AluCube — how to put your frame together

Your frame arrives as labelled bundles of cut tube and a bag of connectors. Nothing needs drilling, welding or glue — it pushes together. This page walks through it. The parts list for your particular frame is on the sheet that came with your order.

Start by counting. Every bundle has a tag with a part code, a length and a count. Check them off against your sheet before you begin. It takes two minutes, and it is far easier to sort out now than halfway up.

The one rule that matters

Go by the label, not by eye. On a made-to-measure frame, two different rails can be only two or three millimetres apart — you will not see the difference holding them side by side, and putting one where the other belongs is what stops a frame squaring up. Every tube is labelled about 60mm from one end with its code and its length:

W2 1305D1 1184

Leave the labels on until that piece is in place.

Your connectors

There are a few types and two of them look alike until you look at the angles. The difference is simple, and once you have it you will not mix them up again:

A Corner has every socket at a right angle to the others. A tube can never pass straight through a corner — it always turns.

A Flat is flat: all its sockets lie in one plane. A tube runs straight through it and others come off at 90°.

3 Way Corner

Corner — turns

Three sockets, all at right angles. These are the outside corners of your frame.

3 Way Flat

Flat — runs through

A flat T. One tube runs straight through it and a third comes off at 90°, all in the same plane.

4 Way Corner

Corner — turns

A flat T with a fourth socket coming up out of the plane. It is the one for an edge junction that also carries an upright.

4 Way Flat

Flat — runs through

A flat cross — two tubes crossing in one plane. This is an interior junction inside the frame.

2 Way

Corner — turns

A simple right-angle elbow, where two tubes meet and nothing else joins them.

5 Way

Flat cross + stem

A flat cross with a fifth socket out of the plane — a busy interior junction that also carries an upright.

End Cap

Finishing

Pushes into any open tube end to finish it off. They go on last.

Castor Wheel

Optional

If your frame needs to move. Fits into a castor socket in the bottom of an upright — ask us if you would like them added.

Putting it together

Two people, and a clear floor bigger than the finished frame. Build it where it is going to live. Once it is assembled it will not go through a standard doorway.

Lay the bottom level out flat Put the bottom rectangle together loose on the floor — rails and connectors, everything pushed on but not driven home yet. Work from your parts sheet and go by the labels.

Check it is square before you go up Measure corner to corner, both diagonals. They should be the same. Nudge it until they are. Every level above this one inherits whatever you leave here, and it only gets harder to correct.

Stand the uprights Push an upright into each connector socket that takes one. They will hold themselves up once a few are in — but do not let go of a tall frame until the next level ties it together.

Build the next level onto the tops Rails first, then check those diagonals again. A frame that was square on the floor can still wind slightly as it goes up.

Repeat to the top Uprights, then rails, then check. Any short interior rails usually belong to one particular level — your sheet says which.

Drive every joint home Only once the whole frame is standing and square. A rubber mallet with a block of timber against the tube is ideal — do not strike the aluminium directly, mill finish marks easily.

Cap the open ends Push an end cap into any tube end that is still open. Now you can take the labels off.

If something does not fit

A tube is a few millimetres out. Check the label — it is almost always the right part in the wrong place rather than a wrong part.
A connector will not take a tube in the direction you want. You are probably holding a Corner where a Flat belongs, or the other way round. Look at the pictures above.
The frame will not square up. Loosen the joints on the level below and re-check the diagonals there first. It is nearly always inherited from underneath.

Questions we get asked

I lost a sticker — which piece is this?

Measure it. Pieces of the same kind only differ by length, so the length on your sheet (or in the build view) tells you the code. If two codes are within a couple of millimetres, measure again with the tape hooked over the end — that 2mm is the difference.

Two pieces look identical but one is a few millimetres longer. Does it matter?

Yes. On a made-to-measure frame that is a different code with a different place in the frame. Put it where the sheet says and the frame squares up; swap them and it will not.

Corner or Flat — which connector goes where?

A Corner turns: a tube can never run straight through it. A Flat is flat: one tube runs straight through and the others come off at 90°. Outside corners and edges take Corners; anywhere a rail or post runs through a junction takes a Flat. The pictures above show every type.

How do the castors go on?

Once the frame is standing and square, push a castor socket into the open bottom of each floor leg, then the wheel into the socket. Your legs were cut for the wheel option you chose — either the wheels fit inside your ordered height, or they sit underneath it and add to it. The build view says which.

Where do the panels go, and which rails are the lipped ones?

The rails with a lip along one side carry the panels — the panel sits in the lip. Your sheet and the build view mark which rails are lipped and which level they belong to. Panels drop in as each level goes on, before the level above closes it in.

Should I glue the joints?

Not for a frame you may want to change. Pushed-home joints hold a shelf or a bench on their own. For a permanent or heavier build, a thin continuous ribbon of polyurethane adhesive inside each tube end before it goes on, or a small rivet through the socket, locks it — only once you are certain of the layout, because a glued joint does not come apart.

Can I add a level, make it wider, or take it apart later?

Yes. Unglued joints pull apart with a firm tug and a twist. To extend it, email us your order number and what you want to add — we price the extra tube and connectors from the design we already have.

How much weight can it hold?

We do not publish a rating for made-to-measure frames — the section below says why. Domestic, office and retail use; keep heavy items over the uprights, not mid-span; and if you are planning to load it meaningfully or put anything overhead, email us first with what you have in mind.

Before you load it

Please read this before putting weight on your frame.

AluCube is a light-duty modular system for domestic, office and retail use — not a heavy-duty industrial system. Published tube figures do not account for deflection, which is how much a shelf or beam sags under load rather than whether it breaks. The connectors are moulded nylon, and in practice the joint reaches its limit before the tube does.

We do not publish a weight rating for made-to-measure frames. A number we had not measured on your actual frame would be a guess, and a guess is not something to build off. If you are planning to load it meaningfully — or to put anything overhead that people stand under — email us first. We will either help you work out what it needs, or tell you honestly that this is not the right system for that job.

As a rule of thumb: the longer an unsupported span, the more it will flex. Keep heavy items over the uprights rather than in the middle of a long rail.

Stuck? Just ask.

Tell us your order number and which piece or step, and we can pull up the exact design you were sent, down to the individual piece. The link in your order emails and the QR code on the sheet in the box open the same form with your order and design already filled in.

Ask us about your frame

Or email sales@allaluminium.com.au with your order number and a photo · 10 Eastlink Drive, Hallam VIC 3803