No More Outdated Cans...

Several years ago, my garage looked like the above picture and so I built shelves customizing the measurements so my Plymouth Grand Voyager also fit in the space. On the north wall the shelves were 24" deep which I thought was a nice advantage. I later found out that it was mostly a waste of space because things sort of got lost in the depth of the shelves. Making do I stacked cans of green beans, corn and potatoes only two high since a third layer invariably toppled over noting every time I restocked what a pain in the rear it was to maintain the rotation.

Drooling over the Shelf Reliance set up in Costco - I couldn't justify the expense even if it was rotation perfection. However, even the Shelf Reliance product didn't make efficient use of my twenty four inch shelf depth. I was googling myself sick searching for a better...less expensive version when I came upon an idea made out of cardboard. I liked the idea but I wasn't sure it would last. I also found a company in Utah that makes custom can rotators but they were spendy and only did local pickup.

I decided to visit Lowe's thinking that smelling lumber may give me inspiration on how to economically satisfy my need to improve my current can system. I picked up a couple one by two by eights and some peg board to come up with a design. Since I am not the engineer type but more the trial and error type, I made several prototype designs before I got one I liked. I had the entire weekend while the rest of the family was in Seattle to try and fail my idea until I got it right.

After several decent designs which required only minor tweaking I began the assembly line process of filling up all four shelves with can rotators. Each one hold between 15 and 18 cans and 10 fit across each shelf for a total can capacity on all four shelves of between 600-720 cans.

My goal was not to duplicate the other products out there -- only to do it less expensively. I added labels which I cut from left over peg board and printed out on my computer the labels on off white card stock and of course I couldn't resist inking the edges before I nailed them to the units themselves.

The best design I found was to make two units together because they were stronger that way. Since I did these custom to my shelves I don't really have any plans or measurements except what I used. The cost savings ended up being significant since each unit cost approximately $3.50 in materials. I was satisfied with the outcome and my blister is healed up.

The tools I used to make this project were: a table saw, a compound mitre saw, a 16 guage brad nailer (for the 1 1/2" and 2" brads) and an 18 guage brad nailer (for the 5/8" brads),a compressor, a measuring tape, a square, wood glue, gloves (not when I was sawing) and a dust mask for cutting the peg board.

The shelves are different heights so I had to make some adjustments on the height of the can rollers. There was not enough room to make an additional row on the shelves at the top so I just left the unused space.