How to attach a mirror to the dresser - ACME furniture?

Question

I ordered this bedroom set from ACME furniture

http://www.acmecorp.com/App/productdetail.asp?did=3901

The dresser and the mirror came without any assembly instructions. There are two long thin wooden stick pieces and 8 screws along with the dresser and mirror. Each of the two thin long wooden pieces has 4 holes drilled into them, which I am guessing should be screwed behind the dresser and the mirror. Two holes are close to the center of the wooden sticks and two are close to each of the ends. Dresser and the mirror have no holes drilled into them although the mirror is nicely screwed to the frame and a thin wooden sheet from behind and dresser is attached to a piece pf plywood at the back too. I have never worked with wood before so a little scared to drill holes and hook those sticks. Please let me know if anyone has any idea about this. Didn't see any instructions on the ACME website either.

Thanks!

Answer 1

This is probably a two-person job.  You should also have a drill and drill bit that is smaller than the root diameter of the screws (maybe around 1/8" or smaller) to make pilot holes into the dresser and mirror so the screws don't split the wood.  And of course you need the proper type of screwdriver for the screws you are using.

One of the holes near the center of the wood strip should line up with the midline of the top of the dresser and the one near the end should line up with a wooden frame piece on the back between the drawers (probably between the bottom and second drawer).

You will need to s***w the wood strips into the back of the mirror frame near the edge so make sure the screws are not so long that they will go through the front of the frame when they are tightened down.  One way to check this is to put the screws through the holes in the wooden strip and then make sure they don't stick out longer than the thickness of the mirror frame (probably only about 3/4" or less).

Have someone hold the mirror up on the dresser in the proper position (centered and with the back of the mirror and the back of the dresser lined up flush).  Hold a wood strip up against the backs of the mirror and dresser and line up the holes in the wood strip with the top and lower frame piece on the dresser as mentioned above and along the edge of the mirror frame.  Mark the holes with the point of a nail or you could put the s***w into the hole and tap it to mark the center.  Do this with both wood strips on each side/edge of the mirror.  Mark the wood strips or remember which one was on which side and which end was up or down.

Lay the mirror down flat and drill about 1/2" deep pilot holes at each of the four locations and do the same at each of the four locations on the dresser.  Put the wood strips in their proper position and s***w them onto the back of the dresser.  Hold the mirror up on the dresser and s***w the wood strips to the back of the mirror.

If you are not sure that you can align the wood strips and mark the holes exactly right then it might be easiest to not drill the holes into the mirror just yet.  After you s***w the wood strips to the back of the dresser you can hold the mirror up on the dresser and mark the holes again and drill the holes into the mirror frame or just drill through the holes in the wood strip into the edge frame of the mirror.  Be careful to only go about 1/2" into the mirror frame so you don't drill through the face of the mirror.