kitchen cabinets self-assembly issues with cams and panels Kitchens, doors, rails, stud, tables, chairs, stair cases, garden furniture etc... Find answers and ask questions here!

[olive]

Hi
Am assembling the basic cabinets prior to my kitchen fitters doing the rest. Am pretty good DIYer but this is my first kitchen assembly. It's not going well. :(

Instructions perfectly clear but am having horrible problems with the first base cabinet I've tried: most of the cams won't turn to 210 degrees (as I believe they should) and the back panel won't fit into the groove all the way round. I think it's slightly warped. I've been careful to screw the campins in straight etc...

Is this stuff normal and if so are there any workarounds, or things I should check I'm doing right? I need to understand if it's me or the supplier!

Thanks so much

[stoneyboy]

olive,
Just turn the cams until the joint is tight, how far they turn will depend on how deep the campins are inserted. Clean out the groove for the back panel with a slotted screwdriver - this will clear any machining debris.
end

[olive]

thanks very much stoneyboy - the good news is that your advice is exactly what I ended up doing after a lot of headscratching and staring that finally resulted in a dose of common sense.

I also discovered that in some cases, the campin heads really weren't poking far enough into the cam hole so I unscrewed them one or two turns (I had screwed them down pretty tight in the first place) and that helped ensure I could turn the cams far enough to be confident they will hold.

Finally, for anyone reading this post and attempting their first carcasse assembly, I found this great video stuff that B&Q commissioned in partnership with the people who make their kitchens. Although B&Q isn't my supplier, this showed me the best order to put the bits together, and a great sanity check as to whether I was basically doing things right.

[medicineman]

I know this post is a little old now, but just wondering if there was a link for that B&Q sponsored video olive? Just about to start some carcass action...Btw, how did you get on? All done and dusted?