For Swingman - and others - pullout kitchen shelves

We've been needing pull-out shelves for pots and pans, well, since I installed the cabinets a dozen or so years ago. And I could use a relatively simple woodworking project after I'm finally done with what I'm working on now.

The ones in your kitchen refresh pictures look like they'd fit the bill nicely. I'm wondering what blunders you might be able to help me steer clear of.

From what I can see in the pictures, it looks like the sliding shelves are maybe 1/2" ply bottoms with some sort of solid wood sides (maple?). How did you fasten the sides to the bottom, and to each other? I can imagine a few ways to do it. And do you have a recommended source for the slides?

Reply to
Greg Guarino
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Greg - I have put this type of storage solution in three kitchens, all of t he hardware from Lowe's. I can't take credit for it; when I was working on a kitchen my client found these storage baskets. She liked them, but had only seen them at IKEA or some place like that, and they were literally 2 1 /2 to 3 times more. When she saw them at Lowe's, she brought a bunch of th em home and had me install the ones she liked. She liked all of them.

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I suggested them to other clients as I was working and they bought a few se ts and they loved them as well. They are easy to put in, and the models I installed came with a template. to locate the screw correctly. They take a small amount of fiddling to get them right, but when they are in correctly they are a great add on to the cabinets that really, truly increase their storage space and utility value.

Best of all, they work! They are sturdy, and when installed correctly the trays, shelves and baskets all slide smoothly when loaded.

And they aren't that much more than the purpose made hardware.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

I made a bunch - eight - of them when I made our kitchen. They are used for storing dishes in some of the lower cabinets, much handier than on shelves in the upper ones.

Bottoms are 3/4 mel board, verticals are butternut. Both were chosen because that's what was used for the boxes, face frames and doors in the rest of the kitchen.

They are really just big shallow drawers and you build them in whatever way you like to build drawers. In my case, that is a front on sliding dovetail pins on the sides, back with a tongue into a groove on the sides and bottoms with a 3/8 tongue into grooves all around. All hooked together with yellow glue.

The slides are the HD/Lowes cheapo versions...the kind with an acetal roller, not ball bearing, 3/4 extension, around $6.00 per pair. Everything in the lower cabinets pulls out...some are drawers, some are pullouts; some are behind doors (like the dish trays above), some are not. For most of the others I used KV full extension ball bearing slides. I like the cheap ones just as well.

Reply to
dadiOH

For pullout lower shelves where don't want to sacrifice any more height than the bare minimum and loading isn't critical I've used the KV ball-bearing glides but mounted them flat instead of vertical underneath. I'm still in dark ages and my cell doesn't have a camera so uploadable pictures are more of a pita but I'll try to take a shot of the desk here with that as the slide out for the printer/copier...works quite nicely for the purpose...

I'm about to begin the same kind of thing for our kitchen cabinets -- did the counter top replacement of original Formica from late 70s with solid surface a couple of years ago and have replaced drawer slides; next will be new doors and drawer fronts to replace the slab-type--mom wanted "plain" so that's what she got :) back then-- Figure I'll do the same thing there for the bottom pans. These are all stick-built in place and nothing is a standard width. For the disk I didn't use sides on the pullout and not sure for pans and such will on the kitchen cabinets, either; big stuff like that can't go anywhere, anyway so the drawers don't really make any benefit.

Dad and I built a full lazy susan into the corner cabinet with the

90-deg pie cutout for the door access using the thrust bearings from a one-way plow disc. They'll support several hundred pounds; you can stand on a shelf w/o it giving... :) After almost 40 yr now it still functions as smoothly as ever...

The kitchen is tiny; the dishwasher replacement would be a good thing for storage room but don't think Lynda will give it up willingly. There is a large pantry that has storage but it needs a full reorgainzation and cabinetry that is more functional so that's a longer-term goal...

Anyway, this got off-track; the idea was to post the thought of turning the slides flat for the clearance...

Reply to
dpb

For some reason women love these damned things and although I find them to be a boring pain in the ass to make and install, it seems I'm always being forced to add them to kitchens ... women apparently do not require anything but drums, or something to beat on, to communicate with each other, whether they are acquainted each other or not.

Use at least 100lb rated, full extension, drawer slides.

I use KV8400's (100lb) for the smaller, and KV8800s (200lb) for the wider.

For the 8400's, make your sliding shelves 1" less in width than the cabinet opening.

For the 8800's, make your sliding shelves 1 1/2" less in width than the cabinet opening.

I generally use 22" length where I can.

3/4" plywood bottoms, 3/4 sides using any appropriate hardwood:

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Finish nails and glue. No need to get fancy as the drawer slides will cover up any nails holes.

There are only shelves on drawer slides, not drawers, Leon!

Reply to
Swingman

As I imagine is common, we've got lots of cookware that is seldom used because it's in the back of the shelves, blocked in by other stuff. In addition, I was never very flexible, and that hasn't improved with age. So unless there's a sack of Krugerrands back there, I'm not contorting myself to get to the back of the bottom shelves.

Even then I'd probably get my daughter to retrieve it.

Would that need to be adjusted to clear the hinge mechanisms? I have a feeling that 1/2" clearance on each side might be tight with the typical Blum-style hinges we have.

I'm wondering if I might want to make the backs taller, to prevent things from falling off the back of the shelf.

Don't worry, I wasn't considering dovetails.

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Reply to
Greg Guarino

Drill the center of your 35mm door hinge holes for the hinge cup at least 4 1/2" from the top and bottom door edges.

Use a "zero clearance" door hinge so that the door opens to the outside of the face frame or cabinet side.

I use Salice "Excen-Three" Hinges for this purpose on face frame cabs.

They are expensive at most retail outlets, unless you buy them at a cabinetmaker's price, +/- $7/pair at Rockler, versus +/- $1.50/pair, at a place like Cornerstone Hardware that caters to the trades here in Houston.

Make'm like you want, but never had a problem with anything falling off using the dimensions in the drawing; and it was a question I asked many customers before I just shut up and quit worrying. ;)

Reply to
Swingman

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