a
ridged nylon sleeve around it's trumpet shaped end. The idea is a bit like a
masonry fixing - as the pin is pulled, the nylon sleeve which is in a dowel
hole in the wood is supposed to grip the chip, which as the trumpet tries to
pull up thro the sleeve is expanded and therefore gets tighter and tighter.
The enlarged head of the pin engages with one on those alloy 90 deg twist
components (looks like a small squat alloy cylinder) that you turn with a
screwdriver and it bears progrssively on the underside of the head, pulling
to joint together.

I've worked with these and am somewhat underhwhelmed. If u want to do an A1
job, would suggest:

1. When u push these pin/sleeve assemblies into the chip, put some good
superglue on the barbed area of the sleeve just before pushing them into the
chip, & wait 15 mins before assembling the joint.

2. Dowels. The additional dowels they use are the wooden ones, and if u
intend to glue em I'd stay with them - plastic would be inferior. For glue,
u can use PVA, but take care not to flood the blind dowel holes in the 'end
grain' with adhesive, otherwise either the dowels won't go in properly, or
in extremis the chip will split. You just want to wet the hole sides. An
alternative is a liberal application of superglue (from one of the larger
Scrwfix bottles) providing you a very slick with getting the joints together
as open time is to be measured in seconds. I guess I'd stay with the PVA.

If using PVA, once u have the carcass assembled go around all the joints
again piching up the tighteners and probably tapping the joints together
with a mallet and wooden block. Then leave for 24 hrs to let PVA set
properly.

Hope this helps - any more queries just ask!

Cheers

Tim