Assembling kitchen cabinets (I need to vent)

[Traab]

Ok, so, we decided to buy what amounts to a kitchen island on rollers, it has cabinet shelves and drawers and whatnot included to allow us to store plenty of stuff. Got it off amazon for a nice deal and was just delivered. First off, holy cow does it have a lot of pieces! Secondly, There is just something enraging about seeing, "Step Two: "Proceeds to list 8 actions that have to be taken one after another with a complicated diagram" on my list of instructions. Is paper really THAT expensive that you have to condense 6 steps into one in order to save space on drawing out what I need to do? There are 5 different pieces of wood and at least 4 different types of screws, nuts, bolts, and dowels included on this "one" step. Oh, and only half the pieces are labeled, the rest you have to match up to the drawing to figure out which one is which. Thanks, this is really helpful guy who designed this manual. Now I have to wait for someone to come home to help because this is way too complex for me to do solo and involves way too much standing then sitting on the floor for my fat rear to handle. On the plus side, I have like 3 pieces more or less attached for step one.

[Algeh]

As someone who is currently in the process of assembling multiple bookshelves, I feel your pain.

I am a "words person" not a "picture person", and I really, really hate the much-cheaper-to-translate set of diagrams with no words that things, particularly Ikea-things, tend to come with.

I have to sit there and narrate the whole thing to myself multiple times to try and figure out what I'm actually supposed to do in words before I can get started. (I have right-left confusion and just generally should not be in charge of anything involving diagrams in which a sense of space is important. Flowcharts are fine, circuit diagrams are fine, but picture-heavy directions for things like furniture and Lego are much harder than they should be.)

[inexorabletruth]

I hope I'm not intruding with advice. I know that sometimes venting is just venting, but I struggle to tell when that is. So, if you don't want advice, please disregard the rest of this post and accept my sympathy for your struggle.

Most manuals have a link (or one of those squares that you use your cell phone with to go to a link) to their website manuals, which are usually more in-depth and sometimes include video instruction.

If that doesn't work, and you know the make/model of the island you are trying to build, you can type it into a YouTube search. More often than not, there is an instructional video put up somewhere that will take you through the process step by step.

[Capt Spanner]

While we're ranting about this kind of stuff, I installed a washing machine in my flat over the weekend.

There are transport bolts, which hold the drum in place so it can't move around and get damaged in transit. The first thing to do is remove them.

The bolts are regular metal bolts, with a plastic sheath around them. The instructions say to remove them with a regular 10mm or adjustable spanner.

BUT! The plastic sheath has wings on it for some reason I can't figure, unless their sole purpose is to stop me being able to get to the bolts with a spanner!

[Algeh]

While we're ranting about this kind of stuff, I installed a washing machine in my flat over the weekend.

There are transport bolts, which hold the drum in place so it can't move around and get damaged in transit. The first thing to do is remove them.

The bolts are regular metal bolts, with a plastic sheath around them. The instructions say to remove them with a regular 10mm or adjustable spanner.

BUT! The plastic sheath has wings on it for some reason I can't figure, unless their sole purpose is to stop me being able to get to the bolts with a spanner!

I have no useful advice, but your username makes this all somewhat more amusing for me. "Oh no! Captain Spanner is up against their worst nemesis, Pointless Wing!"

[Traab]

So I got it put together finally. Well..... almost. Turns out one piece, just one freaking final piece, was not missing, but the threads were damaged so I couldnt attach it properly. So now I have to wait for them to ship out this one nut so the floor of the cabinet is attached at all 4 corners instead of only three.