New here? How it works explains the cabinet itself; this page is for the day the boxes arrive.
You put the cabinet together yourself. That is a deliberate choice, not a saving: flat boxes survive a journey that an assembled cabinet does not, and a cabinet that travels in one piece arrives with the dents of the trip.
What is in the box
Pre-drilled panels, numbered parts and all the hardware for your order in one bag: screws, the bolts and nuts that join the columns, and the plinths. Nothing has to be cut, drilled or glued on site.
What you need
Ordinary tools, nothing special:
- a cordless drill-driver with a bit holder, on a low clutch setting so the screws pull tight without stripping (the T20 bit comes with the hardware)
- 4 mm and 5 mm Allen keys, for the bolts between the columns
- a spirit level
- a tape measure
- a roll of masking tape, to number the bases as you level them
A second pair of hands is not required, but it makes lifting the taller columns onto their bases easier.
Prefer to watch first? The assembly video shows a column going together from start to finish. It was made with an earlier version of the cabinet, so a few small details differ, but the order of work is the same. Taking a cabinet apart for a move is the same video in reverse.
The order of work
- Unpack and sort. Lay the panels out per column. The parts list is in the first box.
- Level the bases first. Decide where the cabinet goes and set the four adjustable feet of every base to 62 mm to start with. Find the highest point of the floor, put the first base there and mark it with a strip of tape as number one. Then set the next base beside it and adjust its feet until it is level on its own and level with its neighbour. This is the fiddliest part of the job. Once the bases are right, everything above them will be too.
- Build one column at a time. Start with a side panel and make sure the pins sit in their holes. Add the shelves, the back panel, and then the second side panel on top. Press everything tight from one side to the other, check it is square, and screw it together.
- Lift each column onto its base.
- Join the columns. Bolt each column to the next, one bolt at the top and one at the bottom, then fit the outer side panels. Where two heights meet, a coupling wall goes between them. Keep checking the alignment as you tighten.
- Finish off. Fit the plinths under the bases, put the magnetic panel in the front of each base so the round magnets land in the circles, and place the wooden block in each compartment with the sloping side to the front.
Then stand your first sleeve up front. Reckon on one to two hours for an average arrangement, most of it on the levelling.
If something is missing or wrong
Then it is on us, and we would rather hear it immediately than politely later. Mail info@ophon.eu with a photo and we send the part. If it is easier to look at it together, we will do a video call.
We are blunt about this because a single missing screw ruins an otherwise good cabinet, and we have seen it happen. Checking the kit before it leaves is the part of this job we take most seriously.