Making a FIFO canned food storage auto-rotating shelving rack.

Yesterday I made a shelf for some canned food. I have been eyeballing the soda in the beverage gliders at the local convenience store. After talking to the manager a few times, he said he would see if he could get some for me. Yesterday, we stopped in, and SCORE! He had half a dozen.

So, I started making the canned goods slider.

I started with an old piece of plexi I had left over from my college days. It used to be the top to a home-made desk. I used it because it’s nice and thick.

Here I am trying to figure out what angle they need to be to work correctly.

I tried it out. Dismal failure. Not only did the tape let go – silly me for using painters tape, but the angles and heights where all wrong.

Here I have it set up with the right angles and heights. There needs to be a good angle with plenty of distance between the two so you an slip the can in back, and be able to pull it out up front.

I riveted the whole thing together. The rivets have a nice, smooth head that doesn’t stick out very far. Bolts, screws, etc. would have given me fits to go through the sides like this. I would have needed to bolt up hardware on the bottom.

One side done! Lots of rivets. You see that it holds the cans up, but without the other side, it wants to tip out.

Marking out the drill holes for the other side. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but lining up all the holes makes it look better.

Here it is all done. I zip-tied it to my metal shelf that hold the rest of my canned food.

I really like whole thing. It cleared up a lot of space on my shelving. It allows me to automatically rotate my canned food so it doesn’t expire before I get to eating it.