Can rotation plans

Okay...this may not make sense, so good luck to you. 20 dollars for real plans may be sounding pretty reasonable by the time you wade through this.

Off the bat, don't forget that these do not need to be perfect or precise. As long as there is a slope to the shelves, they will roll. As long as the space where the can falls to the next level is wider than the diameter of the can, it won't get stuck and you're golden. Presto!

I made my units to be 17 inches deep because that's how deep my shelves are, but you could adjust these to fit your shelves.

These instructions are for a soup can size:

Cut these pieces:

sides: (2): 17" x 11"
back: 4 3/8" x 10" (can be shorter, if you don't have the wood. Just needs to stop the cans from rolling out the back from the top shelf)
label: 4 3/8" x 3"
lip: 4 3/8" x 1 1/2"
top shelf: 4 3/8" x 13"
bottom shelf: 4 3/8" x 16"

All of these pieces have a width of 4 3/8 inches because that's just slightly wider that the height of a soup can. So if you were to do a veggie can or a tomato past can, just change this measurement accordingly. Everything else can stay the same except for the top shelf you might shorten to 12 1/2" for a large can like pineapple. Get it? If you don't, you will once you do one. Then I promise you'll realize how easy it is to customize these.

It's important that all the pieces have clean flat edges, so if you used a table saw, you should be good to go, but since I used my scroll saw and mine inevitably came out a little wavy here and there, I used my sander t0 flatten the edges of each set, just to make sure they would glue together nicely. Unfortunate that I'm allergic to sawdust, huh?

On with the plans!

Take one of the side pieces and you are going to draw guidelines so you know exactly where to glue the shelves and back.

Here's a basic diagram:



A. Draw a vertical line 3 1/2" in from the left side.

* This measurement is based off the diameter of the can plus a "bit" for the can to drop easily through, plus an extra 1/4" for the back to be glued in. So a soup can is a little over 2 3/4" wide, add a little to get 3 1/4" and then another quarter inch for gluing in the back and you have it.

B. Measure 2" up from the bottom left corner and mark a small tick mark (1)

C. Use a straight edge to draw a line from tick mark 1 to the bottom right corner.

D. Now measure up 3 1/4" from where your slop line and you vertical line intersect (I marked it with a star). Put a tick mark there (2)

E. Now measure the distance from tick mark 2 to the bottom of the board (should be around 5 inches-ish)

F. Add two inches to that (around 7 inches-ish heh heh) and mark that measurement on the right side of your board (from the bottom). Make a tick mark (3)

G. Use your straight edge to connect tick marks 2 and 3. This will be your guideline for glueing your top shelf.

You got it!

Now you are going to glue your shelves and back in place. Start with your back, then glue the bottom shelf along the lower sloped line and your top self along the top sloped line. I was super high tech and used soup cans to hold the shelves up and ensure they were at a right angle while they dried. I would use a can on both sides of each piece you are gluing.


And as you can see, I didn't always have a large enough piece for the back so just made do with a couple smaller pieces. It doesn't really matter as long you position the piece to stop the cans at the back of the top shelf. It works fine and isn't visible from the front.

Once the glue is dry, just put glue on the exposed edges of the shelves and back and place the other side on top of it. It helps to have it up against some thing strait (like a wall or a previously made unit) to make sure the sides are lining up right. I skipped this step in my first one and you saw where that got me. Then you can sit something heavy on it or use clamps to make sure everything is drying securely.

Once that is dry, just apply a little glue to the sides of the label and lip pieces and pop those in! Mine usually needed to be clamped a bit as well.

You did it!

Please leave chocolate on my doorstep.