DIY Walk In Cooler Build

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You should have seen it and him. Bear in mind the pics I posted were after he spent a number of hours cleaning up yesterday. His clothing was covered, as was his face and hands. I've never seen such a thing.

Great line about the 3 year old. Accurate too I imagine. Fracking Marshall.

Edit: Paulie came over to help with G. Greg today and saw the mess Marshall made. I mentioned the comment about the 3 year old, and he said "Helen Keller could have done a better job" Classic Paulie...
 
Paulie's boy Kyle holding up the first panel going in for test fitting:

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First wall of panels is glued and locked in:

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I couldn't glue the center panel to the floor with the logistics of them going in as it had to be located first then slid over. This would have ruined the bead so I will just caulk around the seams and hope for the best. It's already pretty tight so it shouldn't be an issue. That above pic is a panorama shot so it kind of sucks. Sorry. We still need to screw the panels to the studs.

I've switched to imgur so new learning curve ahead for posting pics.

Edit: A few more for the day. We got the roof in which was a total PITA.

The rig we used to hold the panels as it was just Greg and I for this part.

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Roof panels in:

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We glued the behind and middle seams and used the built in latches to couple the panels. It was a ***** to line up the latches as we had to do a bunch of measurements and calculations but we managed to pull it off. We tore the vapor barrier in a number of spots as this is a non-trivial exercise. We can repair the torn spots. We also used 1/4' X 6" Spax flatheaded Torx lags with fender washers to secure the panels to the wall. It really helps to have an impact driver AND a cordless drill.

The Torx lags:

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Another ceiling shot:

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Glad to see you're using imgur! Everything looks like it's coming together. Any big plans for the following the cooler?
 
Are you concerned that the spax screws might get rusty with moisture inside the cooler?
 
Man, I'm not gonna lie, those panels are uuuuggggly. Any regrets putting them up?

New panels would have been ideal but they are about 15 times more expensive. We are planning on painting the inside once everything is up. So don't fret. It won't be as ugly. Besides, who cares how ugly it is if it works?
 
New panels would have been ideal but they are about 15 times more expensive. We are planning on painting the inside once everything is up. So don't fret. It won't be as ugly. Besides, who cares how ugly it is if it works?

OK, good. Paint will do them wonders. This is HBT, home of bling. Everyone cares if it's ugly :)
 
They are coated lags, so they won't rust.

If you aren't familiar with galvanic corrosion, take a second and look it up. Basically any two dissimilar metals will corrode if in contact with each other in the presence of moisture. Depending on the metals it could take forever, or a couple weeks. Hopefully the coating on the screws is the same as the panels.
 
I'm familiar with galvanic corrosion but thanks for the heads up. The lags are yellow zinc coated so they will resist some corrosion. Spax makes a heavier duty coated lag that they call HCR but they did not have these in stock. I suspect the yellow zinc ones should last as long as I need them to however.

I will be running a full time dehumidifier in the cooler, as well as a tray of drierite and a couple of those kegerator dessicant packs. This should help keep it dry in there as much as possible.
 
I'm familiar with galvanic corrosion but thanks for the heads up. The lags are yellow zinc coated so they will resist some corrosion. Spax makes a heavier duty coated lag that they call HCR but they did not have these in stock. I suspect the yellow zinc ones should last as long as I need them to however.

I will be running a full time dehumidifier in the cooler, as well as a tray of drierite and a couple of those kegerator dessicant packs. This should help keep it dry in there as much as possible.

Sounds like a plan. If you are keeping commercial corked bottles in there though, dry as a bone isn't going to be good for those corks.
 
My apologies for the photobucket pictures being down in the bulk of the thread. It looks like I have exceeded my maximum bandwidth this month.

I will migrate some pics over to imgur when I get some time, but this may take awhile. I'm really busy at work and don't have a lot of extra time to be doing something as time intensive as migrating IMG links. Anyone have a process to do this in a bulk manner? I'm too cheap (and nearly broke) to be buying monthly bandwidth just for picture hosting for one thread.

On a more cooler related note, I'm meeting with the HOA compliance rep on Friday. I sent him the document I wrote up detailing the shed build but he was still oblivious and complained about my permit not being on file and that he wanted to know what I had going on over there. Had he bothered to read the attached document, he would know that I didn't have a permit as I explained this in detail. I politely told him that he should read the attached document prior to our meeting so that he would have some background on what I was doing.

It looks like I'm going to have to dig in for some serious brown-nose action.
 
It's hot as balls out here. Today is a bit of a relief as we have some cloud cover. I came early from work yesterday hoping to work but it was way too hot. Someone would have died if we tried to work yesterday. On the news this AM, there was a story about a dude walking his dog yesterday and the dog just flat out died. It was a black dog and it hadn't had any water or shade for a few hours apparently.

Roof work continues today. Meanwhile Marshall is still cleaning up from his mess and Greg is cutting panels. We need more fasteners but they are sold out at multiple stores so I ordered a box. I plan on getting into town this evening to pick up a different set of lags that I can replace once the ones I ordered come in.

I met with the HOA guy this morning, he was actually pretty cool. I submitted a document describing the shed build, drawings I made, and an application for a permit. The whole package will be reviewed by the board in a couple weeks and he encouraged me to go present my case. He said my roofing material won't be allowed, so I will have to paint it. No big deal.
 
So we got a fair amount done today. No Marshall as he's difficult to deal with. He's starting fires while he should be working so I doubt he'll be welcome back. I got an email from the neighborhood watch block captain saying he was starting an ant hill on fire with BBQ lighter fluid and that we are under fire restrictions and that she would call the fire department if he did it again. I'm tired of babysitting so I doubt we will have him back. That's OK though as we can finish up without him.

My apologies for the lack of photos. I really prefer the ease of use of Photobucket over Imgur. I can't seem to find the IMG tags in Imgur when looking at the pic on the computer. Turns out you need to be signed in to access the links. It's ok on the phone app but I prefer to type on my computer versus the phone. If anyone wants to donate a few bucks to host the bandwidth needed to host all these pics on photobucket, PM me for my paypal address. I think they want 3 bucks a month or 25 a year for unlimited bandwidth. I'll match whatever donations I get. I'm not really looking forward to moving all these photos over to Imgur and editing all those IMG links.

We got some cloud cover and even a little rain so working today was possible as the heat wasn't too bad.

We got the roof on as well as the gables, which are thermal barrier OSB capped with durarock (you can stucco color coat right onto durarock without lath/scratch/brown):

OrHIq4O.jpg


View from the top:

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Speaking of ugly, the AC side wall panels are in. They remind me of Iron Man 1 where he is stuck in the cave and has to build a suit to get away from the Taliban guys. These walls look like that in some weird way:

RCLmIkh.jpg


Back to work tomorrow. Time to drink some beers.
 
Not really sure what you're referring to on not being able to find the tags on imgur. It's right there on the right as soon as you upload. Is this not the screen you get after uploading? I can't imagine anything being easier to use than imgur. And it's totally free.

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I do get a page similar to that one you show. But I don't get that one if I am not signed in.

I think my upload pathway might have something to do with the differences we are seeing as I'm uploading via an Imgur app (which might be third party I had to turn on access for the app to access my Imgur account). Not sure but I'll keep using it and I'll get better at it over time I'm sure.
 
Back to work today after a few too many saisons last night. I'll sweat it out and be fine in a bit.

This is where the taps will be eventually:

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Panel bore hole:

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From the cooler side looking in:

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Almost through:

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All through:

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Wall side panels are going up today:

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Glory hole right there in the middle...

Finally got the wall up. That was a *****.

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Cutting out the excess door frame foam:

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Started messing with the AC unit:

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Test fitting the AC case:

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As you can see, we cut out a section of the glory hole side wall as we needed the space to access the wall portal where the AC unit goes. We left the back sheet metal intact to protect the vapor barrier and plan on making up a service panel that will back up to the sheet metal for when we need to take out the AC unit for cleaning or service. But in the meantime, Electric Lee is here wiring up the circuits needed to run the AC unit (230 V, 20 A Nema 6 outlet, as well as a 115 V for the cool bot, and we need to run power to a lamp and switch in the cooler as well). Pics of that in a bit.

Last shots of the day.

Lee got the power all sorted out:

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And we have light:

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Sorry to hear Imgur isn't working out well for you. I figured it's the easiest and cheapest webhosting available.
 
No it's fine. It's just a matter of getting used to it. I have no problems with it per se. I think I have figured out all the things I need to use it properly. The photobucket app is pretty good as it automatically uploads all the new pics you've taken since your last upload so it's a bit more convenient. That said, I will continue posting pics via imgur due to the bandwidth issue.

I'm more concerned with downloading all the pics in this thread from my photobucket account, uploading them to imgur and then having to update each link manually. I frankly don't have time for that. If I can get a couple of donations, I'll match them and sign up for a years worth of photobucket bandwidth just to keep the thread going. Otherwise, people who are new to the thread won't see the build and this thread will have been for naught.
 
Just migrate them to imgur slowly over time. A year of photobucket means the pics only last for a year right? Migrating will last forever. Every time you log on, just update 1 or 2 of them and then after a few weeks it'll be good.
 
Just load the pics directly from the HB Talk mobile app from your phone if that's how you're taking them. It is free and easy and they don't ever disappear
 
I don't use the mobile app as it always has notifications showing so I deleted it. This was awhile ago though so maybe it has improved.

I like the idea of a slow migration from photobucket but the issue is I cannot see which pic goes where since we have exceeded the bandwidth. I think I have no choice but to pay, at least to see what pic goes where. What a mess.
 
Throw an LED bulb in that housing...uses less power and produces less heat. Or a red bulb, because that thing looks like it should have red light emanating from it.
 
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