On to summer projects!

I'm not counting down the days until my 4-day summer weeks, but I am paying attention to other people as they count down.

Thank goodness I got the desk and the chair wrapped up and out of the garage, b/c the mower and various scooters are already out for the season and that means much less room to work with in the shop right now. But that didn't stop me from getting an early start on one of my summer projects: building a stand around our hand-me-down coleman cooler.

Brrr.

Yes, the same one in the photo from earlier. Shamefully we left it out all winter after using it for our Christmas party, and it was already a little beat up when it came to us. It's missing its wheels so it's not very mobile anyway, so why not build something to make it a little more attractive this summer.

Admittedly I went into this project a little less prepared than I usually do. No sketches or plans but I did watch a couple of people put similar stands together on youtube. Building the planters really gave me the sense all I needed for a build like this was more cedar fencing and some 2x3's to help frame it up. And with that lackadaisical attitude in place I picked up some supplies and got busy.

I probably ended up with the most oddly shaped cooler to try this with.

But hopefully I can get things relatively square.

First step was getting rid of the cooler hardware. The reciprocating saw made quick work of the handle nubs I couldn't just muscle off. With those gone I did at least measure the cooler and add the width of some boards to it so I had a skeleton to go off of to start. Next was splitting some 3-foot lengths of pickets in two to form the legs. Jobs like this would be a lot easier with a table saw but with some patience the circular saw worked just fine.

Waiting patiently for glue to dry is not my strong suit.

See what I mean about the cooler? Not a straight line on there.

With the legs ready I framed up the upside down cooler and clamped the legs on to see how straight things were. Things looked pretty good, so out came the 2x3 to help keep the cooler where I wanted it in the frame. Up until then I was still using exterior wood screws I had left over from the planters, but for this I got the pocket screws out. Then I used the wood screws to attach it to the legs, making sure it was level (at least when it was upside down).

Wouldn't be my project if there weren't pocket screws in it somewhere.

That should work, although the back might need an extra shim.

Alright, that looks like it will work.

So far, so good. I had enough 2x3 left over to add rails to the lower legs to include a bottom shelf later, and it adds to the stability as well. I was planning on just nailing in the remaining planks vertically to cover the exposed framing on the cooler, but however I end up finishing it what I'm really worried about is figuring out the drainage situation. I've got an idea about attaching a spigot  but who knows if it'll actually work or not. That's one thing that doesn't get a lot of detail online so I'm on my own for that.

Even with drainage undecided, I loved having a chance to work on this so far. Despite the rainy weather lately it's been a good couple of weeks in the shop; there have been some stretches where I haven't had a chance to work on anything during the week but I've still been able to get some good stuff done. The backsplash kept me from getting much done on this project but now my calendar is clear and I'm excited to have some time coming up and a few more projects in mind to work on. Let's get to Memorial Day already!