Low-buck Project of the Week #3

            "She'll give you every penny's worth...'
                                             -The Tubes

Coozies, Cozies, Koozies, whatver you call 'em, these things:



    ... are a boat show gimme-bag staple. Every boat show I end up with a couple more.  They're handy for keeping the wobbly-pops cold, but they end up all over the damn boat.  After picking them up off the cockpit sole, cabin sole, and retrieving them from the sink for the eleventy-seventh time, I decided to solve the problem.  I built a koozie catcher.

     Ingredients:
1 10 ft length of 4"  PVC pipe.  (Or less.  A lot less.  See below)
1 scrap of wood at least 5" x 5"
Paint (if desired)
5  #8 x 1/2" screws
Sandpaper
     Mandatory Tools:
 Hole saw
 Drill
 Screwdriver
 Saw
 Marker or pencil for marking.  Or penciling
    Optional Tools:
  Mitre saw
  Radial Arm saw
  CNC Machine
  Sander

  Step 1:  Determine how many koozies you need to corral- that determines the length to cut your pipe.  Sewer pipe usually comes in 10' lengths and koozies are about 4" tall, so you're gonna be doing some cutting.  Okay so the downside is you have to buy a crapload of pipe.  the upside is it's cheap- less than $12/ length.  The other upside is when all of your friends are awestruckingly amazed at your new boat improvement, you can make back your investment by selling them their own koozie korral.  While you're cutting, also cut yourself a 1" piece to use as a circle template for step 3.

   Step 2:   Once cut to length, grab your hole saw and drill a hole at what will become the bottom end of the catcher/korral.

Step 3:  You need to build a bottom to keep the koozies from falling out.  Using the  1" band you cut earlier, trace a circle on the scrap of wood and carefully cut it out.

     Step 4: Sand the bottom plate you just cut into something more closely resembling a circle, and install in bottom of koozie katcher.  Fasten with screws.


     Step 5:  Mark two parallel lines running the length of the koozie tube from the hole at the bottom end to the top end.  Then cut along these lines  with your saw, and use your sand paper to clean up the edges and corners.

   Step 5:  Paint, if so desired.

   Step 6: Install, and toss all of your koozies into your new koozie catcher.  Once you realize you miscalculated on the height, give away any koozies that don't fit.  You will always find more koozies than you think you had, and you always have twice as many as you need.  Trust me on this.

Total cost:  Under $15
Total Time:  Under 1 hour.




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