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 My must have boat building book list.

I have only three requirements of my refrigeration system. Frozen steaks, fresh ice and cold beer.

 That is not as easy to come by as it sounds. I will have a lot to say on this subject in the future but for now, I'll just say that the box will be vacuum insulated to R50. It will be an 8 cubic foot firdge and a 3 cubic foot freezer. It will be a split system with two separate water cooled compressors. One for each compartment.

The box liner is 4 mm okoume stitch and glued together and covered with a layer of 4 oz glass inside and out. The interior was then faired to get a smooth surface.

The partitian between the compartments is 3" of polyisocyanurate vacuum bagged with 6 oz glass. A 1/2" drain at the bottom of the partitian lets the freezer share the drain with the refrigerator.

I wanted the refrigerator lids to look nice and be easy to clean. They also had to be air tight, water resistant and be able to take the occasional bashing by wayward cans and bottles. Fiberglass seemed like the best idea so I tackled building a set of plugs and molds.  There were four all together.  The top and matching rim for the refrigerator and freezer sides had to mate evenly all the way around so that the seal would sit tightly.

First I milled and glued up some male and female molding for the edges. Some of the scrap molding is between the two plugs in the picture. I mitered the corners and mounted the plug on a piece of melamine to create a flange. The wood pattern was sprayed with Duratec to produce a surface that could be polished to a high gloss.
Patterns for the refrigerator lid and rim.

The mold and final parts were done in polyester and glass. The gel coat for the mold was Duratec so that it could be polished. Regular  polyester gel coat went on the lids and rims. The gel coat on both the molds and parts was followed with a couple of layers of 2 oz glass, mat and 3 layers of 6 oz glass. 

This was my first time working with polyester. I hope it will be my last. Epoxy is S o o o much nicer to work with.

This was a learning experience.  The glacier bay pre-made lids are expensive but if I had it to do over, I would have bought them.

Left to right: The plug, the mold and the finished top for the refrigerator lid

More to come on this page.

 Ordering and installing vacuum panels

Choosing and installing the compressors and plates.

Site last modified:04/12/04