prototyping | Simple Self-Reliance

I was able to get out and work on my canned goods storage/rotation system this weekend and finished my prototype unit. Here’s how it turned out:

The pictures aren’t the best; my apologies. As you can see, though, it’s still rough, still…a prototype.

What I ended up with holds two types of cans, 28 oz. cans in the lower half, 14.5 oz. cans in the upper half. I did this because it was clear after the first half that I wouldn’t be able to fit four more levels of the 28 oz. cans in my unit, so I decided to try how many levels of the smaller cans would fit.

I realized pretty quickly that I would not be able to fit four levels of smaller cans in the remaining space. At that point I was slanting the shelves at a 2-inch slant front-to-back, so I tried reducing that to a 1-inch slant. I also lowered a few of the bigger can shelves to that slant as well. As it was, I still couldn’t make it all fit. There wasn’t room to put the cans in at the top, as there was still the 2×2″ support beams across the top, even when I tried laying the very top shelf flat instead of the usual slant.

Next I tried taking the 2×2’s out, figuring at that point I had enough shelves screwed in across the sides to stabilize the unit. That worked. I suppose at that point I could/should have added a slant to the top shelf, but I didn’t. I was more concerned about how well the unit would hold up.

My next step was to take the unit down into our basement and see how many cans I could fit in it, if the gravity feed would work correctly, and if it would hold up. Sorry I didn’t get pictures of that. But I can tell you that the bottom half holds 20 of the larger cans. It does have some difficulties feeding, which I will need to work out. It’s not a big deal, but it does involve reaching into the unit to clear the blockages.

As far as the smaller cans, the upper section held twelve of those just in the first two shelves, with room for at least one more. I didn’t add more, as I didn’t want to add a different vegetable at that point. Not having a slant on the top shelf is an annoyance, as you have to manually push the cans to the back before they begin to feed. I’ll definitely have to fix that, as my current plan for the storage room will put that shelf up near the ceiling, making it hard to push.

All in all, the unit was sturdy enough to hold the weight. If anything, loading it with cans made it more sturdy. The feeding is the primary issue. The transition from an upper shelf to a lower shelf is one issue that can likely be addressed in the next iteration.

The other problem is that the cans rub against the sides and the friction slows them down or stops them altogether. For that I blame the materials I’m using, at least for now.

Pegboard has two sides, a white, smooth side and a brown rough side. I went for appearances and put the smooth side out. In reality, when these are lined up next to other units you won’t even see the outside surface. On the next test I’ll put the smooth side inside, which should reduce the friction against the cans. When the slant on the shelves was 2″ the friction wasn’t nearly as big an issue, but reducing that to 1″ lessens the pull of gravity. I don’t think I can get by making the slant steeper, so I’ll have to find other ways to help overcome friction from the sides.

A third issue, related to the second, was that occasionally the shelves were too narrow, and when screwed into the sides they pulled the sides in too much, narrowing the passage enough to catch the cans. I hope to have better tools by the time I try the next prototype and be able to get more uniform cuts to my wood.

I’m still impressed with the versatility of the pegboard. The ability to see through the walls, so to speak, is invaluable, as is the ability to move shelves around without having to drill new holes in the walls. I’m hoping to find a way to position the screw holes in the sides of the shelves more uniformly in the future as well so the shelves will be more level side-to-side.

I also plan to experiment with having less support structure. If I cut the shelves uniformly they should provide lots of stability to keep the tower from leaning. I may be able to get by using 1×2″s along the back instead of 2×2″s without losing any stability, and at this point I’m not sure I even need any support along the bottom and top edges, which may open up more vertical space for shelving. I’m really hoping I can make this work with good efficiency using standard sizes (ie. 2’x4′ pegboard panels) to minimize waste. If I have to make each unit 4.5 to 5 feet tall, for example, I’ll have to cut 4’x8′ sheets to size, which will waste the last three feet of pegboard.

The biggest success I’m seeing so far is the potential efficiency in storage and rotation. While a series of shelf a la Donkey Kong isn’t entirely efficient, it’s more efficient than standard shelves. Being able to line these units up side by side will increase our storage capacity considerably, and make rotation much less work. I’m excited to move on to Phase Two of this project in finalizing the design I’ll then start “mass producing,” as well as getting a final idea of cost. It appears so far that I’m spending about $30-35 per unit, but I’m hoping to pin that down tighter.

Stay tuned!

Storing canned goods is pretty much a given in any long-term food storage program. Storing them so you can rotate them easily, however, is something of a trick. I’ve heard of and seen of can storage racks where you feed them in at the top and they roll down a series of ramps to the bottom so you they’re automatically sorted for rotation. I’ve been thinking for years of how to make some for our storage room, but the thought of trying to figure out all the measurements and angles, rout out perfect grooves, and make sure they actually feed through the system properly has left my head hurting.

Ever since I re-started this blog and got serious about self-reliance again I’ve been devoting a fair amount of mental bandwidth to the problem again. Those gravity-feed can stackers are nice, but they don’t use space as efficiently as they might. But then, neither do most storage shelves. There’s always empty, unused space. And anything I build is going to be a bit pricey. Is there a cheaper way? Is there a way to experiment?

Well, I finally solved the last question. It dawned on me this week that pegboard is amazingly reusable, and sturdy enough to prototyping at the very least. I picked up some materials this weekend and got to work designing a test rack.

After getting the dimensions of several different types of cans I set to work building the frame for a single rack from two 2’x4′ pegboards and some 2″x2″ studs. It didn’t take long before I made my first mistakes. Fortunately they were easily remedied and I was able to move on to the next phase.

Cedar fence boards are my go-to disposable wood. When my wife and I became Cub Scout leaders I was able to design a bird house using 6″ fence boards, and I was able to get two bird houses out of a single $2.00 board (prices have gone up since then). For this project, where I needed shelves exactly 4.75″ wide, which is too wide for most boards, and far too thin for others. But a 6″ cedar board can cut down to size with little waste, and are thick enough to put screws into the side of it.

So after trimming some fence board down to the right width, I started experimenting with properly sizing and positioning the shelves within the frame, starting from the bottom. That shelf would need to slope toward the front. The next shelf above that would need to slope toward the back of the unit, with enough a gap at the back to allow cans to fall down onto the back of the lowest self. Getting the slope right is the main issue. Too shallow and cans don’t roll. Too steep and you take up more space than needed (and could potentially propel cans right out the front of the unit).

Here’s where what I like to think of as the genius of my idea came into play. Using pegboard for the sides I didn’t have to drill a bunch of holes, and could easily see where the shelves were within the frame. I could then use the existing peg holes, and put a screw through the hole into the shelf to hold it in place. If, upon testing, the angle was wrong, I could remove the screw, raise the shelf to a better angle, and put the screw into the board through a different peg hole at the right spot. It’s about as flexible a system as I could contrive with standard materials.

I didn’t quite get as far as I wanted this weekend. My test model only has three shelves, so I have to feed from the back of the top shelf until I get the fourth in place. With a little luck I should be able to get two sets of four shelves in a single unit, but that’s still a ways off. I’m not completely thrilled with how the first run is turning out, and I’m finding some issues with my choice of materials (cedar boards warp REALLY easily) that may account for why the cans don’t roll consistently from top to bottom without getting stuck. The consolation there is that my open design makes it easy to reach in and push the cans when needed.

As I continue to work with my test frame I’ll keep you posted. If I’m pleased enough with the outcome to where I think I’m ready to “mass produce” these I’ll perhaps post some blueprints, or at least more detailed photos.

EDIT: Sneaked out and got a few pics of the test frame: