ID this photo of an Ikea part, please?

October 11, 2007 12:28 PM

How to identify and replace an Ikea part? Ah! But I have a photo of its twin!

Before I was working at my current office, a bunch of Ikea furniture was purchased (although it should probably be something like a hövmäl of furniture, not a bunch). Since then, a small piece of a filing cabinet was lost in a move.

The piece that was lost was used to hang file folders from. There were two in our file cabinet, so a photo of the remaining one is posted here.

I'm not sure if it was from catalog or retail, or how I would identify this part. The Ikea folks say that this item is not replaceable - based on the photo, but no part number. Help me, Mefi! Is there any way to look up the part number for this? Or, is this a common enough thingy that other stores might carry a usable file-hanger-thingy? What do you even call these things? I'm running out of space in my half-a-file-cabinet here!

posted by pants to shopping (5 comments total)

These kind of things are pretty common. Here's an example. They're commonly used to segment off lateral files to letter size. These guys seem to have just about every kind of these under the sun. Hopefully one is a close match to yours!
posted by marionnette en chaussette at 12:52 PM on October 11, 2007

Are you able to find your file cabinet in the catalog or on the web site?
posted by winston at 1:29 PM on October 11, 2007

Even if it's a discontinued item, the staff at Ikea are more likely to be able to identify a picture of the cabinet than a picture of the part.
posted by winston at 1:29 PM on October 11, 2007

Perhaps you could ask at Ikea Fans?
posted by zamboni at 1:48 PM on October 11, 2007

The Ikea folks say that this item is not replaceable - based on the photo, but no part number

Was that on the phone, or in person? Definitely bring the piece into the store if possible. They don't go out of their way to promote it, but the returns department is also a comprehensive parts department. Any part you'd ever need a spare of, they've got a drawer of 'em back there. More than once I've gone to them with just a piece of something, and they've been able to figure out exactly what was needed. No charge for the doohicky in question, either. I assume that's because someone very sensibly decided that it's cheaper to hand out fistfuls of 2 cent washers and 5 cent hex wrenches than it is to process a single furniture return.

Bring down whatever clues you've got. They'll figure it out.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 5:25 PM on October 12, 2007