Intending to make life easy, I bought two 1 Metre length sideboard units.
They are eventually to be joined together to make a 2 Metre wall unit with a custom worktop fitted to the top.
The plan was to fix a plinth beneath them to replace the feet supplied with them.
I used a jig saw to cut a cable port to match the hole in the worktop above..
The trouble began when I discovered that the IKEA top section was not solid.
It is comprised of two thin surfaces with an egg-box infill.
The feet that I am not going to use are bolted to corners in the IKEA bottom section that are solid.
I cannot screw the plinth to the hollow bottom section and the only way to glue to it will be to roughen the surface, otherwise the glue will not "take".
I originally considered screwing right through the bottom section and into my plinth assembly.
But screwing through a hollow section with brass screws and cups would not give much purchase.
What adhesive have you tried? PU adhesive will stick to most things (especially fingers!)
Alternatively, one way of attaching to a honeycomb structure is to make a sleeve that's the same length as the thickness of the thing you're trying to attach to. Put the sleeve through the "thing", a bolt through the sleeve, and large washers on each side. Hard to describe but the principle is that the washers spread the load and the sleeve prevents the honeycomb structure from being crushed.
When you're planning these projects, you should be visiting the Ikea store in person, and carefully examining the merch for treachery.
Don't order these over the Internet, and discover "hey, they have taken Ikea-style shortcuts -- who knew?". They're Ikea. It's what they do.
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Now, in that one, to start with, the triangle the legs screws into, has three small holes. The small holes tells you a short fastener was used. The short fastener means the board on the bottom of the unit is thin.
That means the "wood" that looks thicker on the bottom, is just a thin veneer skirt. The skirt is there to hide the air gap between the screwed in leg and the bottom of the unit. It's a trim piece.
To bolt a plinth to the bottom of that, means altering the thickness of the skirt, if you expect the whole bottom of the unit to "sit down" on the plinth.
The boards should just be some sort of particleboard, with a melamine veneer on top. It should be as strong, as the top or side boards of the unit.
Now, what you're asking us, is this:
"I need to screw two things together, yet I need you to make a screwing solution which leaves no telltale signs and the bottom surface remains in perfect furniture condition."
Only the wood glue or liquid nails idea, avoids the usage of fasteners which mar the finish inside.
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"Even if you pry the two linked surfaces apart, they will break somewhere else, not where the liquid nail is administered. "
Once you adjust the bottom of your Ikea unit so it is absolutely flat and presents a mating surface, once you apply the liquid nails, it's going to require de-lamination of the veneer layer on the Ikea board, to get it apart again. The project will behave roughly the same way some epoxy projects go, where you have to crack the project in two, in some of the native material, to get it apart.
I see no point in proposing some other sort of fastener for the inside of the Ikea unit, because it's no longer going to look like the Ikea thing when it is finished.
This is a project, with no Plan B... It's seven speeds forward, no reverse.
Once the liquid nails is on there, just the sheer quantity of liquid nails ensures it won't come apart. Roughen surface be damned. You have a two meter surface, that's going to have an S-shaped bead running all the way from one end to the other. There is *tons* of holding strength. You'll probably end up using a quarter tube of liquid nails on that surface. That puppy is not going to get away.
The hardest part of this step, is holding the components in precise proximity, until it sets.
And with gun-fed materials, there is no point "skimping" on the materials. The next time you go to use most of those gun materials, they're dried up and you buy another. There was a time, when gun fed materials lasted for a while, after the tube is cut. I find they dry out pretty fast today. "Saving them" now is a fools errand.
If you plan on doing both the top and bottom surface that way, then at least half a tube will be used up.
Never known the foam etc. to dry up - even after many months. Storted in a cold damp cellar, which might help. Key advantage of buying a dispensing gun.
with a 2 metre length just glue it on with PVA, clamping the two together until the PVA is dry. Once dry perhaps a few screws into the solid bit where the legs will have gone. I wouldn't even bother with sanding back to make a rough surface.
If you are worried about the glue strength, glue an extra small batten at the back of the plinth effectively making the plinth L shaped to increase the surface area being glued.
Use some small right angled metal brackets attached to the unit and plinth where the feet would have been attached (attached after the PVA has dried).
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If screwing into the thin surface on the unit use self tapping screws that are tapered all the way up rather than a screw with a parallel shank. This would only work if using the metal L shaped brackets.
Perhaps you could also use the plastic raw plugs that are designed to collapse or open up behind the thin surface. Hold them in place with a bit of hot glue to stop them turning until the screw is fully in.
I had already decided to place a batten behind the plinth and will glue and screw those together before attempt final assembly.
Last year I had to box in my energy meters. I made a frame out of 45 x
45mm prepared timber, deployed an unwanted IKEA wardrobe door that they wouldn't take back and used offcuts of melamine coated furniture boards on either side, held on with No-Nails adhesive.
It was fine until I slammed the door and the offcuts fell off!
I then went over the inside with a 35mm dia drill bit used for kitchen cabinet door hinges. Made shallow holes all the way down. I only removed the melamine. The second time round they were fine. That is why I mentioned roughing the surface. Once bitten and all that,
Can$449, or £299 UK. Nice to see that not all companies follow Apples pricing (1 USD = 1 UKP, or in the case of the Mac Mini M2, 599 USD vs 649 UKP !!)
Using offcuts, you can examine the properties of glues and adhesives, to see how effective they are. If the results are positive, you can then proceed. For example, if two Ikea boards will remain fastened to one another, then an ordinary piece of lumber glued to Ikea should work.
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"Assembly experts recommend using either white Gorilla glue or Gorilla construction adhesive. White gorilla glue is a fast-drying, 100-percent waterproof glue - a polyurethane glue that is much stronger than standard carpenter's glue."
"Be aware that polyurethane glues expand to fill available space. This is helpful for bonding the porous edges of particle board panels, but it also means the glue needs to be used sparingly to avoid being visible along seams."
And that's why you might select someone elses product, if it did not expand like Gorilla does. That's part of the reason for testing, is to see if the glue "reacts chemically" with the surface or has other undesired effects.
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