Bottoms Up!

"Is there anything better than a nice cold drink in the summer? This handy garden drinks cooler will help!"

- By Dave Parker

I wanted something which could keep our drinks cold during our family braais without taking up the space in the fridge, which was needed for the food! Having seen a cooler box on wheels I thought it would be great to make something similar and I saw loads of great examples on Pinterest and Google.

Tools and materials

• A big pile of pallet wood

• 'Some' 2,4m lengths of 90mm x 38mm timber

• Clear outdoor varnish

• Paint

• Assorted screws and nails

• Threaded inserts

• Heavy duty castor wheels

• Hinges, handle, bottle opener, towel hanger

• Mitre/chop saw

• Drill/Screwdriver Kreg Pocket hold jig

• Sander Tape Measure and pencil

• Paintbrushes

• And of course, a cooler box

Step-by-step guide

Step 1: My first job was to find a suitable cooler box. As this only needed to keep drinks cold for a few hours I didn't need a brand expensive cooler box, this one only cost about R200 brand new.

I planned to build the cooler box lid into a hinged lid so I needed to remove the hinges and handles from the cooler box. Once removed I filled in the holes with some clear silicone.