Discuss Removing cam screw blind on IKEAFANS.com. We're Personalizing the IKEA Experience. Removing cam screw blind - Post here about your modification project details or questions. Share ideas and take some away - mods are cool!.
Here's my problem, it's not actually on an ikea-made piece of furniture, but it's a technology familiar to ikea fans, so I thought maybe I could get a helpful suggestion or two:
I have a credenza, solid top, two drawers on each side, and in the middle, a shelf with sliding doors. The shelf is attached with cam screw/lock hardware, much like ikea uses. I am trying to remove that shelf without taking the whole thing apart.
Normally, the advice would go: loosen the camlock then the joint loosens and you can push the piece holding the screws out of the piece holding the locks.
My problem is, the whole thing is still held together by the solid top which keeps the sides (where the screws are attached) pinched in place, so even with the cam locks disengaged, I can't pull the joint apart. Any idea how to remove the cam screws where they are? I tried going after them with a pair of needle-nose pliers, but it's impossible to get a good grip, and even if I could, I could only loosen the screws about 1/64th of a turn at a time.
I'm out of ideas, but I feel like there has to be an easier way short of disassembling the entire credenza.
looks like you have to remove at least one wall to get that shelf out. the only other way you could remove the shelf is with some type of saw that could hack off the screw from between the shelf and the wall.
I got the cam locks out, but the cam screws are still holding the shelf in place, I have a little bit of wiggle, so it feels like they are the only supports for the shelf I'm trying to pull out. Maybe I can describe this furniture a little better:
It looks a lot like a two pedestal desk (with a shelf where the leg space should be) and essentially, that's what I'm trying to convert it into. Picture two two-drawer cabinets, side by side, with about two feet in between them. Across the entire top of the space and both cabinets is a solid piece of wood, anchored in a variety of places with screws and glue. I don't want to touch that wood if I can help it. Similarly, across the back there is a solid piece of wood that goes outside edge to outside edge, again, screwed and glued, I don't want to touch it if I can avoid it. Now in the middle, between the two two-drawer cabinets there is a suspended shelf. This shelf is held by four cam lock and screws. The screws are screwed into the cabinets (short threaded part going into side wall of cabinet, long 'locking' pin going into the shelf), and the cams are accessible on the underside of the shelf.
It seems pretty obvious to me that this was installed before the back and/or top were attached, because then it would be a simple slide on and lock operation. My problem is that I want to try to remove the cam screws without sliding the shelf off of them and I just don't know if that's possible. The only way to access the cam screws is through the holes for the cam locks right now. I just wonder if anyone has encountered this before and figured a trick to get the cam screws out without removing either of the pieces they are screwed into and slid into.
I did manage to unthread two of the cam screws just by working on them through the cam lock holes. Unfortunately, I then realized that, much like in ikea designs, there are wooden dowels right next to each cam screw/lock. I think I'm stuck with breaking something or taking it apart.
i say: take a dremel/rotozip tool and bzzzzzt! right down the middle of that shelf. actually, make two cuts about 2 inches apart - the skinny center piece falls out - then you can just pull out the shelves and dowels. just be careful not to gouge the back wall when you cut the rear of the shelf.
I thought about that for a short while, but the piece is a loaner, so I didn't want to destroy any of the parts. What I ended up doing was working the screws out through the cam locks' holes, which was difficult, then, with the shelf just suspended by dowels, I took a hacksaw (the short handle kind that pinch the blade in the middle, so a portion of the blade is exposed all by itself) and sawed through the dowels. It was a chore, but the cam locks and screws are intact, the shelf is intact and the dowels are easily replaceable.
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