Can Dispenser

Canned Goods Organizer Plans
By Kevin G. McCoy

1 Wide screen view!	2 Suggested tool: Table Saw	3 Very rough, early diagram. Not to scale! I did not add the optional kicker and some of the dimensions may be off. Use the Cutlist for dimensions!	4 Suggested tool: Airless paint sprayer.
5 Suggested tool: Miter saw	6 Suggested tool: Air Compressor for nail gun	7 Suggested parts: Heavy duty wood screws for French Cleats. Kreg pocket screws (Blue) for everything else.	8 Suggested tool: Track saw for long rip cuts. You can rip on the table saw if you have to, but ripping 3/4" plywood is no fun.
9 Suggested tool: Make some jigs to align the Front Guides and to accurately nail them to the column guides. The back two jigs center and height-adjust the Front Column Guides. The jig in the foreground slides aliong the right edge of the Front Column Guide and shows where to pop a brad nail in the dead center of a (slightly warped) column guide.	10 Suggested tool: Use a jig something like this to make miter cuts sharper than 45 Degrees. I made this out of scrap lumber. It clamps on to my miter saw.	11 Suggested tool: A compressed air powered brad nailer. Use glue plus brad nails out of this gun to make a strong joint.	12 Suggested tool: A stud finder to locate the 2x4s behind the drywall where you want to mount your Can Dispenser. It is very accurate.
13 Suggested tool: Long screw holder. You push a screw against the Phillips tip and slide it inside the silver cylinder. It gudes the screw so that it doesn't wobble as you screw it in to the French Cleat / wall stud.	14 How I layed out the wall mount	15 Suggested tool: Kreg Pocket Screw setup. The blue thing just in front of the power drill lets you make precision oblique holes in wood that accept special pocket screws. You can make nearly invisible, nearly watertight wood joints with Pocket Screws. The big claw looking thing is used to hold two pieces of wood together when installing pocket screws into your newly drilled holes.	16 Bottom view, Right Side
17 Can stop height	18 Front Can Guide Height. Note that one column (Dole Pineapple Chunks) has a slightly shorter guide to accomodate the larger diameter can. 36 Inches works for 99% of all other can diameters.	19 Far right column for Ortega Diced Green Chiles. This is a very short can. Note the lack of a righ hand Front Can Guide. Gap is just wide enough for your finger.	20 3" can column for short cans. Note brass column label holders at top of frame.
21 3 1/2" column for mid-sized cans	22 4 5/8" width columns - most retail cans are this height. You can go a few sixteenths wider, but no narrower. The cans will bind in the column is too narrow.	23 Wedge shaped "kicker". This forces the cans to roll out and stop when they hit the Can Stop. This one is a 60 degree slice of a 2x4, cut on a compound miter saw with an "acute angle" jig so that it can make a miter cut greater than 45 degrees. This column is 3 1/2" wide.	24 There is a small "land" at the top/back of this kicker. You can trim it off if you like, but it is dangerous cutting such a small piece of wood with power tools.
25 French Cleat. The top piece of plywood is attached to the back of the can dispenser. The bottom part is screwed into the studs behind the drywall. Use a LOT of screws as this dispenser can easily top 300 Lbs when fully loaded. Note how the beveled parts "mate", forming a nearly indestructable, gravity held joint.	26 Pocket screws hold the frame sides on to the top and bottom frame panels. I use a Kreg Pocket Screw setup. The rectangular holes are brad nails that affix the column guides to the top and bottom.	27 Side view of dispenser. I used square-drive pocket screws to hold the back panel in. You can see the French Cleat that holds the dispenser on to the wall by gravity. You can barely see the Cleat Shim that spaces the bottom of the dispenser away from the wall.	28 Column label holders - needs some card stock and some calligraphy to identify what goes in empty columns.
29 Can Stop detail. There is about a 1 1/2" landing zone for the bottom can to rest on. You can see the kicker on the right side of the frame.	30 Lots of cans! Note that the bottoms of the Front Can Guides are just high enough to let a can come out easily. If a can has a wider diameter, you may need to move the Front Guide up a tad. I had to do this for Dole Pineapple Chunks	31 Top view. You can see the brad nails holding the Interior Column Sides. The square-drive screws hold the backing board in place - it is inset into the outer frame such that it is flush with the back of the frame.	32 Frame Bottom with pocket screws holding the side on. More square-drive screws holding the Backing Board in. The 3/4" ply resting agains the wall is the Cleat Shim.
33 Standard Front Can Guide. This one is for very short cans, so there is no Guide on the right side.	34 This is a 2-piece kicker for a wide column. The left hand side is about 1" wide; The right hand side of the Kicker is 3 1/2" wide. I ran some of the 3 1/2" kicker blocks through the band saw to trim them to 1". I used a belt sander to grind them down if they were too wide to fit the column.	35 A narrow (2") column kicker. I used a bandsaw to trim a 3 1/2" kicker to fit.	36 Closeup of 2" kicker.
37 Special far-left Fron Can Guide. 1 11/16". It fits flush with the left side of the frame.	38 Special column for Dole Pineapple Chunks. This can is wider in diameter than others, so it needs a 4" gap between the bottom of the Front Can Guide and the "floor" of the landing zone.	39 3 5/8" Normal can gap between bottom of a Front Can Guide and the floor of the landing zone	40 4 1/2" wide column. Note the slightly staggered Front Can Guide bottoms. The higher one is for Pineapple chunks.
41 Details of some of th left side columns.	42 Frame side width - 4"	43 Backing board to Can Stop leading edge is 4 1/2"	44 Backing Board to inside edge of Front Can Guide is 3 1/2"
45 Frame Bottom is 5" to give us a can "landing zone". You can see the Can Stop in the left side of the photo.	46 Closeup of the Frame Botton and the Can Stop