Building my own fridge

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Building my own fridge

hako · Guru

That will be an interesting project Berni - will it be gas/240VAC/12VDC and will it have a compressor or be of the absorption type?
You mustn't be married......I'd be killed if I even hinted that I take workshop stuff into the bedroom!
Good Luck.

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Hi Denis

If you google for "ozefridge" you'll find out how it works.

Regards, Berni

Duh · Guru

BTSV_Berni wrote:
Hi guys
A few days ago I could luckywise pick up the equipment I've ordred from www.ozefridge.com.au and today it was time to start building up my own fridge. Because it will take a long time until I have the money for the Van together, I thought I start with something that will keep me busy and makes the time fly.
Went to www.boatcraft.com.au today to pick up the materials to start and turned one of my bedrooms into a sawmill. Was a very nice experience to deal with them and I'm looking forward to go there again. Very helpful.
Find a few pictures of my workshop attached.
Regards, Berni
(Just made the links clickable Berni)

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Hi Denis

On the ozefridge site you find all prizes and at the boatcraft website you find all prizes too. confuse

If you go to the boatcraft workshop in Loganholme directly you get it for tradies prize. Saves good money. No handling, no shipping, no dramas. They pass the savings onto you. Worth 25-30%. And they provide you with lots of good tips and tricks how to do things. Will be there again next weekend. biggrin

Started glueing the first bits together after sanding. Have to do it in three steps because the sheets are slightly like pancakes and I want it to be as accurate as possible. So that was the job for today.

Regards, Berni

-- Edited by BTSV_Berni on Sunday 3rd of November 2013 04:13:45 PM

mr glassies · Guru

theres a mob up here at caloundra that sell all the bits to good idea i recon

dibs

hako · Guru

Thanks for the link Bernie (and Vic)....frustrating thing about those sites is they give all the good tech info and you get all excited but then you cannot find a price or even an approximation....you have to contact them.
Regards

Denis

PeterD · Guru

Another good source of info can be found here - www.waeco.com.au/products5.asp

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Box is now having its shape. Final touch will happen during the week.

Regards, Berni

Baz421 · Guru

I'd be interested to know what it will weight empty given the fridge unit/tank is about 9kg,,, what do you estimate the box will weigh???

I build a similar product into a yacht in the 80' and used 2 part foam,, very efficient.

Froze all the beer one night as the deckies couldn't pack it very well overnight, so they told me if you can do a better job, yada, yada yada,,,,, so we had to line the frozen beers up the next day in the sun to thaw out,,, REMEMBER the sun gets over the yardarm quickly in the NT,, lol.

I was popular BUT I was the skipper,,,,lol at least the bloody fridge worked.

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Have no idea about the weight. The wooden box so far weigh pretty much nothing.

Regards, Berni

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Hi Denis

If it ever comes in your mind to go for the ozefridge you should ring or get in touch with email

with these guys. wink You could make a very nice experience.

No need to apologise.

Regards, Bernie

-- Edited by BTSV_Berni on Tuesday 5th of November 2013 01:58:45 PM

hako · Guru

BTSV_Berni wrote:
Hi Denis

On the ozefridge site you find all prizes and at the boatcraft website you find all prizes too.
SNIP
Regards, Berni

My apologies Berni, I just didn't dig deep enough and stopped looking when I say mention of ringing for a quotation which I took out of context....but that's just an excuse!....
Thanks for the help
Regards
Denis

-- Edited by BTSV_Berni on Sunday 3rd of November 2013 04:13:45 PM

Ontos45 · Guru

Collyn Rivers writes about DIY fridges in his book - Caravan and Motorhome Electrics - Installing and Optimising Fridges.

Peter

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Hi Peter

Sure, books, how could I miss that. TY for that. Love to have a read.

There are lots of other open questions on other topics. Will go and have a look what else

is on offer at the book store.

Regards, Bernie

Wombat 280 · Guru

Mate built a fridge into a spot on his sail boat where a normal fridge wouldn't fit had the compressor mounted externally to the fridge cabinet bit. Worked out well and works better than a normal commercially available unit Keep the pics coming

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Further investigations are done related to the insulation foam and I'll end up
with Vanglass/Freeze foam in 80kg/m3.
Compared quality/pricing of Dow, Multipanel and Freezefoam and Freezefoam
is the winner.

www.freezefoam.com.au

In case of making links clickable it's the worst forum ever. Go, copy and paste to your browser.

Will pick it up on monday.

Regards, Berni

-- Edited by BTSV_Berni on Thursday 7th of November 2013 05:08:02 PM

-- Edited by BTSV_Berni on Thursday 7th of November 2013 05:08:22 PM

-- Edited by BTSV_Berni on Thursday 7th of November 2013 05:09:47 PM

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

A good day so far. Came home from night shift, watched my team how they made a draw in an away match against our worst enemy, went for a shopping spree to Boatcraft Marine after that and got all the missing bits and pieces.

Just finished the final glueing and will start sanding the outside in a few minutes, enjoying the sun on my balcony with a beer or 10 . biggrin

Regards, Berni

-- Edited by BTSV_Berni on Saturday 9th of November 2013 12:37:10 PM

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Yesterday I did the inside and today I apply on the outside a thin layer of Bote-Cote epoxy mixed 2:1 (as recommended) with an addon of 10% of Bote-Cote TPRDA to make the mixture a fair bit thinner.
So it will go deeper into the wood. On the picture you can see the before/after.

To apply that stuff I use quite cheap chinese brushes. No matter at that stage if they loose a few hair left in the epoxy layer. For the final touch later I'll go for better brushes. Would be a waste of money at that stage.

Regards, Berni

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Decided to use the time the first half of the outside epoxy needs to bond so that i can turn it around and do the second half.
Made up a template for drilling the holes for the holding plate which will happen tomorrow.

Regards, Berni

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

What a fantastic day it was. The weather was outstanding and a slight breeze made a few things happen much quicker than I thought.
So I was able to use the template, drill the holes, put in the holding plate, line everything up and glue the bolts into place.
The template was perfect. No adjustments needed.

Glued the hex heads into it and tomorrow I'll see if it lasts. There is nothing more worse than having everything done and in place only to discover that the bolts are turning where you don't want them to turn.
Last chance to fix it if it doesn't last or line up.

That means that I can start with the insulation tomorrow.....after I've picked it up Big Grin . love it.

Good that I've just finished work for today. A thunderstorm is coming in. Smile

Regards, Berni

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Went to Vanglass/Freezefoam to pick up the insulation. Nice to deal with these guys.
Then I tried my first two layers of fibre glass in my entire life. Lot's of room for improvement. One hot advice. Never, never, never ever try that in windy conditions on your balcony.
I hope, that my skills will be significantly better if it comes to do the box inside. Outside is no big drama.

Regards, Berni

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

More layers are done. One missing. Overlap becomes better. Picture shows before overlap is done. Works better if it is not too fresh. Folding over and rolling on after one hour is doing the job.

So tomorrow the final touch with a bit sanding the corners and then it's time to put the insulation on.

Regards, Berni

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Project is growing further. Got the sanding of the corners done, cut the first bottom layer of insulation and coated it with a thin layer of Epoxy mixed with 10% TPRDA to make sure that the glue bonds properly. This will be done with each layer of insulation. Time consuming but I think it's worth the time. Good thing is, that the insulation can be cut very precise with a knife. Exept of the 4 first side layers, where I have to cut a 45 degrees angle, the circular saw can stay in the box. Less dust and mess.

Regards, Berni

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Went further and prepared a few things for tomorrow. Back in the workshop Big Grin

.

Regards, Berni

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Didn't make it as far as I wanted but I had to work with
all the dirty tricks. Big Grin

Regards, Berni

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

Went further today with putting on the insulation. The last missing sheets will be cut and prepainted in the evening to be ready for tomorrow and then I have a lot of mess to clean up and have a bit a break.

Also drilled the hole in the box for the pipework and made a gap in one of the sheets where the pipework is going through later on. I want it to be easy to maintain if things go wrong. So the insulation in the back where the holding plate is sitting will be a bit tricky.

Regards, Berni

03_troopy · Guru

It looks pretty good so far mate. Just wondering why the use of wood on the interior, instead of something like aluminium or acrylic sheeting? Incidentally, we've been building a bit larger "ice box" at work lately. Approximately 3.5M high X 4M wide X 6M long. Using 50mm foam sandwiched between 2 layers of colourbond type steel. The boss thinks it's a spray painting booth, but we reckon we'll fit a heap of grog in it. Just got to work out how we can disguise the chilling system as an extractor fan with filters.

BTSV_Berni · Senior Member

I used wood to give a bit of extra strengh. The holding plate weighs completely filled and ready roundabout 5Kg. This is a fair bit of weight pulling on the nuts in a moving vehicle. I think a U-shape would have done the job too. Aluminium is a very good conductor so it's not a good idea to use metal for this job. As good as it transfers the cold........it's doing the same with heat.

Your fridge dimensions sounds good. Lot's of room for beer. biggrin

Regards, Berni

oldbobsbus · Guru

About 25yrs ago I made a fish box for a 28' deep sea boat I had and we just used 50mm sheets of the same foam that is used as a base for surfboards, they were cut to size and held in place by some strips of glass mat and then we put several layers of mat all over it.. It was 1.5m x .7m x .6m high with a wooden 3 part lid..Wee used to get a couple of fish boxes of ice before going to sea and it held the fish for a couple of days..

I still have it and it is currently being used to store junk..lol..

Keep the pix coming Berni, you are doing a great job mate..