Cabinet Shelf Access

[Bob Bassett]

Thinking of building some 12 inch deep by 34 inch tall cabinets over a workbench that is 34 inches wide. I have seen picture of setups just like this in numerous magazines over the years.

Now I have these beautiful cabinets built with adjustable shelves and all. But how do I get to the contents of the shelves without using a step-stool or climbing on top of the bench?

I was kinda thinking about maybe coming up with some way of making boxes that sit on the shelves that are mounted on slides. Now ideally, these slides would allow these boxes to slide out and to tip down a bit so that I could see the contents on the box and get what I want out of the box.

Has anyone out there done this or does anyone have any ideas about how it could be done?

[cabinetman]

What you are describing sounds like those storage bins in the hardware department that you pull out, they drop at an angle and some have lift lids. For those you could search the net for "bins", or find a hardware store that has them and see if there is a name on the item. HD and Lowes both use them.

If you wanted to make them, you could probably make drawers that rode on wood and slot type slides to pull out. You probably could curve the slot towards the rear to allow it to tip after its been pulled out. That would have to be worked out in a full size drawing to get the details right.

[Tequila]

Keep in mind that if you've got adjustable shelves, they'll want to tip forward when you pull out something mounted on a slide. You need to fix the shelves in place in order for what you're describing to work properly.

[Anna]

I have been thinking about something similar, and tried looking for the appropriate hardware online (not easy when you don't have the proper vocabulary for it). This is one of the things I found. Really expensive, but would be nice if someone comes up with a good enough design we can all build in the shop. Or maybe it's available cheap somewhere, but I just haven't found it.