Revolving Bench-Top Paint Bottle Carousel
By Bruce Briggs

Bill Parmentier’s excellent paint shelf, featured in the August issue of The Corsair, solves the biggest problem we all have with those paint bottles: storing them so you can see the labels.  Bill designed his unit to sit on top of his paint spray booth. That wasn’t possible in my setup, as my “paint booth” is a large cardboard box on its side on my garage workbench, partially blocking the pegboard tool rack behind it.  The shelf unit looked ideal to hang on a wall, but I have no available wall space either.

Most workbenches are 24” to 28” deep: any deeper and the back is too far to reach. My workbench is a drafting table, 38” deep by 60” wide, so there’s plenty of room at the back to dedicate some space.  My solution was to build a tilted shelf system similar to Bill’s design, but on a free-standing turntable (lazy Susan) base.  It takes up just under 2 ¼ square feet of bench space if you clear a 20” diameter circular area for the unit to revolve.

  The unit provides three main advantages: paint is stored so that the labels are visible, it increases the usable storage area by about 36% for the bench space it occupies, and it provides an organized location to store both paint bottles and larger containers on the top shelf and corners, which saves countless hours hunting around your hobby area.

You’ve probably met some of those handy guys that can visualize an entire project in their heads, go out to the shop and a few hours later come back with a finished project that works just like they imagined.

I’m not one of those guys.  But I do CAD drafting and occasional design for a living, I had a client who was one of those guys, and he taught me a few things.  Unlike him, I have to build a virtual 3D object (Figure 1), testing fits and function, and refining the design before buying any material.  For this project, I created a set of virtual paint bottles representing various brands, and a few extra items for working out the fit.  I applied Bill Parmentier’s idea of leaving enough space to get your fingers around or over the bottles. Instead of adjustable panels, I made shelves of different heights to accommodate the majority of the paints I use, including Model Master, Floquil, Scalecoat, Alclad II, ad the little Humbrol sized cans stacked two high.  Next came the 2D drawing, where I laid out all the component parts.  I took the added step of creating a 3D exploded assembly drawing (Figure 7), for the inevitable time halfway through the project when I would forget how the pieces were supposed to fit .  I then worked out a cut sheet, created a bill of materials, and headed for the store.  About thirty-five dollars and two long shop days later, there stood on my bench a revolving paint carousel, and it seems to work fine.

My old client, a master cabinet and furniture maker, once told me the difference between the professional and the do-it-yourselfer is the professional will buy clamps.  Though I’ll never be a pro like him, I have taken his advice and collected a lot of clamps over the years, so I was able to glue and clamp most of the components. There are no nails, and only 28 screws in the assembly. I would have glued everything but the bearing, but I wanted to be able to dismantle the carousel should it need repairs or replacement of the bearing.  The shelf boxes are built with a 5° tilt to keep the bottles in place, just like Bill Parmentier’s shelves.

The shelf boxes and top are made of ¼” hardboard, which I bought in a 48”x48” half sheet.  The base is ½” birch plywood. I spent a little extra for the birch because it has a tight grain that sands nicely, leaving no splinters or voids, and because regular C-D plywood now available is only one step above junk.  The 12” melamine circle (melamine is particle board with white laminate already applied) was cheap at $4.99 when you consider the difficulty of cutting and applying laminate to a perfect circle without the proper equipment.  The tools included a table saw, a router (optional), an orbiting sander, hand drill/power screwdriver, and lots of clamps. I used pony clamps (bar clamps that use ¾” pipe), furniture clamps (the pros call them “hand screws”), c-clamps and Quick-Grip™ 1½” Handi-Clamps and Micro Bar Clamps.

The first task is to cut the hardboard parts and the plywood base.  Lay out the cuts on the hardboard (see Figures 5 & 6), being careful to leave space between the parts for the width of the saw blade, and cut all the parts.  The most difficult cut was the 5° angle on the edges of the thin furring strips that fill in the bottom shelves.  You will probably have to make up some kind of jig to make the cut accurately and safely.  Make a 5° rip cut on the face of each brace that will be affixed to the back panels of the shelf boxes.

Set the side panels on your workspace, face down. Glue and clamp the shelves to the side panels, using a square to make them perpendicular to the front edge.  I used the table saw fence as a guide to hold one side panel, and bar clamped the opposite side to the shelves.  After the glue is dry, with the shelf assemblies face down, glue and clamp the rear panels inside the side panels and against the backs of the shelves.  Set these parts aside, and prepare the plywood base. Use a router to round the corners. If you don’t have a router, use a sanding block to remove the sharp edges.

Dry fit the four shelf boxes onto the base, and mark the locations for the four bottom braces.  After removing the boxes, drill and countersink two holes in each brace, and screw them to the base with #6 wood screws.  Dry fit the shelf boxes again and drill and countersink pilot holes through the backs at about 15° from horizontal, to make sure the screws aren’t too close to the tops of the bottom braces. This requires the countersinks to be deeper than normal, and the exposed screw heads are not square to the backs.  Screw them in deep enough so the heads do not protrude.

Place the turntable bearing so the part with the larger screw holes is sitting on the top of the melamine circle.  Carefully center the bearing on the circle, drill four pilot holes, and screw the bearing to the circle with #6 wood screws.  The smaller holes on the top part of the bearing are sized to receive #4 sheet metal screws from above.  Carefully measure the locations of the holes, which are offset from the holes of the bottom part.  Mark the top of the base (you may wish to remove the shelf boxes for easier access) for the four flathead sheet metal screws, and drill and countersink pilot holes. Be careful about the length of these screws: if they are too long they will interfere with the bearing rotation. Too short, and they will not hold the bearing in place.  Screw the plywood bottom to the bearing.

With the for shelf boxes back in place, and using a straight edge to gauge the height, glue and clamp the top braces to the backs of the shelf boxes so they are flush with the top edges of the side rails.  Drill and countersink pilot holes through the top into the top braces. Screw the top onto the top braces.  Glue and clamp the long and short rails to the top.  To finish the seams between the shelf boxes, cut and glue ¾”x¾” cove molding to the inside corners.

This carousel isn’t fine furniture, so I left it unfinished.  I’d rather spend the time painting models.

Bill of Materials