Teak Kitchen Garbage Can
This project was completed during November, 2001. The vertical elements (sides, front and back) of the box are narrow strips of teak wood laminated together to create wider boards. After the boards were assembled, they were planed to a thickness of one half inch. Then the top edges were finished with a "breadboard edge." This not only added a pleasing aesthetic detail but also served to add rigidity to the box to help it stay square and not cup (or bow) across the grain of the sides, front and back. This was a challenging project as there were no plans to guide the construction and several challenges were overcome during the construction process.
	The waste container stands 28-3/8" tall, a bit taller than most "tall" kitchen garbage cans. Once complete, the project was sprayed with a couple coats of tough polyurethane to protect the wood from the assaults it will be subjected to during kitchen use.
	The lid to the project was created with a single teak board planed to 3/4" thickness. Attaching the lid to the box was one of the challenges. It needed to be attached in such a way that it could be opened with full hands, or at minimum one hand, and be able to stay open for continuous use.
	The inside of the container needed to be dimensioned to accommodate a tall kitchen garbage bag. That entailed the placement of a false bottom inside the box on which rests the bottom of the tall kitchen garbage bag after installation.
	Another challenge along the way was to determine how the lid was to be attached, if at all. After searching high and low for various types of hinges, the solid brass "Side Rail Hinges w/Stay" (item #126435 from Woodcraft Supply) was the solution. They provided the hinged action along the back of the lid and also limited the travel of the lid to 95°, a very important design consideration to keep the lid from hitting the wall yet keeping it open. And best of all, the small brass hinges are quite pleasing to the eye and a great compliment to the teak wood. But after purchasing them, they led to yet another challenge. Installation required an accurate router table, which I did not have. So the task of installing the hinges was put on hold while I researched router tables and eventually decided to build my own router table from a plan offered by Norm Abram of the New Yankee Workshop. Once I had finished the table, I was able to continue with the hinge installation by creating the required mortises for the hinges in the sides and top using the recently constructed router table.
	Similar to the side of the project, the top was finished with a bread board edge. This covers the end grain of the top with an aesthetically pleasing technique and served to keep the top flat. Notice how the light reflects differently from the top than it does the bread board trim.
	If you put this kind of work into building a teak kitchen garbage can, you certainly do not want a white plastic bag draped over the top edge and showing when the lid is closed. In this picture you can see one of the two side brackets on which rests a teak rectangle. The brackets were fashioned from teak and tapered toward the bottom edges of the brackets. Doing so helps the full disposable garbage bag to not catch on the brackets when being removed. They were attached to the sides a couple inches from the top edge.
	The teak rectangle is shown sitting inside the garbage can resting on the two brackets. The brackets were placed so that the top of this removable rectangle is nearly flush with the top edges of the garbage can.
	The disposable plastic bag is installed by removing the wooden rectangle, inserting the top of the bag through the rectangle from the bottom, then folding the bag down over the edges of the wooden rectangle. Once the top of the bag is draped over the top of the rectangle, the bag and rectangle assembly is simply dropped into the inside of the box where the wooden rectangle once again rests on the side brackets.
	Once installed, you can see that if the lid were lowered (as in the first picture of this series), the white plastic bag would be contained entirely inside the garbage can. This is a nice addition to our kitchen and is more like a small piece of furniture than a traditional garbage can. It truly is a one of a kind project.

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