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00:05 Speaker 1: Gidday, Knuckleheads. Uncle Knackers here, and have I got a project for
you. Sometimes I get an idea for a project, and I just can't wait to start it, and with
Christmas just around the corner, and a scorching hot Australian summer upon us, the timing
couldn't be more perfect. So, what I have planned is to transform this classic 1970s
Esky or cooler into a raised or elevated rustic, timber cooler box made out of old fence palings.
And it's going to look absolutely fantastic. Now, the first thing you need to do is to
remove all the old hardware off the Esky or the cooler because we need a blank canvass
to work with.
00:53 S1: Now, with all the hardware taken off, it's now time to work out what size you wanna build your cooler
box. I'm going to make mine the length of the cooler box here, or the Esky, with an
added 300 millimetres or 12 inches on either end, which all up is about 1150 millimetres
or about 45 inches. And that'll give you somewhere to put your stubby or your bowl of chips or
something like that. And the height, what you do is you take the lid off, and you want
the height of the Esky plus some. And me, I've gone about 480 millimetres in depth,
which is about 19 inches. Okay, let's start building these panels. Okay. We need to cut
enough timber to make two panels for the front and the back, and each panel has five palings.
So that'll be 10 all up. We need to cut them at 1150 millimetres long or roughly 45 inches.
So, let's do that.
02:08 S1: Now, we also need to cut three supports for each panel. Now, I'm just using this old
hardwood rail from the paling fence. And we need three of those cut at 475 millimetres
each. Just be careful when cutting the old rail as there's always a truck load of nails
in it. So, just be careful.
02:39 S1: Now, to save some time, I've pre-assembled these side panels. And you can see the supports
are in. There's one there, one in the middle, and one down the other end. You'll also notice
that the end support is a palings of width back from the end, that way when the side
goes in, it finishes up nice and fresh, just like that. And to nail the palings off, just
grab a hammer or a nail gun and *** away. I should also say too that it's a good idea
before you assemble everything to give those old palings a bit of a sand. It's gonna be
easier in the long run.
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03:29 S1: And now we just need to nail the sides off.
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03:50 S1: Beautiful. So, there's the box all made. Looks pretty good, doesn't it? Now,
all I need to do is to attach the legs. And to make the leg, all I'm doing is getting
two palings, running some glue down one edge, and then nailing the other on top, just like
that. And I've pre-made some. And the length of these legs is 830 millimetres which is
about I think it's 33 inches. And then on the bottom of those legs, I'm going to put
some casters so we can move this bad boy around. I'm just going to nail these legs on.
[pause]
04:50 S1: So, here she all is with the legs in place. Now, just to get away from the chunkiness
of the leg, wanna add a bit of a splay, something go in 45 millimetres from the edge and run
a line up to about 30 millimetres from the underside of the box here. And that'll give
us a nice angle.
[pause]
05:21 S1: So, there you have it. And I must say, it's looking pretty good. Now the next
stage is to put the top on it using these old palings once again. But before you do
that, you need to install these supports, one on the end, one there, one there, and
one there. Now, the two supports in the middle here are offset from the center because I
want to install the Esky or the cooler and I don't want those supports to be in the way.
And just as a quick side note, this would make a fantastic elevated herb garden. Next
video perhaps. And now it's time to nail the top off.
[pause]
06:09 S1: With the tabletop now put on, it's now time to cut a hole for our cooler or our
Esky. So place it where you want to put it on the tabletop, trace around it with a pencil,
and then cut it out with a jigsaw.
[pause]
06:36 S1: So there you have it, the Esky, or the cooler, has been inserted into the
hole that I've just cut. Now all we need to do is to add some support beneath this to
stop it from sliding all the way through. So if we go down here, we just need to run
some supports underneath the Esky, got a nail into the side over there, and that'll stop
this from falling through. So with the lid all I've done is that I've framed around the
outside edge of it this small [07:04] ____ railing. And, once you open it up, you've
got your Esky. Close it down again, just hinge it at the back, put some palings across the
top, and we're done.
07:17 S1: How good does that look? I clad the top with small fence palings, and then
ran one around the outside edge as well, just to cover up that old hardwood rail. And for
the handle, all I did was cut down the old handle from the Esky that's inside here, and
it works like an absolute charm. And because my lid is set back from the edge of the cooler
box, I used a really good set of cabin hinges, they're absolute rippers, and cabin is C-A-B-I-N.
Get a set. Now you don't want little kids, or even big kids for that matter, jamming
their fingers underneath this lid, so to fix that problem, all I did was cut a stick of
timber, screwed it to the side of the lid, chiselled a small hole into the cooler box
top, and all you do is place that stick into that hole, and there you go, no more squished
fingers. How cool is that? Now to make this big unit a bit more mobile, I'm going to screw
these casters to the bottom of the legs. Make sure you pre-drill the holes first because,
otherwise, you'll split the leg.
[pause]
08:35 S1: Now for drainage, all I did was get some 25 mil poly pipe, I drilled a 25
mil hole into the side here, and ran the pipe straight through, and attached it to the outlet
on the Esky, or the cooler box. I ran the pipe out and then cut the flush with this
surface here. And then this tap just screwed beautifully into the end of that poly pipe
with some silicon, and the job was done. How easy is that? And now it's time for a few
finishing touches. I've got a really cool old surfing sign which I'll screw to the front.
I've got a couple of bottle openers because, seriously, what's a rustic old cooler box
without a bottle opener or two? So I've got one here that I've painted up and sanded back
to make look a bit old. And this one here, which is possibly the coolest and most manliest
bottle opener of all, is an old spanner, and all I've done is cut one of those lugs off,
and that gives it the perfect angle to open a bottle. What an absolute ripper!
[pause]
09:56 S1: So how much did all this cost? Well the wheels cost 16, the tap was seven, and
the hinges were 10, so 16 divided by the 10, carry the nine, with the hypotenuse, that
comes up with 33 dollars. How cheap is that, for this? Now how good does that look? And
it even comes stocked, ready for action. What a top project, great tip Knackers! And as
per usual, if you found this video useful, subscribe to my channel, the button's down
there. Thums up, the button's down there as well. And don't go just yet, because there'll
be a couple of photos going backwards and forwards of this little baby in various stages
of construction. Anyway, I better get stuck into a couple of those coldies. So till next
time, I'm out of here. Cheers!
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