Another Fridge Rebuild

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by GILow

Interesting idea with the steamer trays. You've got me thinking.

The "Vollrath" company has a long history of all kinds of stuff.
Just a perusal of the "steam table pans" can get your imagination working for all kinds of uses on a boat.
Everything they make is of the highest quality.

https://www.vollrathfoodservice.com/...eam-table-pans

[Celestialsailor]

I'm doing the same thing with the steam trays. I am going to build UHMW 1"x1" rails at two levels that the trays slide on. Each level has 3 trays with an extra space as wide as a tray allowing me to jostle the top layer around to access the lower set of trays.

[RaymondR]

For the freezer section the trays will drop into insulated rolling boxes with the evaporator coils wound horizontally around the inside of the insulation so they almost contact the sides of the trays.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by GILow

Interesting idea with the steamer trays. You've got me thinking.

What sort of compressor system are.ypu using to cool things?

Hi GIlow,

Sorry I missed your question.

I have three condensing systems to choose from: the first is a new air/water condenser package from Ozefridge couple with one of their largest eutectic tanks (holding plates); the second is a unit which came with the boat and was coupled to a freezer box made from three aluminium type cold plates; the third is one I built from a salvaged Danfoss BD50 compressor on top of a DIY condenser coil I wound from 1/4" copper tube. I'll be digging out some more detail to post when I get to the refrigeration equipment installation phase.

[RaymondR]

I decided to do a trial fit of the rails before I put the final coats of paint into the box in case I scratched the finished paint job or had to make changes and this went OK so then switched to re-configuring the lids.

The original lids are being retained however the insulation and sealing of them was very poorly done so I scrapped the insulation and am going with a double sealed system. The old insulation was two pieces of polystyrene inside fibreglass trays with no attempt made to make them a neat fit inside the counter top and consequently there was always a lot of condensation build up around the edges of the lids. In addition I made the internal box so that there would be another inch of insulation under the counter top so they would not be thick enough anyway.

My first plan was to hot wire cut a slab of polystyrene then glass it over and glue it on the underside of the plywood and formica lids. Installing seal strips so that they did not get knocked off or damaged killed that idea and I decided to do the surrounds in timber, where I could rout grooves or build it up in layers and seal everything with epoxy. The first image illustrates this plan.

The black crosshatched part on the left is the counter top, the red the original plywood formica lids, the green the new timber surrounds and the plyweed bottom, and, the solid black the rubber seals (they did not survive the first design iteration)

The second image shows the MDF board base I installed to give myself a temporary support base to work on and the first part of the timber surround fitted into it. I used two thicknesses of cardboard between the timber and the counter top to provide 1 mm of clearance all round.

The third image shown the beveled section of the build up installed. The aluminium thing is a jig I made years ago which allows me to drill vertical 1/4" holes to allow the doweling together of things. I believe the power panel saw appreciates cutting wooden dowel much more than SS screws.

The next part id to measure the gap between the top of the beveled pieces and the bottom of the lids and rip up and fit the spacer pieces. I will then glue the whole mess together install polyurethane insulation and the bottom plywood and seal the whole mess up before final assemble and painting.

[RaymondR]

Getting a full thickness of insulation and a close fit with double seals, whilst retaining the original lids, is proving to be a complicated task.

The original lids were hinged in the middle so that they could both be opened on either side as well as completely lifted out. However, because the lids will now be a lot heavier and convenient and ready access to the sliding trays at either ends of the enclosure will now be required, I decided to hinge the lids at the ends of the access.

The image shows the progress so far but it's an exceedingly slow business.

The image shows the base I installed to support the build (the piece with the squarish hole in the middle, the two green hatched pieces which hold the seals and the green hatched filler pieces under the lids, and the hinged lids.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Getting a full thickness of insulation and a close fit with double seals, whilst retaining the original lids, is proving to be a complicated task.



The original lids were hinged in the middle so that they could both be opened on either side as well as completely lifted out. However, because the lids will now be a lot heavier and convenient and ready access to the sliding trays at either ends of the enclosure will now be required, I decided to hinge the lids at the ends of the access.



The image shows the progress so far but it's an exceedingly slow business.



The image shows the base I installed to support the build (the piece with the squarish hole in the middle, the two green hatched pieces which hold the seals and the green hatched filler pieces under the lids, and the hinged lids.

Not sure if it helps, but I’ve had terrific results with EPDM seals from UES. The stuff maintains its shape for years. What you’ve drawn up-thread looks like one of the many profiles stocked at UES.

There’s probably an outlet near to where you are…

https://www.uesint.com/ues-international-contact/

[RaymondR]

Thanks mate, I'll have a look.

The sketch showed the first iteration but what I have done is routed two 12 mm grooves around the circumference so I will be looking for either the soft foam or triple lipped type seals instead.

I've almost got to the part I dread where I have to start gluing bits together and a mistake would require re-cutting and shaping bits again.

[wholybee]

The lid has been the one part I couldn't imagine a simple way to build. I just received Nigel's book, and it shows a step by step method for a double seal lid with a taper/bevel using thin plywood and no routing. It's a lot of steps, but also simple at the same time.

I think if you used a quick setting 30 minute epoxy, and/or preassembled it with cyanoacrylate before adding epoxy and glass, it could be done in a day.

It looks like you might be mostly done, but if you run into an issue, check it out.

[GILow]

My lid set-up seems awfully crude in comparison. But in the four years of service it has given no trouble, has shown no sign of cold escaping (no suspicious condensation patches) and the EPDM seals are still as springy as the day I installed them. Build time was a few hours. Just hit the XPS foam with a router (messy but fun) then glassed over the foam. Seals came in a continuous strip with peel-off sticky backing, still stuck on firm after all this time

[RaymondR]

The old lid was very similar to GILow's illustration but it had largish gaps between the FG insulation tubs and the sides of the surrounds.

I had intended to just hot wire carve the insulation and glass over it but decided that if I wanted a really neat job I would have to build some cutting jigs and there was about the same amount of work with just building it out of timber then fitting polystyrene pieces and filling any gaps with polyurethane foam out of a can.

I decided to include a number of options for alternate seal arrangements since it's only five minutes work with a laminate trimmer to do so.

Today's project is to make cardboard templates for the 1/8" plywood pieces which form the bottoms of the two lid sections.

[GILow]

I seem to remember the R value of timber is pretty good too.

[RaymondR]

So far I have got through the gluing without having glued the wrong pieces together. Since I was using the cabinet top as a jig I melted a piece from an insect candle and painted the surround and the temporary base board support with the melted wax a couple of times. It appears to have worked as the frame came out easily.

The next bit was to cut and fit the plywood bases to the wooden surround, which also went well, and now I have to hot wire cut the styrofoam fillers.

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

I have to hot wire cut the styrofoam fillers.

"Say it ain't so Joe"
Tell us that you're using Urethane foam, not Styrofoam.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by Bowdrie

"Say it ain't so Joe"
Tell us that you're using Urethane foam, not Styrofoam.

Nope, styrofoam, commonly used in refrigerators. It will be epoxy sealed inside a sealed sub assembly so no problems.