Handiness
Instructions on megpie71's new flatpack bookcases say a hammer is needed.
We have no hammer.
However, a quick perusal of the instructions reveals that the bookcase is pretty much held together with screws, dowels, and fasteners. The only nails in it are for nailing the pressed-fibre backplate on to stop it sliding down its slot and ending up on the floor.
Of course, there's no real reason the slot at the bottom has to be open, per se. A quick swap of the top and bottom shelves fixes that, and (with the removal of a 2mm square on two of the backplate's corners), the backplate now sits snugly and immovably in its new home, without being able to fall out of the bookcase. No nails needed at all, and the bookcase suddenly gains total modularity - it can now be pulled apart with a couple of quick twists of the fasteners and completely re-flatpacked, instead of having a heavy chunk of wood nailed at right angles to an almost cardboard backplate.
Modular design FTW.
A quick (and hammerless) fix for the bathroom doorknob, as well, which had started to loosen due to internal screws unscrewing. Fortunately, I'd had almost exactly the same problem on an upstairs doorknob of the same design some weeks ago, so I didn't try and solve the problem with a chainsaw. It's not immediately obvious how to get at the guts of the mechanism, as the external plating is all smooth (no screws), and there's nowhere to stick a screwsriver blade to pop something off. It turns out that parts of it unscrew, but it's strictly frictional - there's no screwdriver which can unscrew a smooth ring from around a cylinder - and tight (otherwise just turning the doorknob would unscrew everything).
I know, I know - these designs are fairly common. But you never really think about how they all hook together until you're looking at a pile of parts on the floor one morning.
We have no hammer.
However, a quick perusal of the instructions reveals that the bookcase is pretty much held together with screws, dowels, and fasteners. The only nails in it are for nailing the pressed-fibre backplate on to stop it sliding down its slot and ending up on the floor.
Of course, there's no real reason the slot at the bottom has to be open, per se. A quick swap of the top and bottom shelves fixes that, and (with the removal of a 2mm square on two of the backplate's corners), the backplate now sits snugly and immovably in its new home, without being able to fall out of the bookcase. No nails needed at all, and the bookcase suddenly gains total modularity - it can now be pulled apart with a couple of quick twists of the fasteners and completely re-flatpacked, instead of having a heavy chunk of wood nailed at right angles to an almost cardboard backplate.
Modular design FTW.
A quick (and hammerless) fix for the bathroom doorknob, as well, which had started to loosen due to internal screws unscrewing. Fortunately, I'd had almost exactly the same problem on an upstairs doorknob of the same design some weeks ago, so I didn't try and solve the problem with a chainsaw. It's not immediately obvious how to get at the guts of the mechanism, as the external plating is all smooth (no screws), and there's nowhere to stick a screwsriver blade to pop something off. It turns out that parts of it unscrew, but it's strictly frictional - there's no screwdriver which can unscrew a smooth ring from around a cylinder - and tight (otherwise just turning the doorknob would unscrew everything).
I know, I know - these designs are fairly common. But you never really think about how they all hook together until you're looking at a pile of parts on the floor one morning.