My patio cooler

[Dutch01]

OK, I had a portable gas bbq grill that I mounted as a permanent fixture to a wall on my patio. I was left with these legs of the grill. and thought I needed to use them in a project.


Well, my son showed me this this patio cooler on Pinterest and an idea was formed.

I had some pallet wood beams lying around which I cut into slats and formed my concept of my own patio cooler.


I have to stress a point at this time that I do not consider myself as a "wood" person, but earlier this year I treated myself to a table saw and a router. She asked me why which I could not really answer. but then I do love tools.

At this stage, work is in progress with my patio cooler

 

[Provincial]

Looks good so far. Used wood has character that is lacking in new wood.

 

[sickws6]

Great work!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dutch01]

Thanks for the kind words.

Here is an update on my progress. The back section cut and glued together


A larger cooler box fitted. The wife reckoned the initial one used for the 1st mock up was to small for beers.


Front section coming on nicely


Cooler box fitted into frame.

 

[Richard Cranium]

looks nice.

 

[Dutch01]

Further update.

Here is a bottom view of the how the cooler box is fitted


Wooden lid in construction


Lid fitted in closed position


Lid in open position

 

[Dutch01]

Not so much further progress on the patio cooler except for cutting more pallet beams to size. Other issues at home required attention first, but as a filler I worked on another small project that will compliment the patio cooler. Ok, no prizes for guessing what is is from the 1st photo





I wanted to experiment with the staining of the patio cooler. Prost

 

[dgithens1]

Nice job!

 

[Dutch01]

Nice job!

Thanks. I presume you are referring to the clock The 5 minute increment tokens are all beer bottle caps hence the writing: Beer Time.

 

[Dutch01]

Hi, I have been out of circulation for some time but luckily not because of ill health .

To be honest, my patio cooler is finished so here are updates of the build:


The top surface was extended to give more table surface


Slats were inserted at the bottom to accept 6 bottles of wine.


The finished wine rack at the bottom

 

[Dutch01]

The cooler box did not have a drain plug and after some thought,
I decided to use what was readily available with having to go on a spending spree to buy fancy fittings. After all my aim was to use whatever I already had as for as possible.

Fittings of a wine box came in handy






The inner was separated from the outer casing, holes were drilled and wine box fitting fitted.

 

[driftpin]

Your job looks good enough for entertaining, certainly, and I like the clock, with the bottlecaps.

Is the repurposed barbeque frame sufficiently-robust-enough to carry the weight? I thought of doing something similar, but upon a good look at the material, I decided it wasn't gonna be strong-enough, so I junked it.

I did rescue a neighbor's 150 quart marine Igloo cooler after Hurricane Irma, the 185 mph ***** that did billions of dollars in damage across the Caribbean, and then the S.E. USA https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/hurricane-tropical-storm-irma-recap-2017#/!

It needed hinges, a drain spout, and latches, but for a $50 investment, it should be good for years to come. No wood trim on this, but maybe I'll throw a Harbor Freight furniture dolly under it after I use some varnish.

 

[Dutch01]

Hi Driftpin

Thanks for the compliment. The patio cooler was already put to use with the Christening of a grand-daughter and I did receive good compliments as well.

Hurricane Irma certainly was one hell of a *****. I feel for those who suffered losses as a result. Hope you were not too badly affected.

Yes the frame is definitely is strong enough. The gas grill itself was made from sheet metal steel, 4 cast iron burners, a cast iron grid and a cast iron ribbed griddle. The cooler I fitted is only 45 liters which is approximately a 3rd of you you obtained.

Here is the rest of the patio cooler:

Initially I was going to extend the front top surface of the cooler, cut a round hole and fit a bucket to hold wine in the hole. Thinking about it I came to the conclusion that the extended length would not be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I thus attached a coat hook and hung the bucket on there.



With the bottle of wine and ice in the bucket it swayed too easily on the bucket handle and tended to tilt to the front. I the drilled a hole in the bucket near the top halfway between the handle hinges and finished the hole off with an eyelet that you would use on canvas.



A profiled piece of wood was fitted to prevent the bucket to swing sideways and also to protect the plastic drain.





The final result

 

[ndnchf]

Very cool build!

 

[Dutch01]

Very cool build!

Thanks. What was the most rewarding to me was the fact that I steered away from wood related projects all my life and I could see the end result as I went along. By no means perfect, but it was never meant to be perfect

 

[Dutch01]

On another note, I did mention that I initially wanted to extend the front on the patio cooler to accept a sunken wine cooling bucket. Unfortunately I already cut the wood before I scrapped the idea. Not wanting to waste good material, I made my wife a present. The inspiration was thanks due to the Internet



The wife loves it

 

[bonneyman]

For someone who doesn't do well with wood you sure are doing some excellent work!

 

[skrap metal]

nice work