More icebox

     I decided to use several pieces of wood to cover the bottom of the icebox rather than one large piece for a couple of reasons.  The main one is that it should be easier this way.  Figuring out how to get one piece in place was difficult even before trying to get it to bend to conform to the curve.  I was planning on cutting a bunch of lines in the back side to make the bending easier, but now I won't have to.  This also makes it a lot easier to get a good fit, even though it means more paper, cardboard, and tape. 

     I started with the piece on the bottom because it is the most difficult.  Not only is the shape not even close to being square, there is the drain to deal with.  As you can see in the photo, I used a piece of scrap first to cut the drain hole to make sure it would work the way I envisioned.  It worked!  I could even screw the pieces together with this piece set in place.  Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten to push the side pieces of plywood all the way out when I made the template for this piece.  When I installed it I was left with a nice gap on the back side.  That means the piece you see in the picture here is trash, and I had to cut a new one.

    

     Because I had to redo the first piece, I didn't have enough wood to continue.  Plenty of cardboard laying around though.  It is kind of hard to see in the picture, but I fit in another three sections in cardboard.  I'm going to need to make another trip to the store before I can continue here.

     I also spent some time fitting the top pieces to get them to seat properly.  I'm not there yet, but getting pretty close.  I still need to add another inch of insulation on the top to get it up to the three inches, but I figured it would be easier to move around the way it is.  This also allowed me to get a better idea of how big the icebox will be when it is finished.

     While I am impressed with the size as a whole, I am pretty disappointed in the size of the access hatch.  I thought I had it figured out pretty well, but I seem to have not figured in how far in the insulation sticks out.  I can fit my arm in easily enough and can't envision any problems putting food or drinks inside, but there is no way a block of ice would fit in.  I'm not sure I could even get a bag of ice in without some serious work.  This called for a beer and some time pondering the situation.  Thankfully it is Friday, and the local bar has a hell of a happy hour.

    As I sit here typing this up, I think I have come up with a solution.  The access hatch in the cockpit that used to be for loading ice is still there because I will be using it as the top of the mini cooler I am building.  The floor of this mini cooler is actually the top of the icebox.  I am thinking I can make a section of this removable so I can load larger stuff from outside.  It is kind of a long reach, but it should be a pretty easy solution.  At least it sounds easy in theory.  I guess I'm going to find out about how easy it is in practice because I can't think of any other solutions besides starting from scratch.  And that ain't happening.