Tool-less Connectors

IKEA designers have developed new, no-tools-required connectors for their new Regissör line of furniture. Rather than using knock-down fasteners, they've created a wooden plug that looks like a cross between a dowel and a honey dipper.

The way that these "honey-dipper dowels" (not what they're officially called, but better than the "wedge dowel" title other blogs are calling it, which makes no sense) work is that the narrower end is pre-installed at the factory, leaving an exposed male end.

The female end of the connection, meanwhile, has been plunge-routed into the surface-to-be-adjoined, keyhole-style. Because the router bit has the same accordion-like profile of the dowel head, the male end then slides into the routed grooves, maximizing the contact area to create a nice friction fit.

Source: core77.comAdded: 7 October 2014