What to buy at Ikea?

I probably will visit Ikea on Saturday for buying new mattrasses. But I like a flexible worklight for uses on my workbench. I've seen possitive comments about the Jansjö and the Harte and especially the flexibility of the Jansjö appeals to me. But any other items worth looking at while I'm there? Or not to buy ... ?

Wout

Meatballs

Maximera drawers

Various widths depths and heights. Make your own drawer fronts and change the base to aluminium or steel if you need more capacity. Build a standalone cabinet or fit a few under the workbench

For a worklight I'd go for something built like a brick outhouse and designed for a tungsten filament lamp or a halogen...and retrofit an LED. Everything in IKEA will now be LED as standard.

Edited By Martin 100 on 25/01/2018 12:48:06

I bought the Jansjo led light for my lathe, the light is now playing up.....I've had it maybe a couple of years. The led is ok, it appears to be an issue with the power supply....

Pay your money and take your choice...

Bevara bag sealing clips.

The light bulbs are good value for money and seem to last well.

Personally I can't stand the Jansjo lamps. Bought several but really, if the light level isn't bright enough, a sharp, shadowy light source is the very last thing you need. Better just to make sure you have distributed, diffuse (shadow free) lighting is the lesson I learned.

Our nearest Ikeas are about an hour away, so unfortunately we don't get there as often as we'd like.

Murray

Helmer drawer units and a bottle of Snaps to help with the assembly.

I've had two jansjo lights for a couple of years without any issues I also have two of these draw unit again without any issues but they were £5 cheaper when I got mine

H

.

Don't forget to visit 'Clearance Corner'

Grab bargain-priced items that include any decent Aluminium extrusions, and a bag or two of screws & fittings.

MichaelG.

The newer Jansjo lights which I bought about a couple of months ago to supplement my other ones are much superior to the older ones. Different power units, higher voltage. My only complaint is that the plastic clip on the clip-on variety seems to degrade when exposed to light (I was going to say sunlight but there has been no sunlight in Scotland in living memory) I've had to replace the clips on both my older ones by screwing them to the window frame, but the lights are great.

Donald Mitchell.

Bonnie Scotland.

I have two BEKVAM kitchen trolleys with small machines on. They can be wheeled into a corner when not in use as two legs have wheels. Frees up workshop space. Now £35 but we’re £30. They have two storage shelves underneath. Strongly built. Martyn

OK, good tips, keep them coming!

I'll certainly will look in the clearance section. Always do and found a lot of good stuff. I'll have a good look at Jansjö but I understand that the light distribution might be a bit harsh. The drawers seem a good buy. I'll see if these measurements will fit my storage. And seaweed caviar certainly sounds very .... interesting.

I thought so. Seemed indistinguishable from real to me, but then the last time I had any real was about 20 years ago or more...

This non-slip carpet underlay is quite good, not very tear resistant, but dirt cheap
Seems to work OK as a drawer liner, and helps stop things sliding around on the bench.
Not bad for rugs on laminate floors either.

Bill

Another vote for the Helmer drawer units - I have two pop-riveted together as a mobile base for my 6x4 bandsaw. Also the Bekvam step stool **LINK** is dirt cheap and very useful if you store stuff in the roof joists of your workshop, or if you want to sit down at the bench.

I’m sure there are many other small items like waste bins, stainless roasting tins etc that can be used for washing parts in paraffin or for general storage, digital scales for measuring out epoxy resin, soap dispensers for swarfega- the list is endless.

The Hot dogs are nice ...

I go very rarely, and that's far more than I'd like, once you're in you can't get out, the only sure fire way is to follow the fire exit signs

I have managed to live without ever going to IKEA. The style is distinct, and I think it looks great in houses with large areas of pine or white walls. We have neither, so not for inside the house. Outside, in the workshop, I remain to be convinced that either the furniture or fittings are robust enough. I feel if the surface is horizontal, I should be able to stand on it while carrying something heavy, so 300lb. And if vertical, it should be able to take me falling against it, guesstimate force 200lbf. And if a loose fitting, it should survive dropping onto concrete. Nothing in Ikea's catalogue has convinced me so far. Though, to be fair, very little domestic furniture/fittings have convinced me to use it in the workshop. And if made of chipboard, it always sags under the weight of 'stuff'.

So, my recommendation as to what to get: a healthy dose of window shopping and buy the wife a slap up dinner with the money saved. And a couple of colleagues recommend the meatballs.

Regards,

Richard.

When we first started visting Ikea (first Lakeside, then in Vancouver), the food in the cafe was excellent value. I suspect it was offered at cost price to keep the punters happy and "in-store". But on our only trip to Ikea since returning to the UK (Warrington), the cafe food was a long way from being cheap. Still some good products if you know what's worth buying but they lay out the store like a maze to force you to walk through all departments. If you study the maps, you can figure out the shortcuts.

Some of the UK stuff is made of solid and / or "engineered" wood including oak. That's a nice contrast from N America where they seem to hate proper wood and instead prefer things made of heavily stained maple and the like.

Murray

I thought maple was a nice hardwood?

These drawer sets that are suggested above - are they real metal or plastic? Can't tell from the pictures.