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Although Ron had done a lot of work to make his
kitchen more convenient, when it came to the things
stored in the base cabinets, he and his wife had
to practically get down on their knees to see what
was inside. And if they saw something they wanted
in the back of the cabinet, they would have to first
unload the items in the front.
Ron knew there had to be a better way, so he went online and found a product
called Quik Tray from RollingShelves.com. The manufacturer claimed
the product was easy to install, and could be custom fit into just about any
opening and offered adjustable shelf spacing. |
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Ron's first step was to remove the
doors and the narrow half-shelf that was nailed into
the cabinet. He then took out the drawers so he would
have better lighting visibility while he worked. |
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The base cabinet had
previously been set up with five rather narrow
individual doors and at first he was going to put
in five sets of pull out shelves. But then he realized
that each one of those shelves would be so narrow
that they would not be able to put larger objects
on it. So he decided to remove two of the vertical
space frames, which would leave him with two wider
pull-out shelves and just one set of narrow shelves
in the center. |
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Due to the weight of Ron's
granite countertop, he decided to add a reinforcement
strip, before removing the vertical supports. Ron
applied glue to a strip of oak, and then slipped
the piece of wood up behind the rail that formed
the top of the cabinet opening.
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He held it in place with a few clamps while he secured it from the inside with screws.
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With the reinforcing strip in place, he used a Japanese handsaw to cut away the vertical face frame section. Ron was careful not to damage the vertical face frames so he could reuse them. |
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The shelving system required
four support posts or pilasters for each pair of
sliding shelves. Ron attached the first one to
the side of the cabinet in the front. |
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On the left side there was no cabinet wall, so Ron installed a partition and then attached the left front support post to it. He also created a partition in the rear of the cabinet to make up for the non-existent wall. |
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Next, Ron snapped two drawer glides into the slots on the rear support post, set the whole assembly in place, and then snapped the opposite ends of the glides into the corresponding slots on the front support post. This would ensure that everything was in alignment so he could screw in the rear supports.
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Ron
repeated the process with the left side of the
cabinet, completing the base cabinet preparation.
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The shelf kit consisted of a front, a back, two sides, a bottom and some glides. The interesting thing about this kit is that it can be sized to fit just about any opening. |
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The first step was to cut the front
and back of the shelf to length, based on the size
of cabinet opening. Ron trimmed the bottom shelf
to the same dimension. |
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The front and back came with dovetailed slots cut along their entire length. The sides had matching dovetails cut into the ends. Once the front and back had been cut to the desired length, the sides simply slipped into the grooves.
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To assemble the sliding shelf, Ron
brushed glue on the dovetails, pushed the parts together,
and then tapped them into position. With the frame
complete, Ron applied glue to the edges and set the
bottom in place. He then secured the bottom to the
frame with screws. |
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The final step was to attach the metal glides. |
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The rolling shelves installed in seconds
and could be easily repositioned to accommodate whatever
he wished to store on them. |
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Ron added a slip resistant shelf liner on each
shelf to prevent any contents from sliding around
when the shelves were opened and closed. |
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All that was left was to remount the
cabinet doors. Ron attached the frame section he
removed earlier to the backside of the left door.
When closed, the cabinet doors looked exactly the
same as before.
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Not only did Ron improve his storage with the pull-out
shelves, but he also doubled the size (and capacity)
of the upper base cabinet shelves!
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And, if Ron ever wants to change the
shelf position, all he has to do is unhook the door
glide, reposition it, and then snap it back in place.
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Sometimes getting more storage space in your
kitchen is not a matter of adding more cabinets,
but getting better use out of the ones you already
have. |
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| Special thanks to Ron
Hazelton and his webmaster. |