Outer Limits 4x4 Board

building an esky at work using aluminium. frame is 50/50 rhs 3mm skin inside and out so whats the material to fill the 50mm cavity

How about that expanding foam that comes in a spray can ?

I built one in high school and used polystyrene sheets in the cavities.
You can buy 2400x1200mm sheets of the stuff in various thicknesses.
Very easy to cut. I think I just used a hacksaw blade.

get some of the stuff they use in the cool room walls.

was thinkin along the lines of house insulation bats
also does anyone know how camping fridges work do they have a cooling coil running around the edge of the fridge or some type of motor that blows cold air?

Don't use house insulation bats, they not only soak up liquids and become flat they slowly collapse over time anyway squashing out the air pockets which do all the insulating.

Go the polystyrene (sp?), will work well.

polystyrene sandwich panel, the stuff cool rooms are made from is expensive. Some of the places I worked payed around $700 per sheet.

Cheaper way to go would be styrene balls eg bean bag balls, expanding foam and styrene sheets are good also.

Go to a boating supply there you should be able to get everything you need to build a fridge/freezer including the mix you need to make the foam to pour in the cavity.

I have made one for a boat, it was a seat / fridge freezer made up of 2 seperate layer's of fiberglass with foam in between, and a divider inside the box with a dump valve in it so you put the element in the freezer and the valve dump's cold air into the fridge area this set up is a lot more economic.

can you give me a bit more info on the element your talking about

I Just bought 14 X 2400mm X 1200mm X 50mm Cool Room panels for $20 each. New but old stock, never used.

It's about $45 per Square Metre in the Cool Room industry, them I found my supply by ringing around demolition yards.

I could make 30 eskies.

You could also get off-cuts from Cool-Room installers/contractors! Use the phone!

http://www.tropicool.co.nz/Web%20Shop/S ... _Unit.html this is $540 any other ideas to make it a camping fridge maybe a bit cheaper

Yeah mate at the boating shop you can order elements in all sort's of different sizes for different application's, we went with one suited for like i said before, they will set u up with all the part's needed you will prob have to order them and wait till they come in.

The type of shop your looking for is the type of shop that prob sell's second hand boat's, heap's of stainless screw's and bolt's maybe some fishing tackle but more the dunny's that ya fit in to boat's and other boat building/maintanace for boat's , that may help with your search for such a shop,

Like i said i've only done this on a boat once before but it turned out perfect and very profesional and work's well but if you find the right shop they will help you heap's more than i can.

do you know how the element works

Works the same as any fridge or camping fridge need's a compresor,power source,element ,thermostat, the element get's folded to suit the size of your box, and it came with thermo and other plumbing all connected.

ya wanna get some bondor, thats the stuff used in fridges, coolrooms, freezers, proper ice chests, pretty much anything that is used for keeping things cold. google it, you will find something there, im sure

actually, i just googled it for ya


http://www.bondor.com.au/bondor/products.htm you want the cold storage panel, first one on the page.
seems the material is also the companys name... thats something iv learnt today

I picked up a stainless 120ltr bar fridge from the dump for free, best esky I reckon. Just took the compressor out and added some handles and a chain for the lid.

my leading hand just built a massive esky at work out of the left over material from the spray booth we got put in very nice stuff to use eqsy to work with and cools a treat , it was free for him but ring around some demo yards,

ok this is going to be a bit technical but here goes...

steel has a high "t" value, which is the transfure of heat so if your making you frame from steel then your providing a great path for the heat to get in.

your better off making a frame and outer skin around a plastic tub get a few of the same tub in case you dammage 1. plastic has a low thermal mass and a higher "r" value then steel or any metal for the matter. so build your steel frame around the tub size and the go to a fiberglass shop and get some expanding urathane foam and mix it up (it comes in 2 parts) chuck that in the frame and outer skin then put the tub in and hold it down so the foam spreads up the sides. spray foam might work but you often get pockets of air where it hasn't worked properly alowing air to circulate and transfure heat from the outer skin into the beer!

Matt

MightyMouse wrote:How about that expanding foam that comes in a spray can ?

Don't bother with that shit. I was trying to improve an air-insulated esky and decided I'd give the expanding stuff a try.... Seemed to have poorer insulation qualities than air

forget about making a frame. It adds weight and is not required. Make it out of plastic or fibreglass as twinnie suggested or use aluminium or stainless steel. Make 2 boxes - inside and outside. Use polyurethane sheet insulation. It has roughly 3 times the insulation properties of polystyrene (cold room panels use polystyrene). Glue the sheet insulation to the inside of the outer box. Then add more glue and slide the inner box in. For glue you can use contact cement or "black tar" (don't know the proper name for that but that's what we used to call it at work). All you have left to do is make a lip between the inner and outer boxes. Do not use metal for this as you will have thermal conduct. Make it out of plastic or fibreglass.

When you make the inner and outer boxes make sure you mount any hinges and handles before you put it all together. Also make sure you measure it very carefully and allow for the thickness of the insulation and glue. Once assembled it will be very strong and have very good insulation properties. This is pretty much how a trailblazer is made.