[Eganx]

I am finishing up my kitchen and went to install the long Tyda handles and after drilling holes and mounting two handles I noticed they went on crooked. After inspecting them and a few more I see the threads are not centered in the handle. WTF??? I know this isn't high end stuff but now I have two cabinet doors that need to be replaced if I go to another style handle. Is this a standard for these handles? Is this common to all Ikea handles? I would like to use these handles, but I would have to open all the packaging, inspect the handles, return the defects, buy more, open and inspects etc. In your opinion, what should I do????

[Chuck]

Welcome to IKEAFANS, Egan.

I'm assuming from your post that the holes you drilled are "centered" on the doors in question - in other words, if you were using other handles of the same size, they would be lined up properly.

If that's the case, you could try using a little elbow grease to move that center "insert" that has the threads in it so that the threads line up in a way that allows the handles to align to your liking.

Another possibility would be to re-drill your holes a little bit larger than they are now, so that you can maneuver the handles a bit. If you go this route, you can only go a little wider or your holes won't be covered by the handles.

If you can't or don't want to try either of these ideas, then your only other option would be to return the defective handles and replace them with ones that don't have the defect. However, you might have to wade through a lot of packs to find good handles.

Just so you know, the hole patterns on IKEA handles are universal across those sold by IKEA, so that you can replace them at a later date. One note of caution is that the pattern is metric, so you can't use handles you'd find at a place like HD, etc.

[Eganx]

Thanks for the response. On the first door I did enlarge the holes so that the handle would be strait, on the second door that only got me a little less crooked. I thought about trying to bend the threaded sleeve strait, so I threaded a screw in and gave it a good push.....and just bent the screw. So I'm thinking I'll have to go through them all and see if any are "good" and make my decision to try to use those style handles or find something else.

[Chuck]

One more possibility that I thought of today would be for you to use a hammer or mallet to whack the handle into the right position. I've done this in a case or two when handles have that inner "sleeve" the way Tyda handles do.