I’m sure that at some point in your life, you wanted to be a pirate.
Who wouldn’t? The promise of endless adventure and huge amounts of treasure is enough for anyone to want to live on the sea. But you don’t even have to leave dry land to feel like one when you replicate Instructables user Absinthe-Dragon‘s amazing backyard creation. This project is so awesome that when you see the end result, you’ll believe this cooler is a real pirate’s chest!
Okay, maybe not, but either way…get ready to shiver your timbers!
First his friend gave him this old, unwanted cooler.
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He removed the lid and used a Dremel cutting disc to get rid of the handles.
Using the cooler’s measurements, he built a snug case out of pine plywood.
For easy drainage, he drilled a hole and added a small piece of tubing where the base aligned with the cooler’s drain.
When he moved on to the lid, he sawed the sides into multiple angles to give it a rounded look.
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Then, he replaced the cooler lid and attached boards on top for vertical support, screwing the lid onto the cross bracing when he was done.
After adding all of the top pieces, he used a Redwood stain for everything.
But this pirate chest wasn’t finished yet…he ripped apart this old pallet and finished the pieces with a mahogany stain.
Here’s how he applied them — talk about authentic!
With the chest mostly complete, he cut and dyed strips of leather to use as the handles.
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He let the leather dry and attached the handle with cool hardware.
To add an extra touch, he traced and engraved a ‘D’ into the front of the chest.
Brown permanent marker helped fill in all of the carved areas.
Now that’s a chest fit for any pirate!
The only thing left to do was to add some sweet liquid gold.
If you’re ready to start plundering the seas like I am and want to make your own chest, you can find the full instructions here. Now I just need to find the perfect hat to match…
