Unveiling the Custom Liner inspired by King George III's Iconic Octagon Cooler

King George III's octagon cooler is more than just a piece of history; it represents a fascinating blend of art, craftsmanship, and royal heritage. This iconic cooler, famous for both its beauty and functionality, is the inspiration around the USA Flag octagon cooler I am making and gifting to Melissa and Ben McElroy.

Some things are better left for the experts!

I arrived this morning at Alex Contreras's shop to share my design ideas and have a front row seat to his mastery. Without his skills and tools, this liner would not have turned out this amazing!

He whipped up a quick "coffin lock" to ensure it was what I needed and then went to work.

Here he is bending the sheetmetal into the coffin lock.

And notching the sheetmetal to create a one inch bend for the top and bottom of the cooler liner.

As the octagon is taking shape, I am proud that I found a metal guy who pays attention to every detail. These kinds of people are hard to find. I am also known as a precision woodworker and it's a real treat to find someone who also goes to that level!

Now that the sheet metal is bent to a perfect 45% angle and secured into the coffin lock edge, it's refreshing to see it start to take shape.

Alex needed to hand bend 16 edges.

Now that the walls are complete, he is measuring the base for fitting.

And then cutting the base to size.

The next phase is tack welding the walls to the base. Here he drilled 24 holes in the bottom flange and ground off the galvanized area.

And the MIG welding begins.

Here is his test weld to ensure it is the right approach. I got lucky when I found Alex, because it appears that one of his specialties is restoring metal sheeting on antique cars which is where his skill of welding thin metal sheets came from.

Here is the finished product back at my home!

Notice the welding job. The plan is to solder the outside and inside to ensure a bullet-proof seal. I will also use Butyl putty to go over the outside as well. Butyl putty is used on sailboats to seal holes in the decking and if it's good for that, it will be overkill on this project!

Here is a pic of the inside. The base seam will have solder and then cold spray galvanize applied. Alex suggested we build out of untreated cold rolled steel initially and then get the liner hot dip galvanized but upon further investigation with galvanizing companies, the extreme temperature they use (500 degree plus) will warp the liner. Plus soldering would not hold up to those temperatures! So cold spray galvanization is the path.

However, note here that Alex helped me out in a huge way on the coffin lock seam! My plan was to solder this edge but he pulled out a different welding machine and said he could use a "silicon" welding technique to make the weld. He said that it will not only be very strong, but also water tight. Now I only have to solder the base! This ensures the liner will have a more professional look.

What did this cost?

$83 for the 23 gauge galvanized sheet metal, $250 for Alex's amazing ability.

What is the next stage?

The metal liner is not finished. I have to solder (lead-free) and add the drain which means I have a lot of practicing to do on soldering and some research on drain options. I will showcase this in the upcoming posts.

Have any questions? Ask Away!

Mark Petrilla, Gorilla Bark Studio's.

Paying tribute to those who keep us safe.