Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “DIY Hacks & How To’s: Soda Cooler”.
Today, i’m going to show you how you can make your own custom soda cooler as an example, i decided to make a cooler that perfectly fit a pack of soda. That way, i could take the whole pack out of the fridge and put it directly into a cooler. Coolers come in a lot of different styles, but they all have the same basic features. First, off there’s a layer of insulating material that keeps the drinks cold, then, on both sides of the insulating material, there’s a waterproof layer that keeps it sealed. Lastly, the cooler needs a way to be open and closed for the insulation. There’S a lot of materials that you could use, you could use packing, foam craft foam or even bubble wrap. I found that flexible foams are a lot easier to work with than hard foams like styrofoam for the waterproof material.
You probably want to use a thin plastic. Flexible plastics, like vinyl, work pretty well, you can purchase it by the yard at a fabric store or you could just use a cheap plastic, tablecloth or shower curtain when attaching all the layers together sewing is probably the best method. However, if your sewing skills are not up to par, you have some other options as well. You could use a glue, that’s designed to work with plastics and foam or certain kinds of double stick.
Tape can also work if you’re brave, you could also try melting the layers together. However, this can be really difficult to get right to open and close the cooler. The two most common methods are either a zipper or velcro. Either of these can be sewn in place, but the velcro can also be attached with adhesive. I wanted my cooler to fit a soda pack, so i used the box as a template and traced the outline of each side onto the foam.
Then i cut out each one and laid them out on a section of vinyl tablecloth. After applying a generous amount of spray glue, i put another section of vinyl on top, then i pressed them together and let it dry overnight. Afterward i cut out each section leaving about one inch of vinyl on each side of the foam.
Then i glued them all together. First, i attached all the side pieces to each other. Then i glued on the bottom piece and, lastly, the two top pieces since the two top pieces have three bare edges, i glued them down to make it look a little bit better.
Next, i trimmed off the excess, seam material, but be sure to leave at least a half inch at every seam. Now, since all the seams are on the outside, you need to carefully turn the cooler inside out. The last step is to add a strip of velcro to the top pieces.
To keep the cooler closed, apply. One half of the velcro strip to the top side of one panel then apply the other half of the velcro strip to the bottom side of the other. Now you have your own custom cooler. If you want to be able to add ice packs, then just make the cooler a little bit bigger to accommodate for the extra space. Well, thanks for watching and check back next week for more diy hacks and how to’s .