Heath’s Cowboy Cooler

I made this “Cowboy Cooler” for my sister and her husband last year. I only had a little tiny table saw at the time and my brother-in-law had a larger old table saw he never used. It needed some work, but he let me have it. When I picked it up, he jokingly said, “Build me something with it!” So it was restored to working condition, this was the first thing I built.

Except for the handles, it was built entirely from recovered pallet wood with some metal accents I picked up at a local fair. I didn’t follow any published plans. I just bought the cooler at a sporting goods store and built around it. The spigot on the side ties in to the drain on the cooler.

It was a surprising hit! Everybody that has seen it wants me to build one for them now, but I haven’t had time to build another one. The pictures were taken last year. It has since grayed a bit and the metal is starting to rust, but that has only added to the “rustic” look of the cooler. It’s not fine furniture, and it uses very simple joinery, but it’s still something I’m proud of!