Ice chest to humidor conversion started.

[Mtmouse]

Well in time to start the conversion. My plan is to remove the top section of the ice chest, which would give me better access to the inside. I planned to remove the tin lining, then create a cedar ‘box’ that I would slip in. After that I would work on the door seals.



I carefully pried the top off without any damage. This gave me better access to the inside of the ice chest.


I started to remove the tin from inside.


After I removed a couple of the tin pieces, I realized the tin work was just part of an inner box.


After removing a couple of trim pieces around the door openings, I was able to remove the inner box without much effort.

I always thought the ice chest was made of clear pine. I now realize it’s hard maple.

Now, the wife has taken an interest in the project, which is a good thing. She asked me if it would be possible to stain it darker. This will entail more work then I counted on, but if it makes the wife happy….it makes me happy.

When I first bought the ice chest about 15 years ago at an auction, it was painted green. At the time I was living in an apartment in Toronto, so I had to strip the paint off on my balcony. It turned out ok, but I was never happy with ‘ok’. This gives me an opportunity to finish it properly.

I plan to disassemble the outer box, piece by piece. I will then strip the varnish and sand each piece. A few of the pieces have some staining, which is expected after about 80+ years in a moist environment. I hope to bleach the stains out. I’m not too concerned as a darker stain will cover a lot.



I made sure I labeled each piece, to aid in reassembly.

I will keep you updated as the project progresses.

[Tha Criddler]

I can't get the pics to work.

[Mtmouse]

I'm not sure if they are working for you now or not, but I tried resizing them. The image host I'm using is a pain in the a$$.

It may take a minute to load the pictures.

[JoeyBear]

Very cool project!! Can't wait to see the final result.

[AragornElessar86-cl]

Dude, this is an awesome project. I hope to do something like this one day, either with a large chest or dresser. I'm very interested to see the progression.

[ER Doc]

That looks great. Can't wait to see the finished project. This should certainly become an heriloom piece of furniture. Hope you have lots of fun doing it.

[Labman-cl]

That is gonna be one bad ass humi when you're done. You'll be the first person (that I know of) to have an ice-chestidor...or is it iceboxidor.

[mrgatorman]

Theres noithing like a home made humi to get your heart pumping.

[Mtmouse]

Well I went out and picked up some spanish cedar today. I lucked out as one of the local mill shops had some left over from a larger project. It's tongue & groove, 10' lengths. He sold it to me for 80 cents a foot, but only charged me for 9' lengths. There were 4 pieces that had some flaws in them, so he sold me those for $2.00 a piece. For $60.00 I have more then enough cedar for this project.


I spent part of the day disassembling the ice chest. It now looks like it was hit by one of PiP's bombs. I hope I remember how it goes back together.:errrr:


I started to strip a couple pieces. I was able to bleach out most of the staining. After a bit of sanding, I stained a couple pieces to show the wife.



Back to work tomorrow so there probably won't be too much progress for a few days.

[Jughead]

Wow that looks really nice

[Mtmouse]

Thanks

I changed the image host, so hopefully the pictures load better.

[Labman-cl]

Tim, that is a really sweet project man! Keep us updated.

[Daver3283]

Awesome Tim, I hope to be doing this to an old fridge soon so I may be hitting you up for some advice! Sweet looking project

[Viper139-cl]

Creativity at its finest...keep up the great work and keep us posted.

[Mtmouse]

Originally Posted by Viper139

Creativity at its finest...keep up the great work and keep us posted.

David, I will be calling on you when it's done, for some beads. I will get you the dimensions when it's done.