How to Make a Pull-Out Trash Bin

Video Transcript

RON HAZELTON:
You know, any way you slice it, trash is a byproduct of home life, and in particular, kitchen life. Now I don't know about you, but around here,  well, I'm the trash man. So I've decided I want to come up with the most efficient kitchen trash can I can think of. And for me, that's one that's close to the food prep area, as large as possible, and most importantly, out of sight.

Now what I'm planning to do is to convert this door and this drawer to a pullout trash unit. Now I could, if I wanted to, use a smaller trash can and just put it down here. But I want to use a large ten gallon size and that's going to require all the space from the bottom, all the way up to the top.

My first step is to remove the door and drawer. I'll be reusing these later. Next, I take out the drawer glides, then cut out the rail that separates the two openings. My Japanese handsaw is the perfect tool for this.

My pullout trash system will have two main parts: a base that I'll fasten to the inside of the cabinet and a trashcan holder. I’ll cut out the top and drop in as plastic trash can. I'll attach the two together using a pair of ball bearing drawer glides. The entire unit will be concealed behind the door and drawer fronts.

I'm using cabinet grade birch plywood for this project and as usual, I'm cutting out all of the parts at one time. Now I'm going to start by putting a base together. The construction for all of this is pretty much going to be glue and nails, so I'll put a little bit of glue along this edge right here.

Now when I'm working alone, I find this to be a really handy tool. I call it a positioning clamp and this is the way it works. I'll slip it on right here and then, I'll slip my second board in here. Now what this actually does is kind of act as one hand holding this end of the board, so I'm free to use my other two hands to get everything aligned here. I like to feel the edges. Sometimes, you know, your fingers can be more accurate than your eyes. Just by dragging this over the edge, I can make sure that i'm flush there. Right. Now we can go ahead and nail it.

Okay now I'm just going to do the same with the other side. With the base assembled, I'm moving onto the small cabinet. Okay, now what I've got here right now is a wooden box. Set this down here. Now eventually I'm going to put this trashcan inside.

But before I can do that, I've got to cut an opening in the top. So to get the size of that, I'll put the trashcan on bottom side up and then just trace the outline of the lip. I draw a second line about a half inch inside the first so the opening will be just a bit smaller than the trashcan lip. A roll of tape makes a perfect template for the corners. To start the cut more easily, I drill a hole inside the cut line, drop the blade of a jigsaw in the opening, and begin sawing.

Well now for that moment of truth. Oh it's good. Now I've got something to hold the trashcan. The next step is to make it slide in and out. Now that's how the trashcan holder is going to fit into the base. What's going to make it move easily are these. These are ball bearing full extension drawer glides.  And what I'm going to do here is separate these.

This section right here, I'll mount on the inside of the base and this piece here on the side of the trashcan holder. Well, it's time for another of those moments of truth. I should be able just to engage the two sides of the glides here.

One little push. Very smooth. Now I'm going to put a coat of paint on this and then take it back inside and install it in the cabinet.

Well the paints dry and now all I have to do to install this base is to slip it into the cabinet, give it a turn, and then pull it up to the base cabinet like that.  
Then screw it in place.  Now I can engage the glides and slip the trashcan holder into the base.  The door I took off earlier gets pinned to the front then attached with screws from the inside.  The drawer front goes on the same way.
Well I think I have ended up with, what for me at least is thee perfect kitchen trash system.  It’s large, it’s close to the food prep area, as a matter of fact over here on the island I can just push these food scraps from the countertop right into the can.  But most importantly when I don’t want to use this it is completely out of sight.