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what would you say to building a really awesomelooking rustic cooler for your next party? hi there! i'm jeff with home repair tutor.and i'm all in. i made one and i want to show you how to do it, too. and i think in theend, you'll find it to be super awesome. so let's get started. you'll need about five to eight really goodpalettes for this project. then i highly recommend power-washing the bottom and the tops of thepalettes because it makes a huge difference in the appearance of the wood as you can seehere. i only used one saw for this entire project and that's the dremel ultra-saw. andit has an adjustable foot on it, as you can see, which comes in handy when you have tocut out the 5/8" thick slats in the palettes.

so, it made cutting out these slats supersimple and easy. and if you have to remove any of the nails or screws that hold the palettesin place, you can use the ultra-saw for that, too. here's the cooler that i used. it was hangingout in our garage. and i matched up the slats to see how they would look. but the firstthing you need to do is remove all the hardware from the cooler --- so any of the handles,latches, etc. and if you have to, you can use the ultra-saw to cut out the handles ofthe cooler. so, remove the wheels as well and then, finally, the hinges. you can use the slats to make the legs ofyour rustic cooler. in my case, i wanted them

to be about 33" long. so i drew a little markand then drew a line across the slat using my rafter square and remove any staples fromthe edge that might cause my saw not to work right. i just used the ultra-saw to make thesecuts. and then you can use either composite deck screws like these here. and these aregreat because their heads go flush into wood. or you can use outdoor wood screws. i usedthe wood screws because they were one and a quarter inches in length. and my slats areabout 5/8" thick. so, that's why i used those. apply wood glue to the edges of your slatsand then put them together at a 90â° angle. pre-drill and then apply the wood or deckscrews. when you pre-drill, it prevents the wood from splintering. so i applied aboutfive screws to the face of the slats. and

you'll need to build four of these legs forthe rustic cooler. make sure to wipe off any excess wood glue. place two legs on top of your cooler justlike i did here and measure the distance between them. in my case, i got 15â½" but needed to1â¼" to that distance because the front and back slats are both 5/8" thick. so cut theslats to size using the ultra-saw and then lay your legs on the ground. apply wood glue.stick your slat in between the two legs. pre-drill and then screw the screws into place. yoursides will look like this. place one of the sides up against the cooler. and then twoslats: one in the front, so, flush with the front, and then another slat flush with theside. this will give you the measurement for

the slats that need to go in the front andthe back of the cooler. and then dry-fit that slat to see if it works. again, apply woodglue to the sides of the cooler. pre-drill and screw in your decking screws, attachingthe front and back slats to the sides of the rustic cooler. and just keep doing this andyou'll stack the slats one after another. you can create a little shelf for the rusticcooler. dry-fit the plastic cooler into the rustic cooler framing and push it up so thatthe top of the plastic cooler will sit flush with the slats you're going to use for thatshelf. now i measured the distance between the two legs, applied wood glue, pre-drilled,and screwed the slats for the slats for the front and the back into place. i also measurethe side slats that i'm going to be using

for the shelf. put it into place, pre-drilledand screwed it down. and then, i made a flush cut using the ultra-saw. and i'm really happywith how this turned out. it looks great. you'll have to build the slats around yourplastic lid. put two slats on the front and the back of the lid. measure the distanceand cut a slat to size. once you have that smaller slat, then you can cut the front andback longer pieces. again, pre-drill and then screw them into place. it's just a littlebox and all i did was attach wood slats on top of it. so there you go, there's our littlebox that goes over the lid. now, the next step is to turn that over and then drill screwsthrough the faces of the slats into the lid. now they'll hold the lid in place. and finally,turn the rustic cooler over and attach supports

on the bottom. the last step and the final step is to applyall the hardware. you can apply elevator bolts and t-nuts --- and this is what a t-nut lookslike --- to the bottom of the cooler so that you can adjust it up or down. dry-fit thet-nut on all four legs, draw a hole through the bottom of the leg, pound the t-nut intoplace and then screw the elevator bolts in. so, again, do this for all four legs and you'llhave an adjustable rustic cooler. you can add the hinges to the lid. i measuredin five inches from the edge. dry-fit the hinge, drew all the hole for the hinge holesand then pre-drilled and screwed it down. if you can find exterior grade hinges, i highlyusing those. but mine turned out really great.

i'm happy with that. the next step is to drill out the hole forthe drain. so i drilled out from the inside and then drilled a hole from the outside.i used a 1â¼" speedbor bit by irwin to make that hole bigger so that it would accommodatethe original drain size. so, here's the original drain and all i did was use a coupling, yousee here, and i screw that coupling on because it allows me to attach a â¾" brass drain toit. so, i put the drain to the cooler in place and then i simply screwed on the brass drain.it's pretty sweet right? it looks awesome. adding a handle to the lid helps with theopening and the closing of the cooler. you can add a little flare to the rustic coolerby adding a bottle cap opener to the front.

and for me, i also added bottle cap receptacleto the side where you can throw your bottle caps. okay. that's it. that's how you build an awesome-lookingrustic cooler like this one here. you can store your beer in it. you can have an awesomeparty. you can put kids' drinks in it if you want. but in the end, i think you have a reallyawesome-looking party piece set. it gives you something to talk about at your next get-together. so let me know if you have any questions inthe comments. thanks for watching the video. remember, you can always click the thumbsup button over on youtube so that other people can watch this video. and you could also subscribein my channel by clicking the subscribe button.

so, thanks again. have a great day. take care.

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