Kitchen Cabinet Upgrade: Construct the Lazy Susan Middle Shelf (Part 2 of 3)

By Jim Mallery
RefacingCabinet.com Columnist

(Part 2 of 3)

In our first article of three in the series, we gathered the tools and materials. Now it's time to construct the shelf that the mid-level Lazy Susan tray sits on. This is where it gets a little complicated. Here are 7 steps to make the stationary shelf for your Lazy Susan.

1. Two Pieces. The middle shelf upon which the Lazy Susan tray spins is made in two pieces; a single piece is too large to fit into the cabinet. Cut two rectangular pieces of plywood so that they fit together to make the "L" shape of the shelf--the dimensions should be 1/8 to 3/16 of an inch less than the cabinet space.
2. Wood. Cabinet-grade birch plywood (3/4") makes a fine shelf. Your lumber yard should be able to sell you half a sheet (4'x4') if you don't need a full one.
3. Joint. A plate joiner, also called a biscuit cutter, is the best way to join the two shelf pieces. This tool is wonderful for creating sturdy joints in abutting pieces of wood, and it is valuable in cabinet work. If you have a lot of kitchen cabinet work in your future, you should consider buying one. If not, borrow or rent. Plate joiners cut slices into the edge of the plywood--they are precision instruments so that the cuts in facing edges of wood are perfectly aligned. The biscuits, oval wood disks specially made for this purpose, are glued halfway into the slices in one board, then the other board is glued onto the other half of the biscuit, making for a joint almost as strong as the board itself.
4. No Biscuit? If you want to avoid the expense of the biscuit cutter, you can try drilling and using dowels to connect the two pieces. It is less exact, but you can argue that the shelf is not going to be visible, so who cares if it is not a perfectly aligned joint?
5. Added Bracing. For more security on your joint, you can attach a couple of steel reinforcement plates across the underside of the joint--predrill for them at this time.
6. Trim. Attach 3/4" pieces of trim to the front edges of the plywood, the edges that show when the shelf is mounted in the cabinet. You can get this in the form of an adhesive wood veneer, or you can make your own by ripping a thin strip of wood on a table saw and gluing it on.
7. Drill Holes. With the stationary shelf dry-fitted on the biscuits (or dowels), drill pilot holes for the bearing plate screws; also drill an access hole in the stationary shelf, which allows you to screw the bearing plate to the Lazy Susan tray--the access hole is explained further in the last article of this series. And drill pilot holes in the Lazy Susan tray for the bearing plate so that everything is ready to screw together when you put it in the cabinet. Now, dismantle everything and get ready to install it inside the cabinet.

With your middle shelf all cut and drilled, the third and final article in this series will show you how to finish this upgrade to your kitchen cabinets.

About The Author

Jim Mallery, a semi-retired journalist and onetime registered contractor, has extensive experience remodeling, repairing and rebuilding homes.