I bought a flatpack chest of drawers from Ikea, but stupidly left itin the packaging for two weeks while doing other jobs.When I got round to assembling it, having assembled the carcass anddrawers, it was time to put the top panel in place. Unfortunately,this has bowed quite significantly along the length. Whether this isbecause I had stood the package on its side and not flat, I don'tknow. But it's bowed and I'm not going to the palaver of puttingeverything back in the box to return to Ikea.So the question is, how can I flatten this bowed top panel, which issolid pine with an 'antique' finish? I have actually already achieveda fair bit of flattening in just 24 hours by laying the board, 'hump'side upward, on the carpet and putting some weights on it. But isn'tsteam used for bending plywood? Perhaps I could apply steam, thenreplace the weights? Will the bowing disappear completely?MM

On 24 Mar 2005, MM wrote-snip- Years ago I flattened a warped piece of mahogany by steaming; it worked pretty well, and would probably have been perfectly flat if I'd used weights. (It was a seriously-bowed internal shelf in a small cupboard, and precision wasn't really required.)You steam the underside of the bow: when I read up on it, the reasoning behind it was that the underside has dried out more than the top-side of the bow (and/or the top side had absorbed more moisture). This makes the underside contract, and rehydrating it restores the balance.(That seemed to make sense to me; whatever the physics, though, the steaming worked.)

Yes, but it's a 175 mile round trip!MM

How to flatten a warped chest top?

Mar 24, 2005 24 Replies

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Alex (YMG) 21 years ago

I've never had any trouble with anything purchased from Ikea, aside from one time when I opened a box to discover half the panels smashed with dirty foot prints on them.

I wrote them a polite email explaining the problem - without fuss they (in a huge HGV!) delivered a new bedside table straight to my door and collected the replacement - considering I am a good 100 mile round trip from this particular store I thought that was excellent service. When I wrote to them to thank them they actually took the time to write an individual reply, and passed my thanks on to those who were directly involved with my 'case'.

A+ for Ikea!

Alex

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Rob Morley 21 years ago

It's most likely to have warped because it got damp or was resting against a radiator - just leave it sitting in place but not fixed for a couple of weeks and it might settle down again, at least enough to fix it.

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MM 21 years ago

Yes, but it's a 175 mile round trip!

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Jeff 21 years ago

MM wrote :-

Way over my head....... had to look that one up schadenfreude \SHAHD-n-froy-duh\, noun: A malicious satisfaction in the misfortunes of others.

Regards Jeff

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The Natural Philosopher 21 years ago

Bloody eck. You can pick up a half decent chest for a fiver in most auctions...

ROFLMAO!!!

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